Innocent Query May Have Sparked Attack : Courts: Question about parties in San Juan could have been taken as a challenge, investigator says. Testimony comes at preliminary hearing for a suspect in slaying of San Clemente’s Steve Woods.

An innocent question about parties in San Juan Capistrano could have sparked the confrontation at a San Clemente beach that left a teen-ager mortally wounded with a paint-roller rod through his head.

That testimony from sheriff’s investigators came Wednesday during a preliminary hearing in South County Municipal Court to determine if Juan Enriquez Alcocer, 20, one of six suspects, should be tried for murder and multiple counts of felony assault in the death of Steve Woods.

The attack has mobilized San Clemente, where meetings, marches and demonstrations have been held to protest gangs and youth violence.

Woods, 17, was among a group of 12 friends who went to Calafia Beach County Park on Oct. 15 after a San Clemente High School football game.

Sheriff’s investigator Barth Massey testified that a friend of Woods’ was leaving the gathering to drive some friends home when he pulled up alongside a pickup, one of two vehicles carrying the suspects and their friends.

Thinking the pickup belonged to a friend from San Juan Capistrano, Woods’ companion called out, asking if the truck’s occupants “knew where any parties were and if they knew of any parties in San Juan,” Massey testified.

But the pickup did not belong to his friend, and the question provoked a hostile response, with one of the suspects punching Woods’ friend in the face, Massey told the court.

The friend immediately returned to the gathering and told everyone to leave because a group of “gang members” was “looking for trouble,” Massey testified.

As they left the beach parking lot, their vehicles were pelted with rocks and other items, they later told police. Amid the confusion and the breaking windows, Woods--sitting in the front passenger seat of the first vehicle--was somehow speared through the head with the metal rod of a paint roller.

Friends riding with Woods told police that all the windows had been rolled up during the attack, and that they didn’t do anything to provoke the suspects, Massey testified.

Several other investigators have given testimony similar to Massey’s.

In comments made outside the courtroom, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer said the simple reference to San Juan Capistrano by one of Woods’ friends could have ignited the violence from the suspects, who police and prosecutors allege are members or associates of a San Clemente street gang.

The San Clemente gang has a longstanding, sometimes violent rivalry with a gang from San Juan Capistrano, according to investigators. Even though Woods and his companions aren’t members of a gang, the mere mention of San Juan Capistrano could have been seen by the suspects as an insult or challenge, Paer said.

“It could have triggered it,” Paer said.

Woods, a San Clemente High School senior, fell into a coma after the attack and died Nov. 9. He never regained consciousness.

Lawyers for the suspects have called the fatal injuries to Woods a “freak accident” and say their clients--including two adults and four juveniles--never intended to kill anyone.

Attorney Gene E. Dorney, who is representing Alcocer, said during examination that his client is not a gang member and only told police he threw a piece of wood, but not specifically at any vehicle.

A large piece of wood, weighing about eight pounds, was found under a broken window in the back of the Chevrolet Suburban that had carried Woods, sheriff’s forensic specialist Eric Nelson testified.

Alcocer, wearing a yellow jail-issued jumpsuit, sat with his head down for much of the daylong hearing.

Municipal Court Judge Ronald P. Kreber is expected to decide today whether Alcocer, of San Clemente, should be bound over to Superior Court for trial.

A second suspect, Arturo Villalobos, 20, of San Clemente, will face a preliminary hearing later this month. Meanwhile, a hearing will be held in January to determine if four juveniles charged in the case should be tried as adults. All the suspects remain in custody.