2 Teens Charged in Murder-for-Hire Plot

A pair of Escondido teen-agers were charged Friday with carrying out a murder-for-hire scheme in which the estranged husband of a teacher’s aide at the boys’ high school was stabbed to death.

Prosecutors say the two youths, ages 14 and 15, made statements implicating themselves in the killing of Robert (Wayne) Pearce, 40, outside his Cardiff apartment complex Jan. 31.

Pearce’s wife, Roberta, 41, pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that she planned the murder of her husband. Prosecutors suspect the woman hatched the scheme because of concern that her divorce settlement would force her to sell the home the couple had shared in Valley Center.

The two students, both freshmen at Orange Glen High School, were arrested at a friend’s house Thursday morning and transferred to the Vista sheriff’s substation.

Because of their age, both will be tried as juveniles and face a maximum sentence of imprisonment in a California Youth Authority facility until age 25. The pair were being held Friday at Juvenile Hall in San Diego.

Neither boy was a student in Pearce’s special education class at the high school nor was involved with the special education program, but prosecutors hinted that they may have been among a number of students who used to spend time at the woman’s house.

Aside from the murder charges, the boys also face charges of assault with a deadly weapon. The 14-year-old allegedly wielded a knife in the attack, while the 15-year-old allegedly used a hatchet to kill the construction foreman.

Wayne Pearce was struck down by a pair of assailants early one morning last month as he was leaving for work. He dragged himself back to his apartment, where he described his attackers to a roommate. He died later at Palomar Hospital.

Authorities say a knife used in the attack matches a set found in Roberta Pearce’s kitchen. Another high school student overheard the two boys discuss the plot with Pearce on several occasions in the weeks before her husband’s death, prosecutors say.

The pair face a detention hearing, the Juvenile Court equivalent of an arraignment, on Tuesday. Pearce goes to court in Vista the same day for a bail-review hearing.