Witness Says Prostitute Killed After Sex Deal : Crime: Two Marines charged in slaying of Oceanside transvestite. Third Marine testifies that the murder suspect told him about the killing.

The December killing of an Oceanside transvestite prostitute was the result of a sexual transaction gone awry, a witness testified during a preliminary hearing.

Jeffrey Todd Hammons, 24, and Todd Alan Thornton, 25, both Marine corporals from Camp Pendleton who served in Desert Storm, were charged Friday in Vista Municipal Court with murder and robbery in the shooting death of Carlos Santiago, an Oceanside transvestite prostitute.

In the preliminary hearing, Steven Buckley, a Marine lance corporal, testified that Thornton told him that Hammons paid Santiago $18 to go into an Oceanside alley and have oral sex with him. However, when they were unable to complete the sex act, Hammons got angry, Thornton purportedly told Buckley.

Buckley testified that Thornton confessed to him that he and Hammons then went to Hammons’ house to get a gun.

“He (Hammons) said he was going to go back to find that girl and get his money back,” said Buckley, 21, who had been out drinking with Thornton and Hammons the night of the murder but did not witness the shooting.

Hammons and Thornton found Santiago, also known as Carlos Santana and Tasha, at a phone booth on North Hill Street, Buckley said Thornton told him.

They pulled up next to Santiago, and Hammons, who was driving, drew a .44-caliber revolver and shot him, Buckley said Thornton told him.

Santiago had been phoning the Oceanside police when Thornton and Hammons pulled up. Santiago had been put on hold “less than a minute” when the incident occurred, police said earlier.

Hammons and Thornton, who were arrested May 22, were bound over for trial in Superior Court on July 8.

Hammons’ attorney, David Rawson of the county’s public defender’s office, said, outside the courtroom, that scientific evidence of the powder burns from the gunshot rules out his client as the killer.

“Mr. Hammons’ statement to the police was that Mr. Thornton picked up the gun and fired it out the window . . . and he stands by that statement,” Rawson said.

Rawson, however, was unable to say what Thornton’s motive would be for the killing.

Hammons is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. Thornton’s bail was reduced to $250,000.

Thornton has cooperated with the authorities, including videotaping a re-enactment of the crime, according to his attorney, Herbert Weston.

“He knew about the charges months ago and the possible consequences. . . . If he wanted to flee the charges, he would have done so a considerable time ago,” Weston told the court, pointing out that Thornton had spent two months in Saudi Arabia, where he could have fled.

Judge Donald Rudloff said he will consider lowering Thornton’s bail further after expected testimony from Thornton’s Marine commander at a later bail-reduction hearing.