Man Accused of Killing 3 Says He Was Intimidated

One of two men accused of a 1989 triple slaying in Clairemont testified Monday that he participated because he was afraid of his co-defendant.

Manuel Flores Jr., on trial in Superior Court with Christopher Box, said he slit the throat of one victim and plunged a knife into another after being instructed to do so by Box.

Flores and Box are accused of killing Kevin Morton Chandler, 29; April Louise Gilhousen, 20; and her son, Bryan Robert Gilhousen, 3, on Aug. 9, 1989. The bodies of Chandler and the younger Gilhousen were discovered in separate locations several blocks from their house on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, where they were slain.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lori Rooney contends that Flores and Box killed in order to steal one pound of marijuana and about $2,500 in cash.

In his testimony, the 18-year-old Flores described watching Box pick up a baseball bat and attack Chandler. Box struck the man three times in succession, Flores said.

After Chandler fell to the floor, Flores testified, Box “gave me a box cutter and told me to cut his throat.”

Flores said he followed Box’s instructions because he was “scared,” and because “I thought, if I didn’t do what he’d said, he’d kill me.”

Flores also testified to stabbing April Gilhousen.

Defense attorney Robert Boyce had his client testify in an attempt to demonstrate that he was under the spell of the older Box.

Box’s attorney, Charles Adair, said in his opening statements that Flores concocted his story after his arrest.

Box faces the death penalty if convicted. Flores cannot be sentenced to death because he was a juvenile at the time of the slayings.