![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-hicks-obit-5.jpg\")
A photo taken on a prison visit in 2000 shows Tony Hicks, center, the convicted killer of Tariq Khamisa, with his grandfather Ples Felix, left, and Azim Khamisa, right, Tariq’s father. (Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register)<\/p>\nAt her retirement party in February, after 35 years as a San Diego Superior Court judge, Joan Weber asked Tony Hicks to stand up. She shared with her guests how he inspired her and how she felt pride in the man he\u2019d become.<\/p>\n
The two were unlikely friends. Thirty years ago, Weber had sentenced Hicks to a mandatory 25 years to life in prison after he was charged with murder at the age of 14 \u2014 the youngest person charged in California as an adult at that time.<\/p>\n
But years later, Weber helped advocate for Hicks\u2019 release on parole. While in prison, Hicks forged a path of redemption, working with the family of the man\u00a0he killed to help educate students about accountability, compassion and forgiveness. The bond created between Hicks and the victim\u2019s family was something she\u2019d never seen before.<\/p>\n
After Weber\u2019s speech about Hicks at the retirement party, he asked to take a photo with her.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an image\u00a0that\u2019s been hard for her to look at since Hicks died suddenly last week in New Orleans, while attending a restorative justice conference there. He was 45. The cause of death was not immediately known.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me so sad to think that he was taken from this world at 45 years of age, where he would have saved so many more lives,\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he taught me is that you should never judge a person by the worst day in their life,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s an important thing for a judge to recognize that.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the moment Weber met Hicks in her courtroom, she knew he and his case would have a profound impact on her life.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 21, 1995, Hicks, then an eighth-grader known as \u201cBone\u201d to his fellow gang members, shot and killed a pizza delivery driver \u2014 20-year-old San Diego State University student Tariq Khamisa \u2014 during an attempted robbery in North Park.<\/p>\n
Hicks was 14 at the time and pleaded guilty at 15. At 16, he was sent to Folsom State Prison, where he would remain for 24 years.<\/p>\n
In 2019 \u2014 the same year Hicks earned parole \u2014 state law was changed to prevent any\u00a0one under 16 from being\u00a0charged as an adult for any crime.<\/p>\n
But Hicks\u2019 release from prison was prompted by the forgiveness of Azim Khamisa \u2014 the father of the man he killed in 1995.<\/p>\n
A photo taken on a prison visit in 2000 shows Tony Hicks, center, the convicted killer of Tariq Khamisa, with his grandfather Ples Felix, left, and Azim Khamisa, right, Tariq’s father. (Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out that Tariq had been shot and killed, I had an out-of-body experience, because the pain was so excruciating,\u201d Khamisa told The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/a> last year. \u201cAnd I believe I went into the loving embrace of God, and when the explosion subsided, I came back to my body with the wisdom that there are victims at both ends of the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n Just nine months after Hicks was sentenced, Khamisa formed the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, a nonprofit that works to end youth violence through restorative workshops, trainings and extracurricular clubs. It was founded with Ples Felix, Hicks\u2019 grandfather who largely raised him.<\/p>\n The foundation has connected with more than 600,000 young people across the country. While in prison, Hicks wrote a blog for it and shared his story with students through videos and answered their questions.<\/p>\n In November 2018, Hicks was granted release on parole. Khamisa and his daughter, Tasreen, spoke on behalf of Hicks, and he received letters of support from a former district attorney and Judge Joan Weber.<\/p>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-hicks-obit-3.jpg\")
On March 7, 2025, in the jury lounge of the Vista Courthouse, Tony Hicks speaks to local high school students participating in the Youth In Court program. At lower right is Azim Khamisa, the father of Tariq Khamisa, the man Tony killed. (Charlie Neuman \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n