LAS VEGAS – A Las Vegas teenager pleaded not guilty as an adult Wednesday to 10 felony charges including attempted murder and sexual assault stemming from an after-school attack on a teacher in April, court officials and his attorney said.
The boy was ruled competent to face trial and was indicted in August also on kidnapping and battery by strangulation charges in the attack that police said left the female teacher unconsciousness at Eldorado High School.
The then 16-year-old was arrested later that day while the teacher was hospitalized with multiple unspecified injuries.
The Associated Press is not naming the teen due to his age. He remains jailed on $500,000 bail pending trial, defense attorney Paul Adras said. He could face up to life in prison if he is convicted.
Adras said he will withdraw from the case, and Clark County District Judge Kathleen Delaney set a Sept. 7 date to appoint a public defender.
The attack at the campus serving about 2,000 students came amid a sharp rise in end-of-school-year violence in the sprawling Clark County School District – the nation's fifth-largest with more than 300,000 students and about 336 schools.
District police Lt. Bryan Zink said Wednesday there have been few on-campus reports of fights or violence during the first 12 days of the new school year.
