Youth Convicted of Murder in Slaying of Actor in Balboa Park

Genaro Villanueva, a 17-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was convicted Friday of first-degree murder and four other charges in the Balboa Park stabbing death of actor David Huffman.

A San Diego Superior Court jury of eight women and four men took three hours to convict Villanueva, who had admitted stabbing the 40-year-old actor with a screwdriver during a scuffle in the park’s Palm Canyon on Feb. 27.

Huffman, who was appearing in “Of Mice and Men” at the Old Globe Theatre, had come to the aid of a Canadian couple who surprised Villanueva as he broke into their traveling companions’ motor home. He chased the youth into the canyon, where a group of schoolchildren on a nature walk later found his body.

Villanueva, a small youth who was attending San Diego High School at the time of the killing, testified during the trial that he had no intention of hurting Huffman but was afraid the larger, more athletic man might kill him as they fought.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias argued in his closing statement Thursday that Villanueva’s claim to self-defense lacked merit, and jurors said after returning their verdict that the law left them no choice but to find Villanueva guilty of first-degree murder.

“It was all just black and white,” said juror Virginia Valente of Poway. “We tried to look for holes, and there weren’t any.”

Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund scheduled sentencing for Feb. 5.

Villanueva faces a sentence of 26 years to life on the murder charge, three years on each of two counts of burglary, 18 months for one count of attempted burglary and eight months for resisting arrest, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Allan Williams.

Williams, who put his arm around Villanueva’s shoulders as court clerk Mary Kaneyuki read the verdicts, said he would seek to have the young man placed in the custody of the California Youth Authority. If Williams is successful, Villanueva could be held only until his 25th birthday.

If he were treated as an adult, he would serve a minimum of 12 1/2 years on the murder charge.

“The battle becomes, ‘What happens to the kid?’ ” Williams said.

The defense lawyer said he “fully expected” the jury’s decision. State homicide law “made it virtually impossible for the jury to find any other verdict in this case,” Williams said.

Phyllis Huffman, widow of the Los Angeles actor, left the courtroom without comment. She appeared to be watching Villanueva as the verdict was read.

Huffman was playing bagpipes in his van in a Balboa Park parking lot a little before noon on Feb. 27 when a vacationing Canadian couple saw Villanueva in the doorway of their friends’ motor home parked nearby.

Villanueva, startled by the Canadians’ shouts, rushed away from the burglary scene on foot, while Huffman drove after him. When Villanueva jumped into some bushes and headed into the thickly wooded Palm Canyon, the actor leaped from his van and pursued him.

The youth testified that Huffman yanked him off a fence and wrestled with him at length, until Villanueva pulled a screwdriver from his pants pocket and stabbed Huffman twice in the chest.

Police had no suspects in the case for more than a week, until the Canadian vacationers read a newspaper story about the slaying and realized it was connected to the burglary they had interrupted. Then police discovered that early on the day of the slaying they had picked up Villanueva for burglarizing another vehicle.

Williams argued during the trial that Villanueva was a thief, but not a murderer.

Huffman appeared in films including “The Onion Field,” “The Honor Guard” and “Blood Beach”; on television in “Eleanor and Franklin,” “The Ambassadors” and “In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan”; and on stage in “Butterflies Are Free,” “Quartermaine’s Terms” and “Small-Craft Warnings.”