Orange County in Brief

HUNTINGTON BEACH

Groups sue over wetlands walls

Two environmental advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Thursday against the state Coastal Commission, complaining that stone walls built by a developer at the entrance to a public trail into Bolsa Chica wetlands discouraged people from entering.

The 10-foot-high wall and trellis structures built by developer Hearthside Homes are “placed up there to suggest private territory instead of the public identity they should have,” said Steve Hoye, executive director of nonprofit Access for All, one of the organizations that filed the suit.

“You certainly get the sensation that you’re actually entering someone else’s turf.”

The suit seeks to have all three pairs of the monument-like structures, two sets of which are on Bolsa Chica Avenue south of Los Patos Avenue, removed.

“We’d really like to see the public face of this particular location be made more plain,” Hoye said.

An April Coastal Commission staff report recommended the removal of one of the decorative monuments, which were built before the commission’s approval; the commission voted to keep the structures in place.

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Susannah Rosenblatt

HUNTINGTON BEACH

Arraignment set in cyclist’s death

A Huntington Beach man was scheduled to be arraigned today in the death of a 14-year-old bicyclist he is accused of hitting while driving under the influence of narcotics and while sending a text message from his cellphone.

Jeffrey Francis Woods, 20, is charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the Aug. 29 death of Daniel Oates.

Woods is accused of being under the influence of Vicodin when he suddenly swerved over several lanes of oncoming traffic in his pickup truck and struck Daniel, who was in the bike lane on the opposite side of the road.

The erratic driving was exacerbated, prosecutors say, by the fact that Woods was sending a text message at the time.

If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

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David Haldane

COSTA MESA

Man convicted in 2006 shooting

A Compton man has been convicted of killing one person and injuring four others in a drive-by shooting after a dispute over a woman, authorities said Thursday.

Joshua Anthony Blount, 24, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on July 24 in the August 2006 shooting in Costa Mesa.

It occurred in an alley behind an apartment complex on Baker Street, where a man had earlier spat on the car of the unidentified woman who he believed was associated with a group that had assaulted a 13-year-old the day before.

The woman contacted Blount, who returned later and started shooting, killing Israel Maciel and wounding four others.

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David Haldane