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Luis Rivas originally faced attempted murder charges before agreeing to be tried as an adult, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said.
Rivas waived Family Court jurisdiction earlier this week, as reported here.
Rivas “voluntarily waived jurisdiction of the Family Court -- which typically handles juvenile delinquency matters -- and agreed to be prosecuted as an adult” for the Oct. 22 shooting, Billhimer said.
He entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault before Judge Wendel E. Daniels.
The 16-year-old victim was walking home from school with three friends when he was grazed in the arm by a shot, the prosecutor said.
The boy ran about a quarter-mile back to the school for help, igniting initial fears that there’d been a school shooting.
As a precaution, Brick Township Police and school officials locked down the high school as well as neighboring schools before determining there was no immediate danger to students. The victim was treated at Ocean Medical Center in Brick Township and released.
Detectives from Billhimer’s Major Crimes and High Tech Crime units reviewed surveillance video from nearby residences along with Brick Township police and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office.
They identified Rivas and the other juvenile, the prosecutor said.
Rivas was apprehended on Oct. 26 and has been lodged in the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center since then. A second juvenile is likewise lodged in the Juvenile Detention Center, and his matter remains pending in Family Court.
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