San Juan Man Faces Trial in Beating Case : Courts: Judge’s order comes after graphic testimony from two Laguna officers about alleged gay bashing.

A Municipal Court judge ordered an 18-year-old San Juan Capistrano man Tuesday to stand trial on charges of beating and attempting to kill a 55-year-old man during an alleged gay bashing in Laguna Beach.

A second suspect in the case was formally charged in court Tuesday with aggravated assault and a hate crime violation in connection with the Jan. 9 beating on a rocky stretch of beach near three Laguna Beach gay bars.

After a graphic 90-minute preliminary hearing in South Orange County Municipal Court, Judge Ronald P. Kreber ruled that Jeff Michael Raines, whom police call the main assailant in the beating of Loc Minh Truong, should face trial in Superior Court on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Raines, a senior at San Clemente High School, is also charged with inflicting great bodily injury and committing a hate crime. If convicted on all counts, he could face 15 years in state prison.

The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty, showed little emotion during the hearing, except at one point he turned and looked grimly at his family seated near the back of the courtroom. He remains in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The second suspect, Christopher Michael Cribbins, 22, of San Clemente, was assigned a public defender and allowed to remain free on the $30,000 bail he posted with the help of his family on Jan. 13.

He is scheduled to enter a plea on Tuesday, when Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig McKinnon said he will attempt to increase Cribbins’ bail to $100,000.

During Raines’ preliminary hearing, two Laguna Beach police officers gave graphic testimony about the beating of Truong, of Costa Mesa.

Laguna Beach Police Officer Jason Kravetz said he went to the Mountain Street beach after two witnesses reported a fight. On a rocky section of the beach, Kravetz said he found the unconscious victim lying face up, with his left eye partially hanging out of its socket and a rock lodged three-quarters of an inch in the back of his head.

“As soon as I walked up to him, his body started shaking violently,” Kravetz testified. “He was taking shallow breaths. I really couldn’t tell what nationality he was at the time, his face was so badly beaten.”

Another officer, Laguna Beach Detective Richard John Seapin, testified that witnesses told authorities that Raines and Cribbins went to the beach specifically looking to beat up a homosexual. The witnesses didn’t testify Tuesday.

One of the witnesses, a 16-year-old classmate of Raines’ who was on the beach but wasn’t involved in the beating, told police he heard Raines call the victim a “faggot” and threatened “to beat your ass.”

According to police reports, Raines, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound ex-football player, said he struck and kicked Truong several times because the man, who is 5-foot-6, 120 pounds, had cursed at his friend. He denied to police that he attacked the man because he thought he was gay.

Other witnesses who were drawn to the scene by the commotion later identified Raines as the man they saw kicking the victim on the rocks, Kravetz testified.

According to the officer, a witness told of seeing Raines kick the victim at least three times in the head. “He never once saw this person fight back,” Kravetz said.

Raines’ attorney, Frederick McBride, argued in court that there was no evidence that the suspect attempted to kill Truong. He also disputed the testimony of the 16-year-old witness, whom McBride described as an accomplice who lied to police about the beating during two interviews.

But the judge agreed with prosecutor McKinnon, saying that the force of the blows could show an intent to kill.

“He directed all this force to the victim’s head, a particularly vulnerable area,” McKinnon said. “He used such force, it literally impaled the victim’s head on a rock.”

Raines will be arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 16.

Meanwhile, Truong is still at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he is listed in good condition.