A state judge sentenced a teenager to 20 years in prison yesterday for a string of violent crimes.

Shaw Awber, 19, who police say is the leader of a gang, pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from a freeway shooting last year as well as baseball bat and golf club assaults on members of a rival gang.

In a deal with prosecutors, Awber pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted first-degree assault rather than attempted second-degree murder and related firearm charges for firing a gun at a pickup truck full of teenage girls on the H-1 freeway on June 29, 2008. The state also agreed to drop an attempted first-degree murder charge.

Ten rounds hit the truck. No one was injured.

Awber also pleaded guilty to hitting a man in the head with a baseball bat on May 1, 2008, and attacking two other males with a baseball bat Dec. 3, 2007. He later attacked the same two males with a golf club and stabbed one with the shaft after the club head broke off.

Police say Awber is leader of the Outlaws. He was 17 years old when he committed his crimes. However, a state Family Court judge waived jurisdiction, allowing prosecutors to charge him as an adult.

A member of the gang, Nicholas Nichols, 19, is serving a 30-year state prison term for shooting and permanently paralyzing a man in an Aug. 11, 2008, home invasion robbery and for his participation in the Dec. 3, 2007, assaults with Awber.

Police said another member of the Outlaws paralyzed a 16-year-old boy in another freeway shooting last year.

Joshua Gonda, 20, is awaiting trial in state court for attempted first- and second-degree murder in connection with a July 9 shooting on Moanalua Freeway. Prosecutors said Gonda fired six shots from a revolver at the car of a rival gang member.

Nichols was the driver in both freeway shootings, police said.

The Moanalua Freeway shooting happened when Gonda was on pretrial release for a federal drug case. A federal judge sentenced him in February to a year and a day in prison for selling methamphetamine near an elementary school in Kalihi.