An Aug. 16 preliminary hearing was set May 20 for three 17-year-old boys being tried as adults on suspicion they murdered Pacific Beach resident Garrett Berki during a deadly Craiglist deal gone awry. Berki, 18, was hoping to buy a computer when the transaction went sideways, according to investigators. The trio was charged with murder in the death of Berki, a 2010 graduate of La Jolla High School. He was a student at Mesa College. The three teens are also charged with shooting at an occupied vehicle and two counts of robbery involving Berki and his girlfriend. The defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, waived their right to have a speedy hearing when they appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge David Szumowski. The preliminary hearing may last several days and the August date was selected so the trio\u2019s attorneys have time to prepare. Rashon Jay Abernathy, Shaquille Jordan and Seandell Lee Jones also waived their right to have a bail review. They remain in Juvenile Hall on $5 million bail. The mothers of Jordan and Jones were at the arraignment and told reporters their sons didn\u2019t shoot Berki. “I\u2019m very sorry for any part my son had in it. Shaquille didn\u2019t rob them, didn\u2019t shoot them,” said Jordan\u2019s mother, Patricia Dykes. “He\u2019s hurting because someone got killed.” The second mother echoed the same sentiment. “My son didn\u2019t kill anyone, so I don\u2019t know why bail is as high as it is. It\u2019s just unfair,” said Jones\u2019 mother, Shearese Johnson. Deputy District Attorney Kristian Trocha said the three teenagers are legally responsible for the murder under the felony murder rule. “All of them participated in the robbery. The murder was a part of the robbery and (they) tried to escape,” said Trocha. “These three gentlemen are 17 years old. Some are six months shy of being 18. It was this office\u2019s choice to try them as adults.” If convicted, the teens could be sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder and consecutive 25 year term for using a gun in the commission of a homicide.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Aug. 16 preliminary hearing was set May 20 for three 17-year-old boys being tried as adults on suspicion they murdered Pacific Beach resident Garrett Berki during a deadly Craiglist deal gone awry. Berki, 18, was hoping to buy a computer when the transaction went sideways, according to investigators. The trio was charged with murder […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Teens plead not guilty; Aug. 16 prelim set","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}