Teen to Stand Trial as Adult in Murder Case : Courts: Prosecutors debate lodging a hate-crime charge against the white 17-year-old from Laguna Niguel in the slaying of a black Huntington Beach man.

A Laguna Niguel youth will be tried as an adult for murder in the shooting death of a 44-year-old black man because of the gravity of the crime and because the killing may have been racially motivated, a judge ruled Friday.

“A man needlessly lost his life and there appears to be some racial overtones,” said Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel, who presides in Juvenile Court.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanazaki agreed with the ruling, contending that Robert Wofford, 17, who is white, may have targeted Vernon Windell Flournoy of Huntington Beach because he was black. Prosecutors are trying to decide whether to lodge an additional charge of a hate crime against the teen-ager, Tanazaki said.

Jonathan Kennedy, 19, of Huntington Beach is also charged in the killing. The shooting happened in mid-September during a scuffle outside the Seabridge Villas apartment complex, where Flournoy lived and Kennedy was staying briefly, on Beach Boulevard.

Police said Wofford and Kennedy argued with Flournoy, then traded blows with him before the older man was shot. Flournoy stumbled into a McDonald’s restaurant where he collapsed in front of horrified workers and customers.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Wofford is a skinhead, has associated with hate groups, or has shown a pattern of racial abuse.

But defense attorney Patrick McNeal said the teen-ager was not the gunman. McNeal said he believes Wofford did fight with Flournoy, but said his client was not the one who pulled the trigger.

McNeal also said his client is not a skinhead, although he acknowledged that the teen-ager did associate with skinheads while living in Huntington Beach with his grandmother. But several months ago, Wofford moved in with his father in Laguna Niguel, partly to get away from bad influences, the attorney said.

“I’ve talked to him, to his family and to some of his friends. . . . He tried to break away from those persons,” McNeal said.

The prosecutor said that during the past two years Wofford has had 12 other run-ins with police because of fistfights in public and in school and for disturbing the peace. He has been arrested several times and convicted once, Tanazaki said. He declined to give further details because Wofford was a juvenile at the time.

Flournoy, a husband and father, worked as a refrigeration mechanic at Matson Navigation, a shipping company on Terminal Island.

His relatives said that although he was normally a quiet man, he couldn’t abide rude racial remarks and would have stood up to anyone who gave him trouble. The killing prompted the Huntington Beach City Council to dedicate a session to Flournoy’s memory and to call for a moment of silence.

A coalition of Orange County minority leaders have also pushed local law enforcement authorities to investigate and prosecute the case as a hate crime.

The judge’s ruling Friday to try Wofford as an adult means that if convicted, Wofford could receive a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the murder. If he is further convicted of a hate crime, he could get life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, Tanazaki said. Wofford turns 18 next month.

McNeal said he welcomed the judge’s decision to move the case from Juvenile Court because it gives Wofford rights to a more involved trial process in adult court.

The teen-ager will have the right to a preliminary hearing, which could result in a lessening of charges, and can request a jury trial, McNeal said. In Juvenile Court, the case would have been decided by a judge.

“I’m very optimistic that as more items are investigated, his role, if any, will become more clear,” McNeal said.

Tanazaki said prosecutors also will make a decision soon about whether to try Wofford and Kennedy together. Wofford’s arraignment is Wednesday.

Police say Kennedy was affiliated with white supremacists. His alleged role in the shooting also is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Kennedy was scheduled to enter a plea in the case Friday, but the arraignment was postponed until Oct. 21.