Eve Porinchak - One Cut

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Simon True: Real Stories. Real Teens. Real Consequences.

Also in the series:

Deep Water by Katherine Nichols

SIMON PULSE

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Simon Pulse edition May 2017

Text copyright 2017 by Eve Porinchak

Front cover photograph of knife copyright 2017 by EmBaSy/Thinkstock

Back jacket photograph of knife (hardcover only) copyright 2017 by PeterPal/Thinkstock

Cover images of spray paint copyright 2017 by johnjohnson13/Thinkstock

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Cover designed by Sarah Creech

Interior designed by Greg Stadnyk

Jacket designed by Sarah Creech

Front jacket photograph of knife copyright 2017 by EmBaSy/Thinkstock

Back jacket photograph of knife copyright 2017 by PeterPal/Thinkstock

Jacket images of spray paint copyright 2017 by johnjohnson13/Thinkstock

The text of this book was set in Chaparral Pro.

This book has been cataloged with the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4814-8132-8 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-8131-1 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4814-8133-5 (eBook)

For my favorite person in the worldmy sister, Amythe bright light at the end of a dark tunnel for those who are given unjust sentences or are wrongfully accused. Thank you for dedicating your entire life to providing a voice for the disadvantaged. I could never have written this storyor gotten through life, for that matterwithout you.

VICTIMS

James Jimmy Farris: homicide victim, sixteen years old

Michael McLoren: best friend of Jimmy Farris, owner of the Fort, seventeen years old

DEFENDANTS

Jason Holland: eighteen years old

Micah Holland: Jason Hollands brother, fifteen years old

Brandon Hein: eighteen years old

Tony Miliotti: seventeen years old

Christopher Velardo: seventeen years old

FAMILY

Nancy McLoren: mother of Michael McLoren

Georgette Thille: grandmother of Michael McLoren

Sharry Holland: mother of Jason and Micah Holland

Gary Holland: stepfather of Jason and Micah Holland

Judie Farris: mother of Jimmy Farris

Jim Farris Senior: father of Jimmy Farris

Gene Hein: father of Brandon Hein

FRIENDS/WITNESSES

Stacey Williams: girlfriend of Michael McLoren

Natasha Sinkinson: girlfriend of Christopher Velardo

Johnny Vinnedge: friend of victims

John Berardis: friend of victims

Jason Stout: friend of defendants

Dwayne Dahlberg: friend of defendants

ADDITIONAL WITNESSES

Alyce Moulder: victim of wallet theft

Phyllis Deikel: next-door neighbor to the Hein family

Barbara Wampler: next-door neighbor to the McLoren family

POLICE OFFICERS

Officer Robert Tauson: homicide detective, chief investigating officer, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department

Officer William Neumann: homicide detective, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department

LEGAL

Lawrence Mira: Malibu Superior Court judge

Jeffrey Semow: prosecutor, Los Angeles District Attorneys Office

Michael Latin: prosecutor, Los Angeles District Attorneys Office

Ira Salzman: defense attorney for Jason Holland

Jill Lansing: defense attorney for Brandon Hein

John Franklin: juvenile defense attorney for Micah Holland

Jim Sussman: trial attorney for Micah Holland

Curtis Leftwich: defense attorney for Tony Miliotti

Bruce Jones: juvenile defense attorney for Christopher Velardo

Charles English: adult defense attorney for Christopher Velardo

MEDIA

Mary Pols: Los Angeles Times newspaper reporter

Randall Sullivan: Rolling Stone magazine reporter

William Gazecki: documentary filmmaker of Reckless Indifference

THIS IS INTERESTING, MIKE MCLOREN said, peeling off his boxing gloves. Looks like trouble.

He and his best friend, Jimmy Farris, stood at the far end of the rustic backyard, which spanned almost an entire football field. They were wrapping up a workout session, punching the heavy Everlast bag they had hung from a horizontal branch of the eucalyptus tree that shaded a makeshift backyard fort. Mike, fuming at his girlfriend, Stacey, who had just gone home, said he needed to work out his anger. Now four teenage boys had hopped the chain-link fence surrounding the McLoren home on Foothill Drive that Mike shared with his mother and grandparents.

The sun was just slipping below the lofty peaks surrounding sleepy Agoura Hills, California, a rural enclave of suburban Los Angeles known mostly for its popularity on journalistic lists of Americas Safest Cities year after year. A slightly damp sixty-degree eveningchilly by Southern California standardsdidnt deter the boys. They and dozens of their friends spent most of their free time in the refuge of Mikes fort and the McLoren backyard, rain or shine.

Mike and Jimmy had constructed the clubhouse-style fort a few years earlier using wooden planks, tarps, and Plexiglas. When they were younger, they had built a playhouse in this spot. Now that they were older, theyd needed a larger, more mature fortress that would suit their new hobbies. Thirteen by fourteen feet in size, the structure stood about seven feet in height. A talented artist, Mike had painted a massive beast on one entire side of the forts exterior. The ape-bear-boar creature loomed before a bloodred background, drooling green goo beneath pointed tusks and scowling through bloodshot eyes. The back of the fort sported colorful spray-painted shapes and black lines reminiscent of the graffiti or tagging that adorned many Los Angeles inner-city freeway overpasses, less than an hours drive away.

Best friends since age seven, Mike and Jimmy were a strange pair, according to neighbors, friends, and classmates. Although the disparity between the two boys wasnt limited to their looks, Jimmy, at five feet eleven inches and with a tanned, muscular, 175-pound physique, outshone Mike, who stood one inch shorter and thirty pounds lighter. Jimmy, who wore his sun-kissed strawberry-blond hair long and loose, appeared to have stepped out of a Surfer magazine photo shoot. Mike, however, sported a dark, slicked-back style that brought out the paleness of his round face, and appeared more mafioso than Southern California suburb. In fact, they were an odd couple whose reputations, popularity, and social status often contrasted throughout the years. While Jimmy exercised religiously in preparation for the Agoura High School varsity football team tryouts, Mike spent much of his free time partying. At the time, Mike could bench-press only half of what Jimmy could. Still, Jimmy pushed Mike to work out with him at least thirty minutes per day, boxing and lifting, in order to improve his health and teach him to defend himself.