CALIFORNIA - A TEENAGER who was driven by a friend's mother to a park where he fatally stabbed a 13-year-old boy was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Heriberto Garcia, 17, was sentenced on Tuesday. He was tried as an adult and convicted Oct 6 of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors said the mother, Eva Daley, drove Garcia, her son and five other teenagers to a park, where they got out and surrounded Jose Cano, a member of a rival gang.

They said the June 2007 attack could have been retaliation for the stabbing of Daley's son about six months earlier or for an incident earlier that night, when gang members threw flares at her apartment complex. Cano was never charged with the stabbing.

Daley testified she had no idea what her son, Mauricio Rivera, and his friends were going to do when she drove them to the park.

Daley, 31, has been convicted of second-degree murder and was scheduled for sentencing Nov 4.

Daley's son and five other boys pleaded guilty to manslaughter in juvenile court and will be in a facility for juvenile offenders until they turn 25. -- AP