Dana Point Youth Given 17 Years to Life in Slaying : Punishment: New trial denied for Christian Steffens, 17, in second-degree murder of Robert Elliott, 18.

A Dana Point youth was denied a new trial and sentenced to 17 years to life in jail for the fatal shooting of another teen-ager on a crowded Dana Point beach last year.

Christian Steffens, 17, was sentenced Wednesday following his conviction in June of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Robert Elliott, 18, of Dana Point.

During the hearing, Juvenile Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno issued a sentence on the murder conviction, despite arguments from Steffens’ attorney that the verdict should be reduced to manslaughter.

Briseno’s decision essentially means that Steffens could be jailed at a California Youth Authority facility until his 25th birthday. However his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Marri Derby, said Steffens is expected to be released in seven years.

Derby immediately filed a notice of appeal in an attempt to get the verdict and sentence reversed.

According to testimony presented at the trial last spring, Steffens and Elliott had an ongoing feud and a fistfight at the beach a few days before the shooting.

Derby argued that Steffens carried the gun for protection and fired at Elliott after the victim and a friend confronted him on the beach. Derby maintained that Steffens acted in self-defense after being chased by Elliott for several hundred yards.

In a written appeal that sought a new hearing or a reduction of the verdict, Derby argued that the prosecution did not “produce substantial evidence, let alone prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Steffens was not in fear of death or grave bodily injury.”

But the judge rejected the argument.

Initially shocked by the judge’s June verdict in the case, Derby said Thursday that she was disappointed but not surprised by the sentence.

“I think that he had his mind made up and was not going to back down,” she said. “They never answered the crucial issue . . . was there evidence that Christian was not afraid (of Elliott). There was no way that was proven.”

Derby previously stated that prosecutors had offered to let her client plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and effectively serve a four-year term at a Youth Authority facility. But she said the proposal was rejected after discussions with Steffens’ family members, who believed that he fired in self-defense.