photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Students at Maria Carrillo High in Santa Rosa 
walked out in protest over a lack of school safety
at their own campus following the stabbing death
at Montgomery High on March 1, 2023.

“This was an ambush.”

That was just one argument made by the defense attorney during closing remarks Wednesday in the trial of a youth facing a voluntary manslaughter charge, in a case that's rattled Sonoma County and prompted calls for a more robust presence by law enforcement in area schools.

The defense maintains that the defendant in the March 1 incident acted in self defense, and told the judge that given the circumstances, his client “was justified.”

He described the fight inside a Montgomery High art classroom as a “concerted effort” by students who had “no legitimate purpose” to be there; and he noted the defendant’s supposed bluster in text messages to friends about the possibility of a fight was completely understandable, saying, “what 15-year-old tells his friends he’s scared.”

The defense said there is “ample evidence to believe the attack would cause great bodily injury,”  and once again pointed to a concussion suffered by the defendant several weeks before the fatal fight, and concerns that another blow to the head could be life changing - in explaining the defendant’s forceful response.

The defense attorney told the court [the victim’s] death was “tragic, but finding the [defendant] guilty will not bring him back,” the defense attorney said.

The prosecution has acknowledged that the deceased student arguably started the fatal altercation, but said in rebuttal the defendant’s fears were exaggerated by his attorney, that his actions went beyond reasonable self defense, and instead showed his intent to use a knife in the fight.

The prosecution said, “Thirty people could’ve gathered outside with baseball bats, none of that matters, only what mattered was what was in the [defendant's] head,” the prosecutor argued.

A verdict is expected in the case on the afternoon of November 27.