FRESNO, Calif. — Enrique Gonzalez wanted his 7-year-old son to have a gang tattoo like his own, a pawprint for the Fresno Bulldogs.
Here’s the question a judge says she’ll decide today: Is placing a tattoo on a minor a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of a potential life sentence?
Placing the gang tattoo on the child, prosecutors allege, is a recruitment tool that furthers the gang’s criminal enterprise. But does it merit a charge of aggravated mayhem? California statutes describe mayhem as “extreme indifference to the physical or psychological well-being of another person” that intentionally causes disfigurement “unlawfully and maliciously.”
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hillary Chittick on Monday asked for a few days to think.
“It seems to the court that mayhem requires a certain level of bodily injury,” she said, “and I’m not sure a quarter-sized tattoo meets that.”
