Family Mourns Boy, 16, Killed in Stabbing : Funeral: Service draws friends and relatives who remember James Farris III of Agoura Hills as an outgoing and energetic youth.

After the funeral for his 16-year-old son--stabbed to death in an Agoura Hills back yard during what authorities describe as a botched robbery--Los Angeles Police Department Detective James Farris II quietly walked over to an area of the cemetery where the press had gathered.

With a trembling voice, Farris spoke about his son’s death, which occurred in the suburb where he had moved his family 20 years ago.

“It’s a senseless, out-of-sequence and stupid thing,” he said softly. “Things like this don’t happen up here--that’s why I moved here.”

James Farris III--Jimmy to those who knew him--was at his friend Mike McLoren’s back-yard clubhouse Monday night when it was invaded by four local youths, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Bill Neumann said.

Neumann said he is still not certain about what exactly happened inside the clubhouse, but friends of Jimmy who were nearby said that a fight broke out and Jimmy was mortally wounded while coming to Mike’s aid. He died shortly after at a local hospital. Mike is at UCLA Medical Center and is expected to recover.

“Those . . . monsters who killed him didn’t know Jimmy,” Farris said after the private funeral service at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Mortuary. “He stepped in and did what he always did.”

The suspects fled in a maroon-colored pickup truck, Neumann said. Two of them--Brandon Hein, 18, and a 15-year-old from Thousand Oaks--were arrested in Oak Park on Tuesday morning. A 17-year-old Agoura Hills youth turned himself in later that day.

The fourth suspect, Jason Holland, 18, of Thousand Oaks, remains at large. A family friend, who spoke briefly with a reporter at Holland’s apartment, said that Holland’s family had not heard from him since the stabbing.

Hein pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of murder with special circumstances, attempted murder and robbery. “He didn’t do the things with which he’s charged,” said his attorney, Jill Lansing.

Prosecutors are seeking to try the two juveniles as adults, officials said. They are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Jimmy’s funeral drew about 350 people, including several uniformed LAPD officers and many students from Agoura High School, where he was a sophomore. Members of the press were not permitted to attend the funeral. Afterward, several of Jimmy’s friends remembered him as an energetic, outgoing youth who loved the outdoors and motorcycles.

“He was just genuine,” said Eldar Adi, also a sophomore at Agoura High. He added that Jimmy taught him how to ride a motorcycle when Jimmy was 10.

“He was always ‘U.S.A. this’ and ‘U.S.A. that,’ ” recalled Robert Lynch, 17, another classmate and close friend who said Jimmy had dreams of joining the military or becoming a motorcycle police officer.

Jimmy and Mike were good friends, local youths said. The clubhouse behind Mike’s grandparents’ house was, they said, where the two and other friends would gather to watch movies and play Nintendo video games. Neighbors said police had been called to the shed-like structure--which Mike built--on a few occasions to quiet down parties.

Eldar said he expects the clubhouse will be torn down. “The grandparents never liked it anyway,” he said. “It just brought trouble.”

Farris and Jimmy’s older brother, Travis, said Jimmy was a family oriented youth who would go hunting and fishing with his father.

“I’ve been crying for three days,” Farris said, from behind a pair of sunglasses.

Times staff writers Tracy Wilson and Mack Reed contributed to this story.