3 LANCASTER MEN PLEAD NO CONTEST TO '95 HATE CRIME.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Three reputed white supremacist skinheads pleaded no contest Friday to attempted murder for shooting at a parked car containing four African-Americans, including an 11-month-old baby.

Chris Parker, 21, Robert Garland, 22, and Robert Jones, 21, all of Lancaster, also admitted to committing a hate crime in the February 1995 shooting, in which a man's neck was grazed by a bullet and the infant was cut by shattered glass from a car window.

Parker, who was accused of being the triggerman, was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court to 20 years and eight months in prison, and Jones was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison.

Garland faces 18 years in prison when he is sentenced May 10. His sentencing was postponed because his mother is suffering from cancer and wants to see him before he goes to prison, Deputy District Attorney Carla Arranaga said.

``I think we are sending out a message that violent crime against people because of race, color, ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation will not be tolerated,'' Arranaga said. ``If somebody commits these crimes, they can expect to suffer heavy penalties.''

Arranaga defended the severity of the sentences.

``Even though the victims did not die, the substantial sentences that the defendants were given are appropriate, given their type of conduct, a drive-by shooting on innocent African-Americans in a vehicle,'' she said.

The three defendants were awaiting trial when they decided Friday to accept the offer made by prosecutors, which was set to be withdrawn that day, Arranaga said.

Each defendant entered a plea to two counts of attempted murder, constituting two strikes under the ``three strikes, you're out'' law. That means they must serve 80 percent of their time before parole, Arranaga said.

The victims, Stanton Roberts, 19, Clarence Davis, 17, Eric Dooley, 20, and Dooley's 11-month-old daughter, Ashley, were sitting in Roberts' Honda Civic parked near Antelope Valley High School at Spearman Avenue and Lancaster Boulevard, when occupants of a passing car fired shots at them, officials said.

They had gone to the high school to pick up Dooley's girlfriend, a student at Antelope Valley High, Arranaga said earlier.

Arranaga said the motive for the shooting was hatred of African-Americans, and that the victims happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

``There is no evidence of any prior contact or personal relationship between the victims and the defendants,'' Arranaga said.

Arranaga said before the shooting occurred, there was supposed to have been a fight after school with another group of skinheads called SHARPS, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, but the fight did not take place.

``The SHARPs didn't show,'' Arranaga said. ``The skinheads left there with their feelings at that point in time when the victims are parked in their car.''

The victims had noticed a yellow car drive past their vehicle while it was parked, sheriff's deputies said. The car slowed down as it passed and its white occupants stared at the victims.

A few moments later, the same car drove by, and a white male leaned out of the passenger's side door and began firing his weapon at the rear window of the victims' car, deputies said.