California IN BRIEF : VENTURA : Youth Is First to Get Mandated Life Term

An 18-year-old gunman convicted in the drive-by slayings of two men was sentenced Friday to two concurrent terms of life in prison without parole, becoming the first minor in California to receive such a stiff sentence. Edward (Tony) Throop was 17 when he committed the crime, making him the first youth to get a sentence dictated by Proposition 115, passed in June, 1990, which made juveniles 16 and older subject to a no-parole life sentence. Throop was dealt the harshest punishment of the four teen-agers involved in the April 7, 1991, shooting in which two men were killed and two others seriously injured as they stood outside a baptism party. Deputy public defender Christina Briles said Throop will appeal the sentence on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.