SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two teen football players from two high schools in the U.S. western state of California are likely to be charged as adults for allegedly raping a student of a nearby all-girls high school, media reports said Tuesday.
Prosecutors of Contra Costa, a county northeast of San Francisco in western California, are seeking a transfer of the two suspects from juvenile court in a hearing where a judge will decide whether they should be moved to adult court, the reports said.
One of the boys was from De La Salle high school, an all-boys Catholic school, sitting across the street from its all-girls sister campus Carondelet, where the victim was studying at the time of the assault.
The other boy came from Ygnacio Valley High School, a public secondary school located in Concord, the largest city of Contra Costa county in western California. Both students played football for the teams of their respective schools.
The pair were charged last month with four felonies, including rape and kidnapping to commit rape in the alleged assault that happened in September this year.
The charges carry a maximum confinement period of 10 years if the two students were convicted in adult court, a punishment much more severe than the one given by juvenile court where no fixed prison sentences would be handed out.
It is not unusual for juvenile suspects accused of serious crimes to be tried in adult court in California.
In 2015, a 15-year-old boy was charged in adult court with murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of an 8-year-old girl in a beach town in Santa Cruz, about 100 kilometers south of San Francisco, California.
