Dana Point Youth Was on Probation at Time of Slaying

The 16-year-old Dana Point boy accused of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Angela Lynn Wagner, 15, last Wednesday was on probation at the time and under orders not to have a weapon.

Based on that information, Juvenile Court referee James S. Odriozola here Monday refused to release the teen-ager pending a Dec. 28 hearing to determine whether he should be tried as an adult and to set a trial date.

Sources said Monday the boy was still on probation after being involved in a car theft when he allegedly shot the popular San Clemente High School sophomore as she sat in her boyfriend’s car outside a Dana Point apartment complex.

Odriozola said although there was “nothing in (the teen-ager’s) record to indicate prior violence,” he nonetheless denied his release to his family because of his alleged use of a firearm in Wagner’s death.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Cafferty said the state criminal code calls for the boy, whose name has been withheld because of his age, to be tried as an adult because a gun was used, even if the shooting was accidental.

However, he said, the prosecution and Juvenile Court will look closely at a probation report and evaluate the youth’s “attitude, his background, his (willingness) to be rehabilitated. We’re going to look at his whole fabric and (decide) whether he should continue to remain as a ‘juvie,’ ” or be tried as an adult.

The boy’s parents, Jack and Pauline Perez, were present at the hearing Monday.

“I really don’t think he did it,” Jack Perez said afterward. “I think he knows who did it, but he ain’t saying anything.”

He suggested gangs near the apartment complex where the family lives and where Wagner was shot may have been involved with the slaying, although the prosecutor has discarded that possibility.

The boy, who has a different last name than his parents and was going to a continuation school at the time of the shooting, was arrested last Wednesday at the home of his grandparents, two days after Wagner was shot.

The girl was waiting for her boyfriend, 17-year-old Chris Antonio, who had gone to the apartments to see a friend of his mother’s. Antonio and his family lived in the same complex about four years ago. Both Antonio and Wagner knew the accused.

“From all indication, it was not an intentional firing by this guy,” Cafferty said. “He was screwing around with the gun and ended up shooting (Wagner) unintentionally.

“They knew each other and it was something that could have been avoided, but because of someone’s carelessness, it wasn’t avoided.”

Wagner’s family buried the girl on Friday. Hundreds of her fellow students came to the funeral in Escondido to bid goodby.

Cafferty said that whether as an adult or as a juvenile, the boy faces about the same amount of time in jail if convicted--nine years.