WESTMINSTER : Not Guilty Plea Entered in Slaying

A 30-year-old man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he killed an Anaheim youth with a shotgun blast in traffic in Huntington Beach after the two had exchanged insults.

Ronald Lamar Chase, who police said lived out of his car in Fountain Valley, is accused of fatally shooting 19-year-old Steve Escalera.

The shooting occurred about 11 a.m. Dec. 13 as Escalera was riding in a small pickup truck driven by Ralph Clark, 18, of Huntington Beach.

Escalera died at a hospital shortly afterward. Acting on an anonymous tip, police arrested Chase three days later.

Chase remains in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. He is scheduled to return to West Municipal Court here for a preliminary hearing on the charges, which include murder and firing on an inhabited motor vehicle.

Clark and Escalera were driving south on Beach Boulevard near the Garden Grove Freeway when Chase allegedly honked his horn and made an obscene gesture from his car, which was behind Clark’s truck, according to police records.

The dispute continued for five miles to Heil Avenue, where Chase allegedly reached behind his seat and pulled out a pistol-grip shotgun. Clark ducked but the shot hit Escalera in the head.