Trial Moves to Scene of the Crime : San Fernando: Shackled murder defendant and courtroom entourage retrace victim’s path at store.

Guns bulging from tweed jackets. A man hobbling through the home-improvement store, chained at the ankles and wrists. The store manager holding forth under oath.

Not the usual fare at the Home Depot at 12960 Foothill Blvd. But that’s what curious shoppers saw Monday morning as a murder trial moved from the courthouse in San Fernando to the scene of the crime, where a guard was shot to death during a robbery in 1992.

More than half a dozen police officers accompanied the shackled defendant, Sean Darnell Slade, with the judge, court reporter, defense attorney, prosecutors, 12 jurors and four alternates as they retraced the path that prosecutors claim was taken by the guard, Edwin Maldonado.

As manager Ronald Shultz steered the entourage down the aisles, he described the routine followed by Maldonado, then 26, on July 20, 1992, before he was gunned down.

“It’s impossible for the jury to understand from aerial photographs and layouts,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Jonas. “The walk-through, the observation and general feeling help them see what had to be done to pull this off.”

Prosecutors alleged when the trial began last week that the robbery was well-planned and had the help of someone familiar with the store’s procedures. Three men committed the robbery, but two remain at large, according to police.

Prosecutors allege that Slade was the man who shot Maldonado, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, twice in the head. The shooting was part of a robbery in which $82,000 was taken.

Maldonado had emptied the vault at the store and was taking the cash to his Sectran Security Transportation truck when he was shot.

Prosecutors claimed that Slade grew up with a Home Depot employee who was leaving the store for the day at the time of the robbery.

The defense attorney, Bruce C. Hill, said that his client was not involved in the robbery or the shooting and said he will present alibi evidence.

Standing in front of the spot where Maldonado was killed, jurors watched as Shultz demonstrated how the alarm normally sounds in the event of a robbery. But on the day of the shooting, the alarm did not sound, and security cameras were not functioning.

Slade faces the death penalty if convicted.