6 Charged With Murder in O.C. Spearing Death

Four teen-agers and two adults were charged with murder Wednesday, one day after the death of a San Clemente High School senior who was speared through the head with a paint-roller rod.

Orange County Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas H. Woodsmall, who heads the gang unit, declined to discuss the case in any detail, but said the new charges are supported by the evidence.

Steve Woods, 17, was critically injured Oct. 15 at Calafia Beach County Park after a late-night confrontataion between the teen-ager’s friends--who went to the park after a football game--and the alleged assailants, whom police describe as gang members and associates.

The tragedy has outraged South County residents and led to stepped-up gang patrols and arrests in San Clemente on recent weekends.

Defense attorney Shirley MacDonald, who represents one of the juveniles arrested in the Woods attack, said she believes prosecutors are “overcharging” the defendants because of the widespread attention the bizarre case has received. She has called the attack a freak accident.

“At the most, if anything, it should be manslaughter,” MacDonald said. “The facts of the case just don’t support a murder charge, first or second (degree). I’m sure pressure from the community, family, etc., is involved.”

The adults charged in the attack are Arturo Villalobos, 20, and Juan Enriquez Alcocer, 20, both of San Clemente. Woodsmall said he also will seek to try the four juveniles as adults.

Woodsmall said all six defendants still face additional felony assault charges, in addition to the murder charges.

The complaint does not specify whether prosecutors will seek first- or second-degree murder charges. If convicted of first-degree murder, the defendants face possible prison sentences of 25 years to life.

Some legal experts say pursuing first-degree murder convictions in the case will be difficult. Others said the youths will be lucky if they are convicted only of second-degree murder because their actions were so dangerous.

“If they’re going to go for first degree, there is no way they’re going to get that,” said Prof. Jeremy Miller, who teaches criminal law at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton. “It sounds more like a second-degree (murder) or something that you can plead down to involuntary manslaughter.”

Miller said a first-degree murder conviction requires evidence of deliberation and intent to kill, which can be difficult to prove if defense attorneys argue the attack was a bizarre accident that arose out of a chaotic fight.

Woodsmall declined to discuss the Woods case in detail but said certain murder theories do not require such a high burden of proof. A person could be convicted of second-degree murder, for example, if an inherently dangerous act lead to a death, even if the death was unintended, he said.

The adults are being held in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Nov. 23. A Nov. 30 hearing is set to determine whether the teens should be tried as adults.

According to Orange County Sheriff’s Department reports, the attack occurred after the two groups of youths began arguing in a parking lot. Woods and his friends were driving from the parking lot when the alleged assailants began throwing items at their car, including at least two paint roller rods, investigators said.

Woods was inside the moving car when one of the rods pierced his skull, entering above his ear and passing through his brain. Reinforcing the senseless nature of the youth’s death are law enforcement suspicions that the fight broke out because one of the defendants claimed one of Woods’ companions had given him “the finger” the day before.

Woods fell into a coma and never recovered, despite a constant bedside vigil kept up by friends and relatives. The attack has mobilized San Clemente, where meetings, marches and demonstrations have been held to protest gangs and youth violence.

To counteract the violence, sheriff’s deputies this weekend will renew the crackdown on suspected gang members in South County that led to 44 arrests last weekend, a sheriff’s spokesman said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Sullivan, chief of police services in San Juan Capistrano, said 16 deputies from the department Gang Enforcement Team will aggressively patrol known gang areas on Friday and Saturday.

“We’re strictly high visibility,” Sullivan said. “Our officers are wearing uniforms, using black and white patrol cars, and shining all our lights when we make stops.”

The detail, which consists of eight deputies assigned to San Clemente and eight assigned to San Juan Capistrano, was ordered in the wake of the area’s second gang-related shooting within a week. But the gang enforcement patrols actually began on a much smaller scale the weekend of Oct. 15, after the Woods attack, said Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Davis, chief of police services in San Clemente.

Davis said that, the weekend after the Woods attack, a gang enforcement team of 12 deputies made 30 arrests, including five felonies.

“We also conducted 83 field interviews,” Davis said. “We asked (suspected gang members) who they are, why were they in this area, what they were doing, and took notes with their physical description.”

The patrols were resumed last weekend, on Friday and Saturday nights, after two San Clemente youths were wounded in separate drive-by shootings, Sullivan said.

The shootings and the attack on Woods were unrelated, Sullivan said.

The majority of the suspects arrested were between 16 and 22 years old. Of the 44 arrests in both cities, 11 youths were confirmed gang members, Sullivan said.

In addition, his team reported eight felony arrests involving possession of weapons or narcotics. Of the 36 misdemeanors, violations ranged from assault and battery to interfering with a police officer when one suspect pushed an arresting deputy, Sullivan said.

Those arrested on felony and some misdemeanor charges were taken into custody. However, most misdemeanor offenders were cited and released, he said.

Once gang enforcement team members enter an area, suspected gang members “get the message,” he said.

“Deputies concentrate on the areas that are known to have gang members living there, or hanging out,” Sullivan said. “When they observe violations of law, they make contact and make arrests. Usually, it involves a traffic stop.”

Correspondent Frank Messina contributed to this report.