Defendant stays calm in hate-crime case

The sole male defendant in the Long Beach hate-crime case remained unflappable on the stand Wednesday as a prosecutor accused him of being a Crip, of neglecting his girlfriend and sisters, and of beating up girls in school.

At times Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas leaned into Anthony Ross’ face to question him, but he answered calmly, occasionally laughing.

Ross, three of his sisters, his girlfriend and five female friends, ages 12 to 18, are accused of taking part in the mob beating of three young white women in a well-to-do neighborhood on Halloween night. The black youths are charged with assault with intent to cause great bodily harm; eight of them, including Ross, face hate-crime sentencing enhancements based on allegations that racial slurs were made during the attack.

The youths are local middle and high school students, who mostly know each other through track and field. Several are nationally recognized athletes. None has a criminal record.

The 10 have been held in custody since their arrests the night of the beating, as the trial, which began Nov. 28, has dragged on in a welter of misconduct accusations; speeches disguised as objections; endless motions for mistrial; erratic, inconsistent witnesses; and an equivocating judge.

The theatrics don’t diminish the stakes: If convicted, the youths could spend months, possibly years in custody, derailing plans for college and hopes of athletic stardom. The victims have said they are seeking justice for a beating that left one of them with 10 facial fractures and another with a possible concussion.

Thin and tall with a ponytail, Ross, 18, testified a day earlier that he did not take part in the beating, but rather helped break it up.

Bouas tried feverishly to draw out inconsistencies in his testimony, asking him to describe how each of the co-defendants was dressed, what they said in the car leaving the incident and where each was standing in the street at various points during the night.

When defense attorneys complained that Bouas was trying to intimidate the witness by standing right next to him, she moved as far away as she could. “I’ll stand at the back of the courtroom.”

From there, she asked a 13-year-old boy in the audience to stand up, wrongly identifying him with the name of another boy charged in the beating whose trial will follow this one. The boy’s family members corrected her and said his real name.

“He’s a Naughty Nasty Gangster Crip, isn’t he?” she yelled across the courtroom, invoking the name of a Long Beach gang set.

Ross smiled. “He doesn’t even live out here.”

The defense attorneys made objections, and the judge sustained them.

There are no gang allegations in the case, but police say members of the Baby Insane Crips rammed a witness’ car in what appeared to be an attempt to intimidate her. Bouas has accused the defendants, their families and their attorneys of being behind the car damage.

“Do you have a MySpace page?” Bouas asked Ross, referring to the popular social networking site.

“Yes.”

Ross’ page is filled with photos of himself, his girlfriends and his sisters.

Under “Interests” he lists “Movies, Theme Parks, Malls, Phone, Games, Track etc. lol DAMN alotof stuff. Favorite TV show: Family Guy is the best show on earth. Heroes: God. Music: R&B.;”

“Is your space name ‘I don’t care I’m cute as fucc?’ ” Bouas continued.

He indicated that it was. “You didn’t put the “ck” because if you said “ck” it would mean “Crip Killer,” she said, then raised her voice. “Because Crips don’t write ‘ck,’ right?”

Ross smiled, and the defense attorneys objected before he could answer.

“I believe it’s relevant,” said Bouas, “because my witness’ car was destroyed and the suspects were Crips. And we want to bring in his Crip connection.”

Defense attorney Jack Fuller said the car trashing has never been introduced as evidence and is not part of the case. Bouas said she would bring in the car. “I think Anthony will be my age before we’re done,” Fuller said.

At several points in her cross-examination, Bouas asked Ross how he could sit in a car while his sisters and girlfriend were outside near a group of rowdy boys.

At another point, she asked if Ross “would ever hit a girl.”

He said no, and she immediately waved around a paper that she said was a school record -- from what grade level was not clear -- stating that he was once suspended for fighting with girls.

In response to the many objections, she argued: “He lied when he said he would never hit a girl.”

Ross’ attorney, Clive Martin, said that she hadn’t asked if he had ever hit a girl.

joe.mozingo@latimes.com