ORANGE : Witness Tells About Dana Beach Slaying

Moments before fatally shooting 18-year-old Robert James Elliott on a crowded Dana Strand Beach last September, Christian Aaron Steffens warned the victim, “Don’t come on this beach or I’ll kill you,” a witness testified during a Juvenile Court hearing on Monday.

Steffens, of Laguna Niguel, who was 16 at the time, aimed a gun at the victim and placed his finger on the trigger as he pleaded with Elliott to get off the beach and leave him alone, according to the testimony of Bruce Donald Woodcock, 21, who witnessed the shooting.

“Do you remember Christian saying, ‘I don’t want to shoot you; just get away from me’?”Deputy Public Defender Mary Derby asked Woodcock.

“Yes,” he replied.

Before opening testimony in the hearing to determine if Steffens should stand trial as an adult, Derby said she would attempt to show that Steffens acted in self-defense and feared Elliott and his friends because of a feud that went back to the eighth grade.

Sometime last May, Derby said in an interview, Steffens’ bedroom window was shot at several times with a pellet gun.

Derby added that witnesses are expected to testify about other incidents leading up to the shooting, including vandalism of Elliott’s pickup truck, a fistfight between Steffens and Elliott three days before Elliott was killed, followed by threats made against Steffens in his high school classroom by two of Elliott’s friends.

Derby said she would argue that Steffens did not act with “criminal sophistication,” had no prior record and “would be amenable to Juvenile Court rehabilitation services.”

In a short opening statement to Judge Robert B. Hutson, Derby said the shooting was not “your run-of-the-mill” violence. “It’s not so serious as it may appear,” she added.

Woodcock, who was the only witness to testify Monday, said Elliott, a Capistrano Beach resident, was standing on a bluff overlooking the beach and demanding payment for the broken windows of his pickup truck. The witness said Steffens looked scared and told Elliott, “Stop beating me up or I’m going to shoot you. I didn’t break your windows.”

The witness said Elliott, with his arms outstretched, smiled and said, “Go ahead and shoot me.”

Following the verbal exchange, Woodcock testified, Steffens lowered the gun, picked up his belongings and began walking away from Elliott. About a minute later, Woodcock said, Elliott began to give chase. As Elliott neared Steffens, Woodcock testified, the defendant turned around, dropped to his knee and fired the fatal shot.

During questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernadette Cemore, Woodcock said that Elliott stopped running as soon as he saw Steffens turn around and aim the gun a second time.

Woodcock said Elliott was not wearing a shirt and did not appear to have a weapon.

“Did you see any weapons in his hands?” Cemore asked Woodcock.

“No,” he replied.