Prosecutor Calls Boy in Stabbing Malicious Killer : Courts: Deputy district attorney denies defense contention that victim was a bully.

A deputy district attorney prosecuting a 14-year-old Simi Valley boy in the stabbing of a classmate on Thursday called the defendant a malicious killer who deserves to be convicted of murder and vehemently denied the victim was a bully.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison took exception to the defense’s contention that the victim, 14-year-old Chad Hubbard, regularly picked fights with defendant Phillip Hernandez while they attended Valley View Junior High School.

The prosecutor said the two boys had several altercations, but insisted that they were equally to blame for initiating the confrontations.

Ellison said the defense is trying to portray Hubbard “as a lurking bully, which he was not.”

Hernandez is charged with fatally stabbing Hubbard on Feb. 1, after Hubbard punched him in the chest and challenged him to a fistfight at a school bus stop, according to court testimony.

A classmate of Hernandez also testified Thursday that the defendant had bragged about a willingness to kill.

Medra Burt, 14, testified that Hernandez once told her that he would have no trouble killing some boys who had threatened to beat him up. Hubbard was not one of the boys.

“I asked him if he would really kill somebody,” Burt said on the stand.

“And what did he say?” asked Ellison.

“Yes,” she answered.

Burt was the third prosecution witness who testified that Hernandez had told them he could kill someone. The other two witnesses with the same testimony were also Valley View Junior High students.

An assistant principal at Hillside Junior High School, where Hernandez was enrolled at the start of the school year, and Hubbard’s father also took the stand as the final prosecution witnesses Thursday. More than a dozen other witnesses, most of them students, have testified for the prosecution during the 4-day-old trial.

Pam Carter, the assistant principal, testified that Hernandez was transferred to Valley View Junior High in October, but did not say why the change was made.

She said Hernandez attended an assembly during the first week of classes in which he and the school’s other students were warned against bringing knives and other weapons to school.

The prosecution has contended that Hernandez knew better than to carry a knife at school.

Scott Hubbard testified that his son was 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds. The father sobbed during his brief testimony as he held a picture of his son’s baseball team that was taken before the boy’s death. Several other observers in the courtroom--including his wife, Jackie--cried as well.

Deputy Public Defender Donna L. Forry said Hernandez was the smaller of the two boys, but did not state her client’s size.

Also Thursday, Superior Court Judge Allan Steele ruled that Hernandez did not plan the fatal stabbing and therefore cannot be convicted of first-degree murder.

But Steele also ruled that Hernandez knew the difference between right and wrong when he allegedly stabbed Hubbard.

Under Steele’s ruling, the most serious conviction Hernandez faces is second-degree murder. Prosecutors said they are satisfied that the judge found that Hernandez knew what he was doing, otherwise the case against him would have been dismissed.

They also said the ruling not to allow a conviction of first-degree murder is insignificant, saying Hernandez would still have to remain in custody until age 25 if convicted of the lesser offense of second-degree murder.

Hernandez is expected to testify when the trial resumes Monday.