Gang Issue Raised in Teen Slaying Hearing : Courts: 4 defendants claimed some affiliation with group, investigators testify. Such involvement could lengthen sentences if they are convicted in death of student pierced through head with paint roller.

Two defendants charged in the slaying of a teen-ager who was pierced through the head with a paint roller told police they were members of a San Clemente street gang, while two others said they sometimes associated with the gang, sheriff’s investigators testified Wednesday.

The testimony came in the second day of a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel to determine if defendants Saul Penuelas, 18, his 17-year-old brother, Hector, and Julio Perez Bonilla and Rogelio Vasquez Solis, both 17, should be tried for murder and other felony charges in the slaying of Steve Woods.

Woods, a 17-year-old high school senior from San Clemente, was speared through the head with a paint-roller rod during an Oct. 15 confrontation at Calafia Beach County Park and died several weeks later, having never regained consciousness. He was a passenger in a car pelted by rocks, beer cans, paint rollers and other items as it left the beach parking lot.

He and about a dozen friends in four vehicles had gone to the beach after a San Clemente High School football game. His friends told investigators they were trying to avoid a fight with the other group when they sped from the parking lot.

The four defendants, who are being tried as adults, each have been charged with one count of murder, one count of conspiracy, 10 counts of assault and one count of throwing an item at a moving vehicle. Each also has been charged with gang involvement, a charge that could lengthen their sentences if they are convicted.

The four defendants admitted to throwing items other than paint rollers at the vehicles but told investigators they thought the other group was trying to run them over, according to testimony from several sheriff’s investigators. Six San Clemente residents were arrested and charged in the case, which caused outraged San Clemente residents to hold meetings, marches and demonstrations to protest gangs and youth violence.

The issue of alleged gang involvement in the case, however, has become the subject of controversy.

Some Latino leaders have challenged statements by police that those charged are gang members or gang associates and have said they believe the defendants are being “railroaded.” They have also accused the news media of inaccurately depicting the event as Latinos attacking innocent white youths.

Alleged gang involvement on the part of the defendants was the focus of much testimony Wednesday by sheriff’s officials and probation officers who assisted in interviewing the defendants.

Deputy probation counselor Luis Valdez testified that Bonilla claimed membership in the gang. Another probation counselor, Octavio Gonzalez, testified that Saul Penuelas said he also was a gang member and that Solis said he sometimes hung out with the gang. Investigator Barth Massey testified that Hector Penuelas also said he associated with the gang.

Two sheets of paper with the gang’s initials were found inside the pickup driven by Saul Penuelas on the night of the incident, according to testimony by sheriff’s investigator Hans Strand.