One Assailant in Fatal Stabbing Is Identified

A man who was stabbed in the head during an attack that resulted in the fatal stabbing of a student in Hillcrest last December identified one man in court Monday as the knife-wielding killer.

However, Bryan Joshua Baird, like three other victims in the case, was unable to positively identify another man also accused of being an assailant.

The testimony came in the middle of a preliminary hearing for Eddie Barton, 25, and Michael Allen Dipaolo, 24. The pair are accused of murdering John Robert Wear, a San Carlos High School student, as he walked to a coffeehouse with two friends Dec. 13.

Baird, 19, who suffered a superficial wound on his scalp after being beaten during the attack, calmly pointed out Barton as the man who held the knife after Wear crumpled to the ground.

Baird testified that he was walking with his two friends toward University Avenue when Barton and another man approached and began beating and kicking him and Wear. During the unprovoked attack, one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed Wear, according to the testimony.

“I remember the knife coming away from John, from his stomach,” Baird said.

Two other men were beaten the same night in attacks prosecutors say were punctuated by anti-homosexual comments.

Although Wear was not gay, the apparently anti-homosexual killing caused an uproar in the Hillcrest community, where residents began to stage rallies after others were assaulted.