San Diego

Four San Diego area men were ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges that they conspired to kill an Oklahoma attorney who had sued one of them for $1.7 million.

Robert Brian Boeckman, 27, who works for a Clairemont energy company as a financial adviser, is accused of hiring Vernon James, 33, and Patrick Innie, 35, both of Ocean Beach, and Charles Worack, 42, of Clairemont, to commit a murder.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Lewis said it was believed that James fired a shotgun blast at Robert Barr III, 45, on Aug. 7. Barr survived the wounds to his face, arm, back, neck and leg. The blast went through Barr’s bedroom window at his Dover, Okla., home.

C. Logan McKechnie, attorney for Boeckman, was jailed for three hours Nov. 20 for contempt of court after he failed to tell the judge that Boeckman could not hear two hours of testimony because of a severe hearing disability. The contempt of court charge was later purged.

A key witness who testified Tuesday was United Press International reporter Kristina Rebelo, who said she alerted police Aug. 2--five days before the shooting--to the alleged plot after learning of it from an Ocean Beach man.

Boeckman and James are free on $50,000 bail, but Innie and Worack remain in County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail. The defendants have pleaded innocent to the charges.