Pair Ordered to Trial Over June Party-Crashing, Assault

A Ventura County judge on Friday ordered two Thousand Oaks men to stand trial on charges that they crashed a party attended by gang rivals in June and assaulted them with a knife and a three-foot stick.

Municipal Judge Steven Hintz, after hearing testimony that the victims initially lied to police about their attackers, said he believes most of the witnesses should be in jail themselves.

Nevertheless, Hintz ruled that he believes the victims told the truth in court Friday when they identified Jason E. Powers, 18, and Dennis A. Jackson, 19, as the men who broke into the house on June 30 and assaulted them in an apparently unprovoked attack.

Powers and Jackson, who are free on bail, each are charged with assault and burglary in the attack. In addition, Jackson is charged with inflicting great bodily injury by allegedly stabbing Damien Domaloan, 21.

Powers is accused of hitting David Dixon with the stick.

Witnesses at the three-hour preliminary hearing testified they were watching television at a home in the 2800 block of Columbine Court in Thousand Oaks when a group of men armed with various weapons broke down the locked door and began to attack party-goers.

The attackers were yelling a slogan associated with the Old School Family gang, the witnesses testified. Some of the party-goers belonged to the Houston Hoods, according to court testimony.

Attorneys for the defendants attacked the witnesses’ identifications of Jackson and Powers and implied that those testifying in court decided after consulting with each other who they would name as the assailants. The witnesses denied that.

Dixon, who said he belongs to the Houston Hoods, testified he lied to police when he initially said he did not know who the stabber was.

“We were thinking of taking it into our own hands,” Dixon said, adding that the gang members made a “group decision” to identify Jackson and let police handle the matter.

Domaloan, who yawned frequently while he was on the witness stand and was admonished by the judge several times to speak up when answering questions, testified that he also refused to identify Jackson to police “ ‘cause I wanted him.”

Asked by defense attorney Robert Schwartz whether he wanted to kill Jackson, Domaloan replied that he intended to “just beat him up.”

Both Dixon and Domaloan testified that Jackson was attacked by the party-goers after he stabbed Domaloan in the neck, forehead and right hand. Powers had to carry Jackson out of the house following the beating, according to Brian A. Coffin, who was hosting the party.

During the brawl, the dining room table was upended, holes were left in the walls and the molding around the door was torn off, the witnesses said.

The hearing was attended by several teen-agers, who were watched closely by a handful of sheriff’s deputies who were stationed on both sides of the courtroom.

Powers and Jackson were ordered to appear in Superior Court on Aug. 13.