PORT ANGELES — A 16-year-old boy will serve 80 hours of community service for snatching a Halloween pillowcase full of candy from a trick-or-treater, a 13-year-old who also reportedly had a knife held to his throat by an alleged accomplice.
The 16-year-old boy, who is not identified because he is a minor, was sentenced Dec. 23 in Clallam County Juvenile Court after pleading guilty to one count of second-degree robbery.
His alleged accomplice, a 17-year-old boy who is accused of holding a knife to the victim’s throat after the theft, pleaded not guilty to first-degree theft and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon Nov. 4. He has a status hearing scheduled for Jan. 6.
The police probable-cause statement gives this account:
Two boys, 12 and 13, were walking home at about 7:50 p.m. after trick-or-treating Oct. 31 when they were confronted by three older boys, two of whom carried bats.
One honked an air horn, and another sprayed the victim in the face with silly string.
A 17-year-old boy wearing a black hockey mask pulled the victim’s arms behind his back while a 16-year-old boy wearing a red bandanna over his face snatched the victim’s pillow case.
Another teenage boy who was part of the group but who did not participate in the theft told the trick-or-treaters that he would try to get the candy back.
He retuned with them but instead of returning the candy, the 17-year-old boy put a 4-inch-long knife to the victim’s throat and asked “if he wanted the knife in his neck.”
The two trick-or-treaters then walked to Grandview Grocery and phoned one of their fathers.
The father phoned police after seeing bat-wielding boys nearby. Both were arrested.
The 16-year-old boy sentenced last week wrote a letter to Judge Brooke Taylor apologizing for the crime.
As part of his sentence, he also has to pay $100 to the victim and spend a year under community supervision.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
