Slaying Suspect Arraigned : Courts: Scott James Craft, 33, pleads not guilty to murder. He allegedly shot neighbor three times in the back.

A Winnetka man who allegedly shot a Neighborhood Watch activist three times in the back when confronted over his abusive behavior toward neighbors was charged with murder on Wednesday.

Wearing the same shredded blue tank top he wore during the Sunday night shooting, Scott James Craft, 33, pleaded not guilty in Van Nuys Municipal Court to a single count of murder.

The bearded, burly Craft also was charged with personal use of a firearm, which could add four to 10 years to his prison sentence if he is convicted.

Craft, who was unemployed and lived with his parents on tree-lined Lorne Street, had earned a reputation as a neighborhood crank who cursed neighbors and chased children away from his yard. One neighbor described him as “mean.”

He is being held on slightly more than $1 million bail.

Craft had claimed to police that he fired a .25-caliber automatic pistol at Keith Brown, 42, in self-defense. Family members also told police that Craft had a history of mental problems, and had been taking the anti-depressant Prozac, police and prosecutors said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin J. Herscovitz said eyewitness accounts and autopsy results ruled out self-defense and instead indicated an intent to kill. It is the first known shooting of one of thousands of Neighborhood Watch volunteers in Los Angeles.

Brown’s family is “very happy” that the investigation supports what they’d been contending all along--that Brown had done nothing to provoke the shooting, said family friend Claudid Hapip. Funeral arrangements are pending, she said.

“I think the evidence will be that the defendant was armed from the beginning,” said Herscovitz, adding that other witnesses reported seeing the gun poking from the waistband of Craft’s pants.

Herscovitz disputed earlier reports that Craft had fired a warning shot or blank. He also said that Craft already had shot Brown once when Brown picked up a five-foot board, ruling out self-defense.

“Under the law, once a person has used deadly force, he loses the right to claim self-defense,” Herscovitz said. “The first shot was in the victim’s back, as he was leaving the scene” of the argument, the prosecutor said. “As far as I know, there were four shots fired and all of them hit,” showing that Craft intended to kill.

The tragic sequence of events began with a dispute that seems trivial in light of the consequences.

Craft shouted profanities at an elderly woman and her 3-year-old grandson, accusing the boy of dragging a stick across his freshly resurfaced driveway.

The woman reported the incident to Brown’s wife, Kathy, the block captain of the tidy street’s Neighborhood Watch.

Brown and his wife had approached Craft to take down his address and, perhaps, to discuss the matter. But the conversation quickly turned hostile, and, according to Herscovitz, a shoving match ensued.

Kathy Brown left to call police, and a neighbor urged Brown to back off, literally pushing him toward home, Herscovitz said.

Brown had his back turned and was heading toward his home, three doors away from Craft’s, when Craft allegedly fired the first shot, Herscovitz said. The bullet grazed him in the rear shoulder.

“You shot me,” a surprised Brown exclaimed, neighbor and eyewitness Jon Wunderlin has told The Times. Craft laughed, according to Wunderlin’s account.

Brown then turned and picked up the board. He quickly put it down, then walked toward Craft, who allegedly shot him in the chin at close range. That shot spun Brown around, and Craft allegedly shot him twice more in the lower back, the prosecutor said.

Craft returns to court on Aug. 4 for a preliminary hearing.