Man Testifies He Did Not Kill Boys : Trial: He says he was out to shoot a rival gang member, but did not shoot the trio of trick-or-treaters in 1993.

One of three men on trial in the 1993 Halloween murders of three Pasadena boys took the stand Tuesday and said he was out to kill a rival gang member that night in retaliation for the slaying of a crony--but had nothing to do with shooting the boys.

In soft-spoken testimony laced with expletives, Herbert Charles McClain Jr., 26, said he was in no way involved in the Halloween murders and never told anyone he was, contradicting several prosecution witnesses who earlier took the stand to say McClain admitted his involvement in the crime.

McClain said he went to a friend’s house Oct. 31, 1993, to help pass out candy and while he was there, received word that one of his closest friends had been shot, allegedly by rival gang members.

“I felt I was going to get some ‘get back’ for that, I was going to retaliate,” McClain said under cross-examination. “I was going to kill a Crip.”

So when he left his friend’s house, he said, he took his .44-caliber gun and drove around looking for Crips and for his cronies.

The only person he found, he said, was a Crip named Ricky. So McClain followed Ricky to a nearby apartment where they smoked drugs for about an hour and a half, he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Antony Myers asked McClain what he was doing.

“Trying to gain his confidence,” McClain said.

“So you could do what?” Myers asked.

“Kill him,” McClain replied.

Edgar Evans, 13, and Stephen Coats and Reggie Crawford, both 14, were shot to death as they trick-or-treated their way home from a birthday party in what prosecutors have alleged was a case of mistaken identity. Three friends who were walking with them were wounded in the attack.

McClain and co-defendants Lorenzo Alex Newborn, 25, and Karl Holmes, 20, have pleaded not guilty in the death penalty case before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith. Two other defendants will be tried separately.

Jurors in the six-week-long trial, who had appeared fatigued just before McClain’s late afternoon testimony, perked up when McClain’s attorney, H. Elizabeth Harris, called her client to the stand. Most took notes rapidly as McClain spoke.

On direct examination, McClain acknowledged not telling police about everything he did that evening.

“Certain parts I told to the best of my ability,” he said. “Some parts, I lied.” Under questioning by Myers, McClain explained that he did not tell police that he wanted to avenge his friend’s death.

McClain, who is the only defendant also accused of an attempted murder that took place days before the Halloween killings, told the jury that he watched the shooting at the Community Arms housing project but did not take part.

Cross examination is expected to continue this morning.