Fifth Teen Charged in Claes Slaying

A fifth teen-ager was charged Tuesday in connection with the slaying of 14-year-old Carl Dan Claes for stashing Claes’ $2,500 sound system at his home after the eighth-grader was shot to death, authorities said.

The 16-year-old former Tustin High School student was arrested Monday afternoon and booked into Juvenile Hall. He was charged Tuesday with being an accessory to murder after the fact and is scheduled to appear in court this morning for a detention hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said that all the teen-agers believed to be directly involved with the Lemon Heights killing have been arrested, but detectives continue to investigate other youths who had some of the dead boy’s possessions.

“There are tapes and some other pieces of equipment that have been recovered,” Martini said. “The investigation is continuing. I don’t think we’ve exhausted all of our efforts at this point.”

Also Tuesday, the prosecution filed special-circumstance charges--of lying in wait and murder for financial gain--against 16-year-old Thomas Miller, the alleged shooter in the case.

The filing means that Miller could face life in prison with no possibility of parole if convicted as an adult in the case, Kirkwood said.

Miller’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia, declined to comment on the special-circumstance charges filed Tuesday, saying he had not yet been officially notified of the allegations.

Claes was shot in the head May 16 and left at the side of a Lemon Heights dirt path three miles from the Tustin house he shared with his grandfather. A jogger found his body the next morning.

Claes’ grandfather had bought the boy a five-foot-long sound system so that he could practice his break-dancing and disc jockey hobbies under supervision at home. The boy lent the system to Miller about a week before his death, and investigators said a dispute arose when Miller refused to return it.

Sheriff’s officials said they recovered the sound system May 18 at the home of the fifth teen-age suspect in the case. Investigators returned to the same home with a second search warrant May 25. The teen-ager who had the stereo at his house was not arrested at those times, but Martini said additional information led to his arrest Monday.

Miller and 17-year-old Jason Merritt have been charged with murder in connection with the slaying, and prosecutors will seek to have both tried as adults.

Miller has also been charged with robbery and personal use of a firearm, while Merritt was charged with being vicariously armed. Officials allege that Merritt drove to the scene of the shooting, that he stood by as Miller gunned down Claes and that both teen-agers went out for fast food afterward.

Miller’s younger brother, 15, and a 17-year-old friend have been charged as accessories to murder after the fact. The second 17-year-old was also charged with receiving Claes’ stolen pager from Miller, along with a .22-caliber pistol believed to be the murder weapon.

The teen-ager arrested Monday had attended Tustin High School, where he met Miller about two years ago, and both boys have remained close friends ever since, relatives said.

In an interview last week, the fifth suspect said that he and a group of teen-agers used to gather at the Miller’s Tustin home, where the brothers lived with their father and grandmother. The 17-year-old arrested as an accessory to murder in the case had also been living with the Millers.

“This all has been really hard for Tommy’s friends,” the fifth teen-ager said at the time. “I didn’t think Tommy would do” something like that.

Classmates said Tuesday that the fifth suspect in the case played football as a safety in his freshman and sophomore years. But in his sophomore year, the boy began hanging around a different group of friends and his grades took a dive, prompting him to transfer to Hillview High School, then to Horizon Educational Center in Tustin a month ago to “catch up on his credits,” a younger brother said Tuesday.

“He’s a good brother,” the younger brother said. “He takes me places and stuff.”