Fatal Shooting at Teen Club Was Provoked, Lawyer Argues

A Canoga Park boy charged with shooting to death a Hollywood teen-ager during a fight at a Van Nuys teen club fired a gun because a gang of youths was threatening him with sticks and bottles, a defense attorney argued Thursday in Sylmar Juvenile Court.

Christopher D. Comete, 15, is charged with murdering Mark Miller, 15, who was shot in the back of the head in a parking lot outside the Hot Trax club on Aug. 17.

Unveiling an argument expected to be used at Comete’s trial, the boy’s attorney, Dennis Mulcahey, asked Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack J. Gold at a preliminary hearing Thursday to reduce the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter on the ground that Comete was being threatened.

Mulcahey said “no investigation was done to see if the trajectory of the bullet and the injury to the victim was consistent with” a story told to police by club bouncer Steve Benson.

Los Angeles Police Detective Mel Arnold testified that some witnesses told police that Comete fired two warning shots at a threatening crowd of alleged gang members before firing a third shot that struck Miller, who was advancing on him with a stick.

Arnold also said that several other witnesses, including another of the nightclub’s bouncers, told a contradictory story, saying that Miller dropped the stick and began walking away after the first two shots were fired.

But, Arnold said, Benson told police that Miller continued to wield his stick and walk toward Comete. The detective quoted Benson as saying that he grabbed Miller’s arm and was trying to pull him out of the line of fire when Comete fired a third round, which struck Miller in the back of the head.

Earlier Fight

Arnold testified that bouncer Jon Zucker and Miller’s girlfriend, 14-year-old Natalie Molnar, told police that they heard Comete threaten Miller after the boys fought at the club two nights earlier. The problem began when Comete insulted the girl’s purple, punk-style hair, witnesses told police.

Comete’s attorney repeatedly referred to the dead youth and eight friends who were with him as members of Fight For Freedom, a white gang based in the San Fernando Valley. Deputy Dist. Atty. Cesar Sarmiento, who argued against releasing Comete, said it was not clear which of the youths are members of FFF.

Alan Freedman, an attorney for Karen Miller, mother of the dead youth, said after the hearing that Mulcahey’s argument ignored statements by Zucker and some youths who witnessed the confrontation that Miller was unarmed and retreating when he was shot.

Gold, who said it was not up to him to modify the charge, ordered Comete to remain in Sylmar Juvenile Hall pending his Oct. 3 trial.

Tony Nguyen, 21, also of Canoga Park, was with Comete at the time of the shooting and has been charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Nguyen, who is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail, is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Wednesday.