Witness Identifies Suspect in Fatal Carjacking : Crime: Japanese student testifies at preliminary hearing in slayings of two friends outside supermarket in San Pedro. Case draws attention from Japan.

A Japanese college student Monday identified murder suspect Raymond Oscar Butler as the man who confronted two fellow students in a supermarket parking lot last March and demanded the key to their Honda Civic just before they were killed.

Masake Miyake, 21, testifying at a preliminary hearing in Long Beach Criminal Court, said he and a friend in a separate car witnessed an altercation before the execution-style murders of Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura, both 19, on March 25.

The case brought protests from Japan last March about violence and lawlessness in Los Angeles, prompting President Clinton to express condolences to families of the victims. The hearing Monday was covered by Japanese newspaper, wire service and television reporters.

Butler, 19, is charged with two counts of murder with the special circumstances of murder during a robbery and multiple murder. The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty, could face the death penalty if bound over for trial and convicted. He also faces robbery and carjacking charges. Co-defendant Alberto Reygoza, 20, pleaded no contest last week to receiving stolen property and being an accessory after the fact of a robbery.

Miyake said he and a friend, Mari Kaneko, had eaten that evening at a Japanese restaurant in Gardena with Ito and Matsuura. All four were Marymount College students.

After dinner, they drove in two cars to the parking lot of Ralphs supermarket in San Pedro, Miyake said.

As Ito and Matsuura pulled into the parking lot in Ito’s white Honda Civic, a man emerged from the darkness and accosted Ito, Miyake said. “The person holding Mr. Ito might have been drunk,” Miyake said, adding: “He was holding a beer or something that contains alcohol.”

Asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore if he recognized the assailant in the courtroom, Miyake pointed at Butler and said: “That man there.”

Miyake said that he could hear the man saying the word “key” several times in a loud voice.

As Miyake and Kaneko watched from Kaneko’s car, the man put down the bottle and grabbed Ito by the shoulders, Miyake said. Kaneko honked her horn several times, then drove to the entrance of the supermarket to seek help.

Miyake said he heard three gunshots as he sat in front of the supermarket.

Kaneko, 20, told a similar story, but she could not identify Butler.

She said that after Ito emerged from his car, the assailant tried to force him back into it. She said she heard the assailant use the word “shoot” several times.

Kaneko said she was seeking help from a supermarket employee when she heard the shots. She testified through an interpreter that she saw that Ito had fallen, then backed away from the supermarket’s door to take cover.