Fugitive’s Family Nearly Fled, Police Say : Slaying: The parents of a Long Beach youth wanted in the shooting of two deaf Palmdale brothers apparently were making plans to join him in Upstate New York before his arrest.

The family of a Long Beach teen-ager accused of shooting two deaf Palmdale brothers, killing one, may have been preparing to join the fugitive youth in Upstate New York before he was arrested there, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

Detective Michael Brandt said investigators had indications that the Bellinger family was planning to return to New York, where 16-year-old Joey Bellinger was arrested Friday in the Jan. 28 slaying of Cesar Vieira, 30, and the wounding of Vieira’s brother Edward, 25.

The youth’s father, Joseph Paul Bellinger, was arrested Monday on suspicion of helping his son evade arrest. The older Bellinger has been selling furniture from the family’s home and police had unconfirmed information that the family would move soon to the Utica, N.Y., area, Brandt said.

Bellinger and his wife, Phyllis, have relatives in the area, and a teen-age daughter murdered in 1987 is buried there, Brandt said.

The elder Bellinger, 40, is free on $5,000 bail and scheduled to be arraigned March 16 in Long Beach Municipal Court. He has been charged with being an accessory to a felony, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in state prison and a $5,000 fine, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Fork.

Brandt also said police would investigate reports that Phyllis Bellinger asked a woman in the Utica, N.Y., suburb of Cassville to temporarily board her son without mentioning that he was wanted for murder. Joey Bellinger was arrested at the home of the woman, who told a Utica newspaper that she was led to believe the whole family was moving back to the area and that she had no idea Joey Bellinger was a fugitive from the law.

“We’re going to talk to some people back in New York and determine whether there is any merit to a case involving the mother,” said Brandt, adding that police had no hard evidence against her.

The Bellingers’ telephone has been disconnected and neither parent could be reached for comment.

Joey Bellinger appeared Tuesday in Oneida County Court in New York and consented to return to California without an extradition hearing, said Oneida County Dist. Atty. Barry M. Donalty.

Brandt said Joey Bellinger would be returned as soon as possible to Los Angeles, depending on paper work and travel arrangements. Police hoped to have at least two officers in Utica today to escort the youth to Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, Brandt said.

Joey Bellinger was charged with murder in the slaying of Cesar Vieira and attempted murder in the shooting of Edward Vieira during a confrontation near Balboa Boulevard and Devonshire Street in Granada Hills. The shooting allegedly arose from what another occupant of Bellinger’s car told police was a “stare-down contest” at a traffic light.

The Vieira brothers communicated mainly in sign language and had few speaking skills, their family said.