A 14-year-old boy has been found guilty of juvenile charges of mob action and aggravated battery stemming from a gang-related beating on March 16.
The youth, who was judged delinquent by Judge Sharon Prather of McHenry County Circuit Court late Wednesday, will be sentenced April 6 and faces confinement in a juvenile facility until age 21.
Philip Prossnitz, assistant state’s attorney, produced two witnesses who testified that the 14-year-old helped three older youths beat a 17-year-old Harvard boy as he was leaving a party in the 500 block of 3rd Street.
Prossnitz said the 17-year-old was kicked and punched on the sidewalk after the three other youths warned him that he “better join a gang or they would kill him.”
Prather found the 14-year-old, who is in custody at the McLean County juvenile detention center, innocent of robbing the 17-year-old of two gold rings and a watch and of a fourth charge of compelling membership in a gang. The three other youths are being tried as adults.