Lawyer Seeks to Save 17-Year-Old From Life in Prison : Trial: Guilt in shooting death of teacher’s aide is conceded, but jurors are told that the defendant did not act ‘with reckless indifference’ to human life.

WESTMINSTER —  A defense attorney conceded in court Tuesday that his 17-year-old client was guilty of murder for his role in the 1991 shooting death of a teacher’s aide who refused to let gang members take her car.

But in trying to save Edel Gonzalez from a life sentence without possibility of parole, the attorney told a Superior Court jury during closing arguments that the young man did not act “with reckless indifference” to human life--a finding the jury must make for such a stiff prison term.

Gonzalez’s attorney, Dennis McNerney, argued that while the defendant is culpable as an active participant in the crime, he should not be compared to the alleged triggerman, Enrique Segoviano.

“I’ll concede that he’s guilty of murder,” McNerney said. “But, Edel is not just as liable as Enrique.”

Gonzalez is on trial at the Westminster courthouse in the fatal shooting of Janet Bicknell, 49, on Aug. 4, 1991. The young man testified Tuesday that on the day in question he and a group of fellow gang members planned to steal a car to do a drive-by shooting in a rival gang’s territory.

The scheme turned violent, Gonzalez said, when Bicknell refused to turn her car over to him and his friends in Westminster’s Bowling Green Park. She was fatally shot in the head as she tried to drive away, according to police.

Five young men, including Gonzalez, were later arrested and charged with murder, attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit a drive-by shooting, and participating in a gang crime. Two have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

The trial of Gonzalez’s 22-year-old brother, Antonio, and Segoviano, the alleged gunman, is scheduled to begin later this month.

During final statements Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. John S. Anderson, the prosecutor, contended that Gonzalez displayed reckless indifference to human life by participating in a gang-related incident which included a car theft at gunpoint.

Anderson told the jury that although Gonzalez realized the danger, he still went along with his fellow gang members and is therefore guilty of first-degree murder and should be sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole.

“This isn’t just a little robbery” that ended in a death, Anderson said. “This is a victim who--(if the defendant had) a little bit of thought instead of indifference--maybe, she would have gotten away.”

Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations today. If convicted of first-degree murder with “reckless indifference,” Gonzalez could become one of the first juveniles in Orange County to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.