Minors Held in Stabbings May Be Tried as Adults : Crime: Two juveniles and an 18-year-old are in custody in Monday’s slaying in Agoura Hills. A fourth teen-ager who is from Thousand Oaks is sought.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will ask that a 15-year-old Thousand Oaks boy and a 17-year-old Agoura Hills boy be prosecuted as adults in the stabbing death of an LAPD detective’s son, deputies said Wednesday.

Investigators said the two juveniles were in a group of four teen-agers who attacked Mike McLoren and James Farris III in Agoura Hills on Monday, stabbing 16-year-old Farris to death and wounding McLoren--apparently during a botched attempt to steal some of McLoren’s property.

Deputies in Ventura and Los Angeles counties said they are still looking for one of the alleged killers--18-year-old Jason Holland of Thousand Oaks.

“Every agency is looking for the outstanding suspect,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Montijo said. Already in custody is Brandon Hein, 18, of Oak Park.

The request that the juveniles be tried as adults, as well as the 18-year-olds, will be made when the case is presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for prosecution, said L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Detective Bill Neumann. If prosecutors agree to the request, they will need to ask for approval from a juvenile court judge at a competency hearing.

The four youths--some of whom were identified as members of a group that emulates urban gangs--had recently been stealing property from the “clubhouse” or “fort” where McLoren lived behind his family’s Agoura Hills home, Neumann said. He said it was not clear exactly how many of the suspects belonged to that group, called Gremlins, but that the youths seem to have been “wanna-be” gang members.

“They hit the big time this time,” Neumann said. “If they wanted to be gang members, this is what put them into it.”

Neumann said deputies suspect the four youths had recently been stealing Mike McLoren’s property from his “fort.” Other teen-agers said they took stereo and other electronic equipment.

On Monday night, four teens broke into the clubhouse and attacked McLoren and his friend Farris, Neumann said. The attackers fled in a maroon pickup truck, and the victims, who were both unarmed, crawled into the kitchen of the main house with multiple stab wounds, Neumann said. Farris was pronounced dead at Westlake Medical Center; McLoren was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he is expected to recover.

Tuesday morning, police arrested Hein, 18, and the 15-year-old suspect at Hein’s Sunnycrest Drive home in Oak Park. That afternoon, a 17-year-old Agoura Hills youth surrendered at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, accompanied by his attorney and family members.

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All three were booked on suspicion of murder.

Both Farris and McLoren were sophomores at Agoura High School, but officials said none of the suspects attended that school. Hein had been a student at Oak Park High School--one of Ventura County’s top schools--until March, 1994, when he transferred to Oak View, the district’s alternative high school, officials said.

In March, 1995, Hein dropped out of Oak View when he turned 18, officials said.

“He was an average student,” Oak View Principal Cliff Moore said. “He was never really a problem here in school.”

Moore declined to comment on the reason for Hein’s transfer: “That is a question a number of people have asked, but I need to keep private,” he said.

The 15-year-old Thousand Oaks boy arrested Tuesday was also an Oak Park High School student before transferring to Oak View last fall, school officials said.

Classmates of the suspects described them as an informal crew of longtime friends who modeled their small suburban clique in the fashion of urban gangs.

“They start problems, they like to fight,” said Oak Park student Carn Carter, 17, who attended Oak View High School with two of the teens. “They’ve always been troublemakers.”

Carter said she spent last summer hanging out with Hein, Holland and the 15-year-old suspect. Describing the trio, she said they “always have knives on them. They were always armed.”

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But other friends of suspect Brandon Hein questioned his alleged involvement in the incident, and challenged suggestions that he was part of any loose-knit gang.

“He was not a member of the Gremlins,” said Keith Haveron, 17, who said he was a close friend of the teen. “Brandon, he’s not going to be pushed around.”

Students at Oak View High School, a tiny campus of just 54 students, were still in shock Wednesday over the death of Farris, whom many knew from Agoura High School. Others were equally surprised that fellow Oak Park students had been arrested in connection with the 16-year-old’s stabbing.

“People just don’t understand why,” said 18-year-old John Smith, a former Agoura High School student. “I knew James, it shouldn’t have happened.”

School officials said they are providing crisis counseling for students who knew the stabbing victim or the suspects.

They added that the arrest of two local youths should not be viewed as reflecting poorly on the community of Oak Park--a quiet, well-planned suburb with a sterling reputation for its good schools.

“I think every school district provides a safety net for kids,” Moore said. “But kids end up making their own choices. Every community has a group of kids, for whatever reason, who are not motivated to education.”

L.A. County sheriff’s juvenile division detectives said only a handful of youths belong to such “wanna-be” gangs, stressing that the area is still relatively safe and free of crime or gang troubles.

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“They like to think they’re hard-core gangsters--of Agoura,” chortled one Agoura High sophomore who wouldn’t give his name. He said Holland and the 15-year-old suspect were well known for strutting around the area, acting tough.

Friends of Jason Holland at Indian Hills continuation school in Calabasas--where he spent a semester until dropping out when he turned 18 this year--said he and the younger boy liked to act tough, but couldn’t believe they’d kill anyone.

“They were just kind of bullies,” said eighth-grader Johnny Rose, “but they wouldn’t even pull a knife on anybody.”

Deputy Mike Berg, a detective in the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station juvenile division, said groups like the Gremlins usually aren’t violent in typical gang fashion. “They’re not together so much for pride, or to have their homies to hang with, or for turf,” Berg said.

“Your guess is as good as mine as to why someone would want to emulate [the] behavior” of urban street gangs, he added.

Students at Indian Hills suggested some reasons: “To have fun, or maybe for protection,” Sadie Varner said.

“Just to be popular and show that they rule,” Johnny Rose said.

Blinky Rodriguez, a Van Nuys activist who organized the San Fernando Valley gang truce last year, said that given the way music and the media idolize violence, it isn’t surprising some suburban teens are imitating gang members in poorer neighborhoods.

“It’s depicted everywhere you look,” he said.