2 Escondido Teen-Agers Face Trial : Innocent Pleas in Murder-for-Hire Case

A pair of Escondido teen-agers pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that they killed the estranged husband of a teacher’s aide at their high school as part of a murder-for-hire scheme.

Juvenile Court Judge Sheridan Reed ordered the two 15-year-old youths held at Juvenile Hall pending trial for the killing of Robert (Wayne) Pearce, 40, outside his Cardiff apartment complex Jan. 31.

The pair sat quietly through the short detention hearing at the Juvenile Court facility in San Diego before being led back to jail. They face a readiness hearing Feb. 24.

Authorities suspect that the two youths, both freshmen at Orange Glen High School in Escondido, carried out the killing at the behest of Pearce’s wife, Roberta.

Assault Charges

Prosecutors contend that the 41-year-old woman, a special education aide at the high school, hatched the plot to kill her husband because of concern that she would be forced as part of a divorce settlement to sell the sprawling tile-roofed house the couple had shared in Valley Center.

Aside from the murder charges, the youths face charges of assault with a deadly weapon. One boy allegedly wielded a knife in the attack, while the other is charged with using a hatchet to kill the construction foreman.

Wayne Pearce was struck down by a pair of assailants early on Jan. 31 as he was leaving for work. He dragged himself back to his apartment, where he described his attackers to a roommate. Pearce was rushed by Life Flight helicopter to Palomar Hospital, but he died of his wounds.

Although neither boy was a student in Roberta Pearce’s class, prosecutors suspect they may have been among a number of students who would regularly spend time at the Valley Center home.

Trial May Be Delayed

Carlos Armour, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case against the two teen-agers, said a trial will likely be delayed for weeks because of the volumes of evidence that defense attorneys will have to review.

That evidence includes about 12 hours of taped interviews made by investigators while questioning the youths after they were arrested last Wednesday in Escondido. Prosecutors say the pair made statements implicating themselves in the killing of Pearce.

Roberta Pearce also went to court Tuesday, appearing in Vista Municipal Court for a bail review hearing. She was ordered held without bail and will remain in custody until a preliminary hearing March 27.

Prosecutors are still considering whether to seek a conviction against Pearce for murder with special circumstances, which could result in the teacher’s aide facing the death sentence.

The two teen-agers, meanwhile, both will be tried as juveniles because of their age, and face a maximum sentence of imprisonment in a California Youth Authority facility until age 25.