MAN IMPRISONED AS TEEN IN ’04 KILLINGS ARRESTED

At age 15, Dejon Satterwhite helped hunt for people in rival gang territory, taking part in drive-by shootings that left two dead, including a high school junior, according to prosecutors. Satterwhite was tried as an adult, convicted of murder and sentenced to 196 years to life.

Had his case been tried before a Juvenile Court judge, he would not have gotten such a lengthy sentence. Because of changes in state law after his conviction, Satterwhite, now 31, was released from prison last fall.

On Monday, the District Attorney’s Office announced that Satterwhite was back in custody, having pleaded not guilty to a robbery charge stemming from a March 11 incident in El Cajon that ended in a stabbing. The victim suffered a punctured lung, prosecutors said.

Back in August 2004, Satterwhite, his half-brother and two others went to rival gang territory looking for people to shoot, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

One shooting killed Richard Wilson, 22, of Lemon Grove. The following night, Lee Smith Jr., 16, a Morse High School junior, was killed at a bus stop.

Satterwhite was convicted of multiple felonies, including first-degree murder.

Post-conviction hearings in his murder case were under way in 2016 when California voters passed Proposition 57. A portion of the criminal justice reform measure called for a Juvenile Court judge to give the OK before juveniles ages 14 to 17 could be tried as adults. Until that change, that power was in the hands of prosecutors.

Two years later legislators passed Senate Bill 1391, which said no one under the age of 16 could be tried as an adult.

Satterwhite’s adult convictions were exchanged for convictions in Juvenile Court. He was released from custody in October.

Five months later, according to the District Attorney’s Office, Satterwhite asked a stranger for money, then snatched cash from the victim’s sock and took off running. Prosecutors allege that when the victim caught up, Satterwhite stabbed him in the back.

Satterwhite pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbery and allegations that he used a knife and inflicted great bodily injury on the victim.

A judge ordered Satterwhite’s bail set at $2 million. He faces nine years in the new case if convicted.