LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Four black teenage girls were sentenced Monday to probation in the Halloween mob beating of three white women who were assaulted with skateboards and pumpkins as the crowd yelled racial slurs. A juvenile judge ordered the girls, including two 14-year-olds, to serve 60 days of house confinement and perform 250 hours of community service. Prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought tougher sentences, including imprisonment, for three of the girls, arguing they had a history of violence.
The four were among nine black teenagers convicted. Four others received the same punishment last week. The ninth girl was to be sentenced Tuesday.
Defense lawyers argued that the girls have been punished enough.
"She's already spent 98 days in custody," said Mark Rothenberg, attorney for one of the 14-year-olds.
The two other defendants sentenced Monday were 17- and 13-year-old sisters. The older girl punched one of the victims and banged her head into a tree, then drove a getaway car, prosecutor Andrea Bouas said.
The crowd yelled racial insults, threw small pumpkins and lemons at the three women, and then assaulted them, including the use of skateboards as weapons, in a Long Beach neighborhood that draws Halloween crowds because of elaborate displays, officials said.
