Youth, 17, to Be Tried for Fatal Shooting of Classmate : Crime: A judge rejects Richard Bourassa’s version of Christian Wiedepuhl’s death. The defendant killed another young friend in 1986.

A judge Thursday ordered 17-year-old Richard H. Bourassa Jr. to stand trial on a murder charge stemming from the shooting death of his friend, the second classmate killed by Bourassa in his home since 1986.

In her decision, North Orange County Municipal Judge Margaret R. Anderson said that Bourassa’s explanation of the May 24 shooting of Christian Wiedepuhl, 17, was “rather an incredible version” of the events. She called Bourassa’s statements about being unfamiliar with guns “totally unbelievable.”

Anderson’s comments came at the end of a four-day preliminary hearing to decide if there was enough evidence to try the former Canyon High School student.

In explaining her ruling, Anderson referred to the sometimes dramatic testimony of three friends who said that Bourassa frequently handled firearms and had pointed guns at them before Wiedepuhl was slain.

“I was appalled beyond belief that he had been playing with a shotgun that he had killed another human being with,” Anderson said.

On Sept. 13, 1986, Bourassa fatally wounded Jeffrey A. Bush, 13, while the two were allegedly playing with a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle. The shooting, which occurred the same hour of day and in the same room as Wiedepuhl’s death, was ruled an accident by police. There was no witness, the same as with the Wiedepuhl shooting.

Edward W. Hall, Bourassa’s attorney, said the youth and his family were disappointed by the ruling. As with most preliminary hearings, the defense did not present a case. Nonetheless, Bourassa has maintained that the shooting was accidental.

Dressed in a navy blue T-shirt and jeans, Bourassa appeared in court with his ankles shackled. After the hearing, he was returned to Orange County Jail, where he has been held since a Juvenile Court judge ruled that he should face charges as an adult. His bail was set at $100,000.

Earlier Thursday, Hall sought to avoid a trial by having Bourassa plead guilty to a manslaughter charge, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper. She explained that she discussed the plea with her supervisors, basically to spare both families the ordeal of a trial, but ultimately decided against it because she believes that she has a strong murder case.

Hall declined to comment on the plea arrangement Harper described. Bourassa will be arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on Nov. 29.

The dramatic preliminary hearing began last Tuesday and was occasionally punctuated by the sobs of the latest victim’s father, Richard Wiedepuhl, who shared the same side of the courtroom as Bourassa’s mother and stepfather, Nancy and Tom Baldwin. They never spoke.

Evidence ranged from technical analysis of gun residue and ballistics to testimony from fellow teen-agers about Bourassa’s interest in guns and his videotaped interviews with police. In one tape, he re-enacted the shooting.

In that and a second videotaped interview, Bourassa told police that Wiedepuhl pulled out a .38-caliber pistol from his parents’ bedroom closet and was shot after Bourassa took it away from him.

Bourassa has said that he was pointing the gun downward when Wiedepuhl reached to pick up a holster from the carpet and that the pistol accidentally discharged. He maintained that he knew little about guns.

Harper, however, has alleged that Bourassa took the gun out of his parents’ headboard and, in a form of Russian roulette, shot Wiedepuhl once above the right eye. Rather than one bullet, the pistol’s cylinder held four rounds, she said, and Bourassa, who is dyslexic, might have mistakenly assumed that the hammer would fall on an empty chamber when he pulled the trigger.

Perhaps more important, the evidence suggested major contradictions between the testimony of Bourassa’s friends and Bourassa’s taped statements to police that he did not know how to use a gun.

Mike Roberts, a classmate, said in court that Bourassa pulled a BB gun from a closet at Roberts’ home and pointed it at him. Another friend, Anthony Cordova, said Bourassa loaded and unloaded his stepfather’s .38-caliber pistol, before pointing it at him and saying, “Boom.”

Another time, Cordova said, he and Bourassa played with the shotgun and rifle that Bourassa and Bush allegedly pointed at each other before Bush was fatally wounded with the shotgun.

A schoolmate, Nicholas Bouse, 17, testified that he saw Bourassa playing with a gun about six months before Wiedepuhl’s death. Bouse said he had climbed onto a second-floor window sill of Bourassa’s home and peered through the window.

He testified that he saw Bourassa walking toward him with the .38-caliber pistol. When Bourassa reached the window, he pointed the gun at the center of Bouse’s forehead, according to his testimony.

Hall did not dispute the witnesses’ statements in court but later said Bourassa might have been acting in self-defense when he saw Bouse at the window.