5 Youths Indicted in Fatal Drive-By Shooting

The Orange County Grand Jury on Thursday indicted five South County youths on murder charges in connection with a drive-by shooting that killed a 17-year-old boy in the bedroom of his Lake Forest home, prosecutors said.

The five, all of whom are in custody, were also indicted on a charge of conspiracy to shoot into an inhabited dwelling, prosecutors said.

The defendants are: Carl Edward Stewart, 18, of Laguna Hills; Matthew Lloyd Conant, 19, of Mission Viejo; Christopher Michael Womack, 19, of Mission Viejo; Jason Paul Legare, 19, of Lake Forest; and a 17-year-old who was not identified because of his age.

Arraignment of the defendants was set for Monday, after which the 17-year-old will be remanded to the Juvenile Court to determine whether he should be tried as an adult, prosecutors said.

The victim, Bylan Hanna, was fatally wounded in the lower abdomen in the early hours of Dec. 29 as he was in his bedroom talking with his brothers and friends.

According to court documents, one of the defendants fired three shots toward the Hanna house on Palmek Circle from a red Camaro in which all five were riding.

The incident was sparked by a scuffle between Bylan’s older brother Xavier, 20, and one of the defendants at a party several days earlier, police said.

Another defendant told police that he and some of the accused were members of a gang in Lake Forest and that they believed that the Hanna brothers were members of a rival gang.

But Xavier Hanna, in an earlier interview with The Times, denied that he and his brother were a part of the gang, saying they became friends of some members while attending junior high school in Anaheim.