‘Gay-Bashing’ Nets Maximum Sentences for 3

A judge in Santa Ana handed three young neo-Nazi skinheads the maximum possible sentences Friday in a “gay-bashing” attack on a man in a Laguna Beach park last summer.

Accusing the three of a “wolf pack” mentality, Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner sentenced Aaron F. Compean, 18, who assaulted the victim with a lead pipe, to seven years in prison. John M. Moore, 23, received four years and eight months for assault and attempted robbery, and Stephen Walther, 18, was sentenced to four years.

The three men, all from Huntington Beach, attacked 48-year-old Robert Joyce as he walked along the coastal cliffs. But, the jury that convicted them of assault charges two months ago rejected prosecutors’ contention that the crime was attempted murder, which could have carried a 15-year sentence.

Remorse Claimed

At a sentencing hearing before Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner in Santa Ana, defense attorneys said the men were extremely remorseful and asked the judge for less than the maximum sentences.

The judge said, however, that he found the crime “especially offensive because of its wolf pack modus operandi . . . beating (the victim) seriously for no comprehensible reason.”

Compean’s attorney, Gene E. Dorney, asked the judge to consider that Compean was the only one of the three not wearing steel-pointed shoes.

“He didn’t have to,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef said. “He was the one with the pipe.”

Compean and Walther could have been eligible to serve their sentences at the California Youth Authority. Their attorneys said, however, that both wanted to go to state prison.