6th and 7th Suspects Held in Claes Slaying : Investigation: Tustin brothers accused of hiding gun used to kill 14-year-old in dispute over stereo. Police now consider case closed.

Two men were charged with hiding a .22-caliber pistol allegedly used in the shooting death of 14-year-old Carl Dan Claes, bringing the total number of suspects to seven, authorities said Thursday.

Investigators said they now consider the case closed.

Kyle Sieple, 18, was arrested Wednesday at his home on suspicion of being an accessory to murder and receiving stolen property, Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said. Sieple’s 24-year-old brother, Christopher, who was in custody at Orange County Jail on an unrelated case, also was charged with accessory to murder, Martini said.

“Homicide investigators have completed the investigation . . . and do not expect any further arrests in this case,” Martini said.

If convicted, the Sieple brothers could face three years in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood said.

On May 16, Claes was shot to death and left on a dirt path in Lemon Heights three miles from his home.

The boy lived with his grandfather, who had bought the eighth-grader a $2,500 stereo system so that he could practice his break-dancing and disc-jockey hobbies, police said. The youth lent it to Tommy Miller, 16, about a week before the slaying, and police allege that a dispute that erupted when Miller refused to return the stereo led to the shooting.

The first arrests in the case came when detectives served search warrants at two addresses and found the stereo system that belonged to Claes and the gun allegedly used in the killing, which authorities believe was stolen, Martini said.

Miller, 16, and Jason Merritt, 17, were charged with murder and prosecutors will seek to have both tried as adults. Miller could be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole if convicted as an adult under a special-circumstance clause, according to the district attorney’s office.

Miller was also accused of robbery and personal use of a firearm, and Merritt was charged with a weapons violation.

Three other juveniles from Tustin, ages 15, 16 and 17, have been charged as accessories to murder after the slaying. Investigators did not name them because of their ages.

“All of them knew each other and were associates or close friends,” Martini said. “And they all knew Carl Claes to some degree.”

Police allege that Miller shot Claes once in the head at close range while Merritt, who drove to the murder scene, stood by. Afterward, they went out for fast food, and shortly after that, the boys gave the gun to the Sieple brothers, Martini said. Investigators are still trying to determine the origin of the gun, Martini said.

Kyle and Christopher Sieple, who were being held in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $170,500 bail each, were scheduled to be arraigned today in Santa Ana Municipal Court. Sieple was taken into custody on May 23 on suspicion of driving with a suspended license and failure to appear in court.