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Teen Refuses Deal In Gang Attack Case

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By DAVID SOMMER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 9, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - The lone holdout in a gang-related attempted murder case appears headed to trial after rejecting a plea deal for a prison sentence almost equal to his age.

Nathaniel Nichols, 17, has rejected an offer that he serve just less than 16 years in prison on charges of attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery stemming from an October 2006 attack that left a former member of the Royal Bloods youth gang clinging to life.

Nichols, 16 at the time, was charged with four others in the vicious beating of former Royal Bloods second-in-command Joseph Holt.

Holt, then 19, was pummeled with a metal crowbar in a vacant lot off State Road 54 and Madison Street. He suffered broken bones and a head wound that took six staples to close.

The state's offer of 15.8 years in prison in exchange for Nichols' no contest plea to the two charges was based in part on a 'gang enhancement' for membership in a violent group, lawyers involved in the case said.

'I think there is a significant factual dispute regarding this case,' defense attorney Grady Irvin said Monday.

'It starts with the deposition testimony of the victim, who is second-in-command, saying Nate Nichols is not even a member of the gang,' Irvin said.

Nichols' four co-defendants have all acknowledged taking part in attacking Holt.

Last week, 17-year-old Shane Thomas pleaded no contest to the attempted murder and conspiracy to commit battery charges and was sentenced to just more than 15 years in prison.

In August, purported gang-leader Richard Wears, 24, and gang members Allen Harvey and Andrew Henn, both 20, pleaded no contest to the charges.

Wears, known in his gang as 'King Shorty,' was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Harvey got 25 years and Henn, who had fewer prior offenses on his record, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, court records state.

Holt told detectives he thought he was going to supervise a 'beat in' to initiate two new gang members on the day he was attacked. Holt said he was set up by fellow members who were apparently angry at him because he wanted to quit the gang, detectives said.

At his subsequent sworn deposition, Holt said Nichols was neither a member of the Royal Bloods nor a perspective member, Irvin said Monday.

Assistant State Attorney Aaron J. Slavin, who rejected Nichols' bid for a 10-year sentence in exchange for a plea deal, said the holdout may change his tune when he hears what Wears, Harvey, Henn and Thomas have to say at their upcoming depositions.

Nichols, Slavin said, may be the worst of the lot but is too young to have accumulated the kind of prior offenses that earned the three elder gang members their longer prison terms.

Last month, Nichols tried unsuccessfully to get Circuit Judge William R. Webb off the case because Nichols spat at the judge and told him to 'go to hell' during a juvenile proceeding six years ago.

'He's set for trial on Oct. 29,' the prosecutor said, 'and when we bring all the other bad guys down to testify, maybe he'll get wise and plead no contest.'

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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