2 teens plead to manslaughter

Two teens charged in the fatal beating of a T.C. Williams High School student pleaded guilty in Alexandria Circuit court yesterday to involuntary manslaughter.

Patrick Casey and Brian Adem, both 16, face one to 10 years in prison when they are sentenced March 9. Each had initially been charged with second-degree murder.

Casey and Adem were charged with murder in connection with the Sept. 13 death of Schuyler Hamilton Jones, 16. They would have been tried as adults and faced up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

The proceeding yesterday took less than 20 minutes. Teenagers in attendance solemnly filed out of the courtroom after the hearing, declining to comment on the case.

Prosecutors contend Adem and Casey struck Schuyler, but that the assault stemmed from a dispute between Schuyler and a third teen.

The teen, an unidentified 17-year-old Alexandria male, is the only one of the three charged as a juvenile. He pleaded guilty Dec. 10 to involuntary manslaughter after reaching a deal with prosecutors. The second-degree murder charge against him was dropped.

Authorities said the 17-year-old boy instigated the attack against Schuyler. By law, he can be imprisoned only until he is 21.

“The judge did not find sufficient evidence to charge [the 17-year-old] as an adult,” Commonwealth’s Attorney S. Randolph Sengel said yesterday. “The media has characterized him as the instigator, but the judge felt differently about his level of culpability.”

The sentence hearing for the 17-year-old boy is set for Jan. 13, but prosecutors have asked for a postponement until the cases of the two other teens are resolved.

The three high school students were arrested Sept. 30 and charged with murder. Casey and Adem have been held without bail since an Oct. 1 court hearing.

The 17-year-old boy was released to his parents’ custody after a Nov. 4 hearing because prosecutors failed to show enough evidence to charge him as an adult.

Schuyler was a junior at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria and a member of the school rowing crew.

The 17-year-old boy was a student at Bishop Ireton, a Catholic high school, and Casey and Adem attended West Potomac High School.

On Sept. 13, they approached Schuyler in Market Square, said a detective. Witnesses said one suspect struck Schuyler, who told his attackers he did not want to fight.

He was knocked to the ground as he tried to run, and another suspect picked him up and hit him again, the detective said. The suspects left before authorities arrived.

Schuyler was found by police at 11 p.m. in the 300 block of King Street at Old Town Market Square. He was taken to Inova Alexandria Hospital and pronounced dead.

Police said that after the beating, one of the teens asked a gathering crowd, “Anyone else from T.C. want some of this?”

Alexandria police initially downplayed school rivalries as a motive for the beating.

The medical examiner testified that the cause of death was a brain hemorrhage. Authorities at first thought Schuyler struck his head on the pavement during the attack.

Prosecutors said it was an unprovoked attack. Attorneys for the defendants deny that it was premeditated murder, but rather a fight that resulted in death.