The Region - News from April 17, 1985

A 12-year-old Quartz Hill boy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for shooting a friend with a .22-caliber rifle during an argument over a baseball. James Traylor admitted in Sylmar Juvenile Court that he shot Christopher Perea, also 12, last Jan. 31 after the victim refused to put down a baseball belonging to young Traylor. The victim was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds at Antelope Valley Medical Center. Because he is being prosecuted as a juvenile, the maximum sentence the boy can receive is confinement to the California Youth Authority until he is 25.