Defense Raises Provocation Issue in Slaying of San Clemente High Youth : Courts: Hearing will decide whether four youths are tried for murder in death of teen speared through head.

Provocation was a key issue during a preliminary hearing Tuesday to determine whether four youths should stand trial on murder and other felony charges in the slaying of teen-ager Steve Woods, whose head was pierced with a paint roller rod.

Lawyers for defendants Hector Penuelas, 18, Julio Perez Bonilla, Hector Penuelas and Rogelio Vasquez Solis, all 17, spent much of the six-hour preliminary hearing in South Municipal Court questioning sheriff’s investigators about events surrounding the Oct. 15 confrontation at Calafia Beach County Park that led to the boy’s death.

Woods, a 17-year-old high school senior from San Clemente, was speared through the head and died several weeks later. He was a passenger in a vehicle pelted by rocks, beer cans, paint rollers and other items as it attempted to leave the beach parking lot.

He and about a dozen friends in four vehicles had gone to the beach following a San Clemente High School football game. Six suspects, all from San Clemente, were arrested and charged in the attack.

In the first day of what is expected to be a two-day preliminary hearing, investigators testified that Woods and his friends were trying to drive from the beach parking lot and avoid a fight with the group of alleged gang members and their friends when the fatal attack occurred.

However, defense lawyers have argued that Woods’ death came as result of a “freak accident” and that the defendants threw items because they thought the drivers were trying to run them down.

Much defense questioning Tuesday focused on the statements of two drivers who, in interviews with police, said they had indeed passed near some members of the opposing group during the incident.

One driver said he had swerved to the right toward the group as he approached a dip in the road, investigator Marilyn Maddox testified.

Meanwhile, the driver of the Chevrolet Suburban carrying Woods and three others said he had to swerve to avoid hitting somebody who was apparently waving at them to pull over, Investigator William Hunt testified.

“He was just trying to get out,” Hunt said. “It was a quick swerve.”

Under questioning from Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer, however, Investigator Barth Massey testified that one defendant said those in his group had already rummaged around for items to throw before the vehicles passed by.

According to testimony, the whole confrontation may have been sparked by an apparently harmless question asked by a friend of Woods about some parties in San Juan Capistrano.

As the friend left the gathering early to take two other people home, he passed a pickup truck carrying several of the defendants and thought it belonged to someone he knew from Oceanside or Carlsbad, Massey testified.

The friend made a U-turn and pulled up alongside the pickup, but it did not belong to his friend and a question about parties in San Juan Capistrano got him a punch in the mouth, Massey said.

The friend immediately went back to the gathering and told everyone they should leave.

A gang expert testified at a previous hearing for another defendant in the case that even the mention of San Juan Capistrano to rival San Clemente gang members could be seen as a challenge or hostile move.

The four juvenile defendants, who are being treated as adults, each face one count of murder, one count of conspiracy, 10 counts of assault, one count of throwing an object at a moving vehicle and a gang involvement enhancement that could lengthen their sentences if convicted.

One adult, Juan Enriquez Alcocer, 20, of San Clemente, was ordered in December to stand trial, while a second, Arturo Villalobos, pleaded guilty in January to voluntary manslaughter and a gang-involvement sentencing enhancement. He still awaits sentencing.