4 to Be Tried for Murder in Beach Slaying : Courts: Judge finds it and other felony charges justified against teens accused in death of student struck by a paint roller rod.

A Municipal Court judge Thursday ordered four San Clemente youths to stand trial on murder and other felony charges in the slaying of a teen-ager whose head was speared by a paint roller rod.

After a 2 1/2-day preliminary hearing, Judge Pamela L. Iles found enough evidence to support nearly all the charges against the defendants, including allegations that gang involvement played a role in the Oct. 15 attack that resulted in the death of Steve Woods at Calafia Beach County Park.

In ordering the youths to face charges, Isles called the slaying a “stupid and senseless act” and commented on the pain the case has caused the families both of the victim and of the young defendants.

“The emptiness of gang honor is certainly well displayed for the community here,” Iles said. “It should be an element of shame, rather than honor.”

Woods, a 17-year-old high school senior from San Clemente, was a passenger in a vehicle pelted with rocks, beer cans, paint roller rods and other items as it attempted to leave the beach parking lot. He was somehow struck by a paint roller rod during the barrage and died several weeks later, having never regained consciousness.

He and about a dozen friends in four vehicles had gone to the beach after a San Clemente High School football game.

The defendants, Saul Penuelas, 18, his brother Hector Penuelas, 17, and Julio Perez Bonilla and Rogelio Vasquez Solis, both 17, each face one count of murder, one count of conspiracy, seven counts of assault, one count of throwing an item at a moving vehicle, and a gang-involvement enhancement that could lengthen their sentences if they are convicted in Superior Court.

Bonilla faces an additional misdemeanor count of battery stemming from a confrontation with one of Woods’ friends, which occurred moments before the barrage.

Iles dismissed three counts of assault against each defendant, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to show that a third vehicle carrying three teens from the beach had also come under attack.

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During the hearing, sheriff’s investigators testified that Woods’ friends said they were trying to flee the beach parking lot and avoid a fight with the group when the fatal incident happened.

Two of the defendants, Saul Penuelas and Bonilla, are self-proclaimed members of a San Clemente gang, while the other two said they sometimes associated with the gang, Sgt. Russell Moore testified Thursday, reiterating earlier testimony by several sheriff’s deputies and probation officers who interviewed the defendants.

The defendants, however, told investigators they threw items because they thought the drivers in the other group were trying to run them down as they sped by.

They claimed they also had been provoked during an initial altercation with one of Woods’ friends earlier that night. The same friend had allegedly made an obscene gesture toward Bonilla a couple days earlier, sheriff’s investigator Barth Massey testified Wednesday.

That youth denied making a gesture and said he pulled up to the defendants thinking they were friends to ask them about some parties in San Juan Capistrano, according to Massey.

A San Clemente gang expert, Sgt. Russell Moore, testified that even the mention of San Juan Capistrano to rival gang members from San Clemente could be interpreted as a challenge or a hostile move.

The youth was hit in the head, then drove back to where his friends, including Woods, were gathered and told them they should leave the area, Massey testified.

Iles said that whatever perceived insults the defendants may have suffered, the alleged retaliation was unjustified. The judge also noted that two of the three paint roller rods thrown during the incident, including the one that struck Woods, appeared to have been altered to make them more useful as weapons.

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Lawyers for the defendants, however, argued that the injury to Woods was a “fluke” and that the defendants had not gone to the beach looking for trouble, only to hang out and drink some beer, just as Woods and his friends were doing. They said alleged gang involvement on the part of the defendants had nothing to do with the incident.

“This was a reactive thing, it was not a conspiracy,” said Dennis McNerney, representing Hector Penuelas.

Deputy Public Defender Stephen J. Biskar, representing Saul Penuelas, said no one could have predicted that someone would be killed with a paint roller rod.

“This injury to Steve Woods was not a foreseeable injury,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer argued that the case was anything but an accident, even if the defendants never intended to kill anyone.

“We have people who on their own picked up certain items, aimed those items and hit their targets,” he said.

The four defendants, who are being treated as adults, are among six arrested and charged in the case. A fifth person faces trial on murder and other felony charges next month, while a sixth pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and a gang involvement enhancement and is awaiting sentencing.

If convicted of first-degree murder, the four juvenile defendants face 25 years to life in prison.

The four will be arraigned in Superior Court later this month. Paer said he may request dual juries in the cases to cut down the number of individual trials.