Jury Convicts 2 of Murder in Paint-Roller Case

A jury returned second-degree murder verdicts Wednesday for the last two defendants charged in the 1993 death of a San Clemente teenager who was speared through the head with a paint-roller rod during a beach side confrontation.

The mothers of defendants Saul Penuelas, 20, and Rogelio Vasquez Solis, 19, wailed in tears outside the courtroom, while the family of the victim, Steve Woods, said the guilty verdicts will have little meaning unless the two young men receive stiff prison sentences.

Family members on both sides briefly exchanged angry words following the verdict as emotions flared in a case that has proven deeply divisive throughout the county.

Woods, 17, was in the passenger seat of a friend’s Chevrolet Suburban when a paint-roller pierced his skull during a confrontation Oct. 15, 1993, between two groups of young people at Calafia Beach County Park in San Clemente. He died 25 days later.

The two defendants, among six who were charged in the attack, said they threw rocks during the confrontation but never intended to kill anyone. Their attorneys urged jurors to return with a lesser verdict of involuntary manslaughter.

Although it was never proved who threw the paint-roller, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer contended all the defendants were responsible for Woods’ death because they joined in and acted together to hurl beer cans, wood chunks and other items at the teenager and his friends, who said they were driving from the park to avoid a fight with the other group.

The Orange County Superior Court jury reached its verdict after about four hours of deliberations. The defendants were each convicted of nine felonies, including second-degree murder, multiple counts of assault on the other youths in the cars and gang enhancements. Penuelas admitted membership in a San Clemente gang, while Solis said he was merely hanging out with friends he had grown up with in Mexico and San Clemente, their attorneys said. Neither have previous criminal convictions.

The defendants, 17 at the time of the crime, were tried as adults and will be sentenced in October. They are eligible for commitment at the California Youth Authority, where they can’t be held past age 25, or a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison.

Two other juvenile defendants, including Penuelas’ younger brother, were convicted of second-degree murder as adults and sentenced to the California Youth Authority. An adult defendant was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison on his second-degree murder conviction. Sentencing is pending for the sixth defendant, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Kathy Woods, the victim’s mother, said she was satisfied with the latest verdicts, but believes prison sentences are the only way to protect the public.

The parents of the defendants said the killing was an accident and believe the youths have been treated unduly harsh because of their ethnicity and background.

Prosecutors have denied that ethnicity played any role in the prosecution, and the defendants’ immigration status was never an issue at the trial.

The case sparked rallies and protests to complain about youth violence and gangs, and was cited as a catalyst for Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration initiative that the state’s voters approved in November 1994.

Latino rights leaders, in turn, said the defendants had been wrongly portrayed as violent gang members, and that they were being treated too harshly for an attack that many lamented as a freak accident.