The shooter who opened fire at Santana High School nearly 25 years ago, killing two students and injuring 13 others, had his sentence of 50 years to life behind bars erased Tuesday — a ruling that sets him up to be released from prison. The district attorney has already appealed.
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Williams was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to murder and other charges and allegations.
At issue is the law surrounding lengthy sentences for young offenders. The law changed several years ago to allow anyone sentenced to life without parole for a crime committed as a juvenile to be resentenced. Williams’ attorney argued that case law indicates that handing a 15-year-old a sentence of 50 years to life is essentially sentencing them to life in prison without parole.
After holding a daylong hearing and a review of hundreds of pages of filings, San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Rodriguez found Williams met the legal criteria to have his sentence recalled. Part of the criteria included making a showing of rehabilitation, or the potential for it.
Rodriguez noted that the law at the center of the battle doesn’t permit her to consider the seriousness of the offense nor the impact on the victims. If it did, the judge said, “this analysis would be different.”
“This court, irrespective of the impact on the victims and their families, must apply the framework of the statute and determine whether Mr. Williams is eligible to have his sentence recalled,” Rodriguez said.
Santana High School students Natalie Koeberlein (left), Amy Biggoni (middle) and Amber Benz stop at the memorial set up at the front of Santana High School on the one-year anniversary when Andy Williams went on a shooting spree, killing Bryan Zuchor and Randy Gordon. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T file)Williams, now 39, attended the hearing virtually from prison and was visible on a large monitor in Rodriguez’s downtown San Diego courtroom. As the judge issued her ruling, Williams appeared to cry.
With the ruling, his case will be sent to Juvenile Court for his resentencing, where Williams will be treated as a juvenile offender because he was under 16 at the time of the rampage. A status hearing is slated in Juvenile Court on Feb. 9.
“I think it was the right ruling,” Williams’ attorney Laura Sheppard said after the hearing. “I’m grateful that Judge Rodriguez was able to put away emotional reasoning and base her decision on the law.”
Sheppard said that because Juvenile Court generally loses the ability to keep a person in custody after age 25, she believes her client would likely be released, although with supervision. She will ask for that release at his upcoming hearing.
The District Attorney’s Office immediately filed an appeal. District Attorney Summer Stephan issued a statement disagreeing with the decision and vowing to fight.
“Many school shooters are young, so what message does our legislature want to give them to deter them from carrying out horrific shootings?” Stephan said.
Stephan also referenced slain students Bryan Zuckor, 14, and Randy Gordon, 17. “They won’t be released from the grave and returned to their families,” she said.
Since 2013, the law has allowed juvenile offenders serving life without parole to petition to have their sentence recalled and to be resentenced. A 2022 appellate decision expanded that to include young offenders found to be serving the “functional equivalent” of life without parole, Stephan’s office said.
Charles "Andy" Williams pleaded guilty on June 20, 2002, to more than a dozen felony charges stemming from the deadly shooting spree at Santana High School. Williams is shown here in court in El Cajon. (K.C. Alfred / U-T file)In arguing that the judge should deny Williams’ petition, Deputy District Attorney Nicole Roth disputed the assertion that 50 years to life is equal to a sentence of life without a chance at parole.
Roth noted that Williams had faced a sentence of 425 years to life when he pleaded guilty. She pointed to the original sentencing judge’s “deliberate decision not to impose the functional equivalent of life without parole” and instead impose a sentence of 50 years to life. Roth also noted that when the case was appealed decades ago, the appellate court found Williams’ sentence was not cruel and unusual.
The prosecutor pointed to another criminal justice reform that cleared the way for Williams to be released from prison early: the possibility of parole as a youthful offender, which would allow him to be considered for release after serving 25 years in custody. Williams had a parole hearing as a youthful offender in September 2024. Hearing officers rejected his request, finding him unsuitable for release.
Phil Ortiz was a 16-year-old sophomore at Santana High School when a shooter opened fire as Phil headed to class in March 2001. He and friend Kristen Dane, a former student, petitioned against Andy Williams' parole in 2024. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)Sheppard said the 2022 ruling opened the door for Williams to petition for resentencing. But, she said, he initially declined. He wanted to have the parole hearing first, to give the victims a chance to speak there. “He wanted to look them in the eye and take accountability,” she said.
Sheppard said that should her client be released, he hopes to live in Northern California, so as not to be local and upset victims and their families.
“He’s incredibly remorseful and ashamed and would do anything in his power to not hurt them anymore or ever again,” she said, “and so one of the only things he can do is to stay away.”
At the time of the shooting, California allowed prosecutors to charge people as young as 14 as adults. Several years ago, the law changed to bar prosecutors from trying anyone under age 16 as an adult.
Had the Santana attack happened today, a 15-year-old shooter — even if convicted of murder — would be tried as a juvenile and generally could not be held in custody longer than age 25.
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