Man to Stand Trial on Charges He Tried to Sell Illegal Guns : Simi Valley: An undercover sheriff’s deputy says the firearms-show promoter offered prohibited weapons to him.

A Simi Valley gun-show promoter was ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges that he offered to sell illegal weapons to an undercover agent.

After hearing a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy describe the alleged deal, Ventura County Municipal Judge Thomas J. Hutchins ruled that there was enough evidence to warrant a trial for Steven R. Breitel.

Breitel, 46, was arrested early Oct. 8 shortly after he left his home in Simi Valley’s Indian Hills subdivision. The arrest culminated several days of negotiations in which Breitel allegedly offered to sell illegal weapons to the undercover officer and then backed out of the deal, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing Thursday.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy John W. Kiess testified that during the week before the arrest, an unidentified intermediary called several times and said he had heard that Kiess was interested in buying guns. Later, Kiess said, he received several pager alerts directing him to call a Simi Valley number, which he said turned out to be Breitel’s home phone.

Kiess said the man who answered the phone identified himself as Steve and said he could provide automatic weapons, which are illegal in California. In talks with the intermediary, Kiess said he was quoted a price of $1,700 for an AK-47 assault rifle and was told that other weapons also would be available.

But when Kiess called back Oct. 7 and said he had raised $20,000 for the purchase, Breitel told him that he no longer had the weapons, the investigator said.

Outside court, Kiess said Breitel called off the deal because he suspected that it was part of a police undercover operation. Kiess added that Breitel had made arrangements to sell the weapons to a Los Angeles street gang.

Kiess obtained a search warrant and had deputies stake out the Indian Hills house. When Breitel was arrested, deputies searched his van and found a 9-millimeter pistol and magnum revolver with a laser sight hidden in a picnic cooler, Kiess said. At the house, investigators found five safes and several filing cabinets containing sporting rifles, pistols, shotguns and gun parts, he said.

Few if any of those weapons were illegal, Kiess conceded on cross-examination by Breitel’s attorney, Richard W. Hanawalt. But while searching the house investigators also found records indicating that Breitel had an office in an industrial section of Simi Valley. After obtaining a second search warrant, deputies went to the office and found a cache of illegal arms in a safe, Kiess said.

The deputies seized two AK-47s, several other assault rifles, seven automatic pistols and nearly 50 other weapons, plus numerous weapons parts, a silencer and 23 boxes of ammunition.

Breitel is charged with possessing a machine gun, offering a machine gun for sale, illegally converting a machine gun, possessing a silencer and offering a prohibited assault gun for sale. He is being held at the Ventura County Jail on bail of $250,000. Arraignment is set for Dec. 5 before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath.