Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Shortage of Courts Nearly Sends Palmdale Trial to Norwalk : Justice: The case will be tried in San Fernando after officials intervene. The episode points up the need for a new Antelope Valley facility.

The trial of four men accused of launching a gunshot-punctuated mini-crime spree in the Antelope Valley is due to begin here today after court officials rescinded a controversial decision to send the case to a court in distant Norwalk.

In an episode that illustrates how much the Antelope Valley needs its planned new courthouse complex, the more than 20 witnesses in the expected three-week trial now will only face 45-mile commutes to San Fernando each day instead of 75-mile, three-hour one-way trips to Norwalk.

Prosecutors who had fought the case’s transfer Tuesday to Norwalk said they were satisfied with the outcome. “That’s about as far away as they could have put it. It would have been a nightmare to coordinate all the witnesses,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John Spillane said.

Four men, described by authorities as having gang affiliations, will be tried on an array on charges stemming from a June 2 smash-and-grab jewelry store robbery at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale that netted $700,000 in merchandise, and an ensuing chase, two shootouts and a carjacking.

Problems arose Tuesday when the case was called for trial in Lancaster Superior Court, which serves the entire Antelope Valley. Because its two criminal courts were already in the midst of murder trials, Judge Haig Kehiayan had to transfer the case somewhere else.

Such spillover cases normally are sent to the nearest Superior Courts in San Fernando or Van Nuys. But court officials said they had no room there either after a defense attorney in the case disqualified one available judge, and the prosecutor disqualified the other.

So Kehiayan transferred the case Tuesday to the Norwalk court, setting off the protests. Spillane, the head prosecutor in Lancaster, said he had feared witnesses would need buses or local hotels had the case gone to Norwalk.

Now, San Fernando Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey will handle the trial of Jabarr Abdul Wheeler, 20, of Compton; Lamont Terrell Craig, 23, of Hawthorne; Darnell Du-Shyne Sullivan, 25, of Los Angeles, and Clyde R. Hayes, 28, of Louisiana on robbery, assault and other charges.

Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann, supervising judge over the San Fernando and Lancaster courts who helped retrieve the case, called the Norwalk episode “an aberration” caused by the attorneys disqualifying the two judges. Ashmann also said she was not initially aware of the large number of witnesses involved in the case.

But judges and court officials agreed that the Antelope Valley, with a population of nearly 300,000, has far outgrown having only two Superior Courts for criminal trials. And Antelope Valley cases increasingly are being transferred to San Fernando or Van Nuys as a result.

Also, fewer of the high-profile criminal cases in the Antelope Valley appear to be getting settled through plea bargain agreements, meaning more are going to trial. Spillane said his office has handled 45 Superior Court trials thus far this year and expects 60 by year’s end, compared to 30 all last year.

The planned new courthouse on Avenue M in Lancaster, expected to cost more than $80 million, will be a five-story building with room for nine Superior Courts, six Municipal Courts and chambers for 21 judges. Construction is due to start next year, with completion set for 1996.