BOY WON'T BE TRIED AS ADULT SCHOOL PLOT CASE CONTINUES.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

SYLMAR - One of two teenagers charged with planning a Columbine-style attack at Quartz Hill High School will be tried as a juvenile.

Prosecutors had sought to try the boy, who was 15 at the time, as an adult but he is too young to be sent to adult court, officials said.

``One of the minors will be tried as a minor because he was 15 at the time of the offense. They must be at least 16 at time of the offense,'' said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The boy, now 16, will next appear for a detention hearing Tuesday in Lancaster Juvenile Court.

The hearing to determine whether the second teenager, 17, should be tried as an adult or remain in Juvenile Court was rescheduled to April 6, Robison said.

Both teens remained in custody.

The two boys have denied conspiracy to commit murder charges. The younger boy also has denied a charge of making criminal threats.

The boys, who sheriff's deputies said dressed in the Goth style, characterized by black clothing and nail polish, said they felt ostracized at Quartz Hill High and wanted to get revenge, deputies said.

In announcing the boys' arrests in December, deputies said the teens had acquired bomb-making instructions off the Internet and detonated practice bombs in the desert.

The boys had been on probation in connection with a 2003 assault in which a 14-year-old boy was sodomized with a metal rod, deputies said.

Authorities said the 17-year-old admitted that the Valentine's Day 2006 attack plan included shooting students and using improvised explosive devices. Deputies said the 16-year-old told them the plan was to kill all of the students who had made fun of him at school and then to commit suicide.

The teens had attended Quartz Hill High School but were transferred in the fall to other schools because of past discipline problems. The 16- year-old enrolled at Desert Sands Charter School and the older boy at Littlerock High School.

The investigation started when a girl contacted a Quartz Hill High vice principal and said she had been told by friends that the 16-year-old did not like her and was planning to kidnap and torture her and cut off her arms and legs.

A third teenager charged in connection with the alleged plot was sentenced in February to serve probation at home.

The 16-year-old Quartz Hill High student, who officials said is a friend of the two other boys, admitted to two counts of making criminal threats, the equivalent of making a guilty plea in adult court.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com