Teen Testifies About Driving a Deadly Gantlet : Court: Witness describes melee at the beach in which his buddy was fatally injured when a paint roller speared his head. He says he was forced to veer while passengers ducked and car windows shattered.

A teen-ager testified Tuesday that he was forced to duck down behind his steering wheel to escape a gantlet of young men screaming and throwing bottles during a parking lot dispute in which his 17-year-old buddy was fatally speared through the head.

San Clemente High School student Casey Saul said he was forced to veer to the wrong side of the road, while his passengers held their heads between their knees to protect themselves as the car windows shattered.

Saul said he and friends were still cowering as they drove out of Calafia Beach County Park and it was several moments before anyone realized that Steve Woods was hurt. It even appeared that Woods sat up as the rest of the passengers did.

“Then his head just fell over,” Saul testified, adding that a young woman sitting next to Woods began screaming. “I saw a white rod sticking out (of his head). . . . I just started driving to the hospital.”

Woods, a San Clemente High School student, died 25 days after the attack that left a paint roller lodged in his skull.

Saul took the witness stand on the second day of a murder trial for Hector Penuelas, 17, and Julio Perez Bonilla, 18, two of six young men charged in Woods’ death. Though he is a juvenile, Penuelas is being tried as an adult because of the serious nature of the crime.

Defense attorneys contend their clients believed they were about to be attacked when a caravan of cars drove toward them just moments after a violent confrontation with one of Woods’ friend.

Defense attorney Dennis McNerney, who is representing Penuelas, has characterized the incident as a freak accident, not murder.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer said the two San Clemente youths are guilty of killing Woods because they joined in the attack that caused the teen-ager’s death. Paer, however, has not disclosed who is suspected of hurling the paint roller.

The non-jury trial is being heard by Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey and is expected to last a week.

Three other defendants in the case are awaiting trial while the sixth defendant has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and awaits sentencing.

The victim was white and the defendants are Latinos and have been labeled gang members by the prosecution. Some Latino activists have contended that racism may have played a role in the serious nature of the charges filed in the case, but prosecutors have disputed those claims.

The trouble Oct. 15, 1993, began when teen-ager Sterling Breckenridge--one of Woods’ friends--was leaving the park and asked a group of young men whether they knew about any parties in San Juan Capistrano.

The prosecutor said that remark set off the men--reputed gang members--whose rivals are from that area. Someone punched Breckenridge in the face twice before he drove back into the park to alert his friends--including Woods and Saul--that there might be trouble.

Saul led the caravan of cars out of the park.

Right behind him was Tim Bright. On Tuesday, Bright testified that he veered his vehicle toward one young stranger as he tried to escape the park unharmed.

During cross-examination, Bright agreed with McNerney’s description that he tried to make the would-be assailant “flinch or jump away,” but said he never intended to hurt anyone.