Dealer Found Guilty of Killing UCI Athlete Over Cocaine

A drug dealer was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for killing former UC Irvine tennis star Stephen Aniston in a dispute over a $20 bindle of cocaine.

Jurors deliberated a day and a half before convicting Ehriberto Arcelara, 27, of murder and other charges. He could be imprisoned for 27 years to life when he is sentenced April 17.

Key evidence came from three people accused of drug dealing but who won freedom from those charges in return for testifying against Arcelara.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King described Aniston to jurors as a drug addict without money who got his drugs from Arcelara. It was when Aniston tried to drive away without paying that Arcelara stabbed him in the heart on Sept. 21, 1990, King contended.

When the Huntington Beach police saw the bindle of cocaine in the dead man’s car--he had managed to drive at least a mile from the scene--they suspected he had come from Beach Boulevard and Utica Avenue, known for drug-dealing activity.

Police later set up an undercover operation, buying drugs in that area and arresting the dealers. They rounded up more than a dozen suspects and questioned them about the Aniston killing.

Three told the police that Arcelara told them he had killed Aniston. One cooperated with authorities and, fitted with a hidden recorder, heard Arcelara say that he had just “taken care of” someone who had not paid.

But under evidence rules, King could not produce the statements of the alleged drug dealers connecting Arcelara to the crime unless they agreed to testify against him in open court. All of them had refused to testify at a preliminary hearing and pledged to continue their silence at the trial.

Four hours before opening statements were to take place, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against the drug suspects.

“We told the jury up front what we had to do,” King said. “There were no winks or nods with these guys. We simply had to let them go to get what we needed. But I predict they’ll be back on the street selling cocaine again and will probably get arrested.”

Arcelara attorney Diana Polos argued to the jurors that if Arcelara was the attacker, it was self-defense. Two of the three drug suspects who testified told police that Arcelara had made some claims of self-defense.

But Polos also attacked them as unreliable witnesses who knew they would be getting a deal from prosecutors.

Several of the jurors, however, told King later that they understood why he had to bargain with them.

The jurors also found Arcelara guilty of selling cocaine.

When he is sentenced by Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon, he faces possibly 27 years to life in prison, which includes five years for the cocaine conviction, and an extra five years for violating his parole from a previous drug conviction.