A 16-year-old Waukesha boy, charged in February with attempted first-degree murder, was instead found guilty on Monday, Aug. 11, of recklessly endangering safety.
Zakaria Alhasasneh will spend three years in Lincoln Hills state prison in Irma, Wis., about 200 miles north of Waukesha, and 41/2 years under extended supervision provided he maintains a full-time job or attends school.
Alhasasneh pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in late June after his attorney filed an affidavit refuting a number of statements Alhasasneh had made to police. Those statements were recorded in a criminal complaint regarding an alleged shooting, which Alhasasneh was accused of committing with an accomplice named Alonso Corral on Kensington Drive near Waukesha.
According to the criminal complaint, Corral fired two shots into a vehicle on Feb. 5 in an attempt to kill a man named John Brautigam, a friend of Corral.
Corral had allegedly previously warned Brautigam about a potential confrontation.
Two children, ages 5 and 8, were also in the car at the time of the shooting, though no one was seriously injured.
The statement filed by Alhasasneh's public defender on June 23 said that Alhasasneh was not aware that Corral had a gun or intended to shoot Brautigam. The statement was accepted in exchange for Alhasasneh entering a guilty plea.
Alhasasneh claimed he initially took the blame for buying and firing the gun because he was led to believe, by Corral and others, that he would not face substantial punishment for the incident because he was a minor.
Alhasasneh was charged with first-degree intentional homicide Feb. 11 as a direct result of what he told police at the time of the incident.
District Attorney Brad Schimel previously said that, under the law, Alhasasneh had to be charged as an adult.
"The juvenile court has no jurisdiction over (first-degree intentional attempted homicide), unless the adult court determines that a reverse waiver back to juvenile court is appropriate," he said.
Partner in crime
Corral still faces an attempted murder charge, as well as three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment with a dangerous weapon, endangering safety by reckless use of a firearm, and two counts of misdemeanor bail jumping.
Court records indicate that Corral is being held at the county jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
A jury trial for Corral has been scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 14.