A second suspect in the beating death of La Jolla surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. posted bond on Saturday, June 9, and left county jail after a judge reduced his bail amount from $2 million to $1.5 million on June 7.
Eric Matthew House, 20, joins Matthew Yanke, 20, in having their parents both posting bond since their arraignment with co-defendants Seth Cravens, 21, and Orlando Osuna, 22, on May 31 in San Diego Superior Court. Judge Jeffrey Fraser lowered Cravens’ bail from $2.5 million to $2 million and Osuna’s bail from $1.5 million to $1.2 million.
Fraser told all four men that if they do post bond, they must not go surfing or go to any beach in the county. Yanke had already posted bond, and the judge specifically told Yanke that he is barred from surfing or going to the beach.
Yanke is staying at a rehabilitation center and attending three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week.
The judge didn’t specifically say why he banned the four from surfing or going to the beach, although it is obvious that the death of Kauanui, 24, has hit the surfing community hard. On Saturday, hundreds of surfers paddled around a boat while his mother scattered his ashes off Windansea Beach.
All four suspects were to appear in court this week for a readiness conference, and a preliminary hearing was set for July 30. The judge also ordered all four to surrender their passport to the court, and ordered them not to leave San Diego County. They have all pleaded not guilty.
“This is a case where bail should go up and/or down, depending on (testimony) in the preliminary hearing,” Fraser said.
The different bail amounts may relate to different roles each person may have played. Cravens was described as the physically strongest of the four, and the prosecutor said it was Cravens who may have hit Kauanui the hardest. Kauanui’s head hit the pavement outside his mother’s home in La Jolla and he died May 28 from brain damage, four days after the beating.
House was the person identified as having a drink spilled on him, apparently by Kauanui, at the La Jolla Brew House on May 25. Kauanui then left for his mother’s home, but Osuna reportedly drove the four to Kauanui’s residence, where he was injured.
House was initially the only one arrested after his friends drove off after the beating. House was reportedly looking for a tooth he lost.
A police officer arrested House on a misdemeanor battery charge, and House posted bond before all four were charged with murder days later.
San Diego police are investigating 15 other incidents in which people have said they were physically assaulted by Cravens and one other co-defendant. The four are graduates of La Jolla High School and were acquaintances of the victim.