Ex-UCI Student, Co-Defendant Convicted in Balboa Murder

A Superior Court jury has convicted former UC Irvine student Heather Rene Rose and a co-conspirator of first-degree murder in the September, 1989, shooting death of her next-door neighbor.

The shooting stemmed from a love spat between Rose, 22, and her former boyfriend, Brent Claxton, authorities said. The murdered man, John Fahey, 21, Claxton’s roommate, was an innocent bystander caught in the violence, police said.

Rose’s co-defendant, Stanley Frank Anaya, 21, of San Pedro, was also found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges, but the jury disagreed as to whether Anaya actually fired the fatal shot.

The defendants are scheduled to return before Superior Court Judge Ragnar R. Engebretsen for Feb. 19 sentencing. They each face 25 years to life in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr. told the jury that Rose was the catalyst who had “started the ball rolling” by calling on her “gang friends” to engage in an attack that led to Fahey being clubbed and shot to death on a dimly lit Balboa Peninsula street on Sept. 30, 1989.

According to witnesses, Fahey and Claxton were leaving their apartment to buy beer when Rose’s friends attacked them with baseball bats. Several attackers were also armed with handguns, witnesses testified.

Claxton escaped, but Fahey was chased down Balboa Boulevard, beaten and fatally shot in the chest.

Police said Rose and Claxton had had an argument that morning, which later led to a fistfight between Rose and Claxton’s other roommate, Jennifer McCarty. During that altercation, McCarty had punched and bruised Rose’s face.

Later, Rose called a friend, Richard Nogawa, an alleged gang leader from Carson, to ask for protection and revenge, police said.

When Nogawa and his friends saw Claxton and Fahey leave the apartment, they grabbed baseball bats and other weapons and followed them. Prosecutors said Fahey was an innocent victim.