A gang expert has testified that five young men who are charged with killing professional surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. were members of an exclusive gang that operated only in La Jolla as the Bird Rock Bandits and had no rivals.
District Attorney investigator David Soliven, who worked with gangs during his many years with San Diego police, told San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn the Bird Rock Bandits used threats and challenges involving violence and marked territory just like other gangs elsewhere in San Diego.
Soliven testified on the sixth day of the preliminary hearing, which is expected to end late this week. The defendants include Seth Cravens, 22, Orlando Osuna, 23, Matthew Yanke, 21, Eric House, 21, and Henri Hendricks, 22. They are all charged with murder. Cravens and several others are charged with a number of assaults involving other people that go back to 2005.
Other witnesses included police officers who interviewed neighbors who said they saw Kauanui, 24, struck outside his mother’s home in La Jolla on May 24, 2007. He suffered a skull fracture and brain injuries when his head hit the pavement, and he died four days later on Memorial Day.
Defense attorneys have strongly denied accusations their clients are gang members. The charges include sentencing enhancements that say they committed assaults as “a criminal street gang.”
Soliven and all police officers who testified have said they had never heard of the Bird Rock Bandits until after Kauanui was killed.
Attorney Mary Ellen Attridge, who represents Cravens, entered a page of the 2004 yearbook from La Jolla High School, from which all five men graduated, into evidence. The photo depicts women with the nickname Bird Rock Bitches. Attridge also entered into evidence a photo of President Bush giving a sports gesture about a particular Texas team, in an attempt to challenge what a gang sign is.
Attridge has asked most witnesses if they ever saw Cravens or anyone else show gang Bird Rock Bandits gestures or graffiti with that name, but no one has said they have seen that.
Soliven said the principal activities of the Bird Rock Bandits were “to attend parties … drink and cause fights that could cause injuries.”
Soliven testified that law enforcement agencies, and not gang members themselves, define who is a member of a street gang. He went through all 16 counts and said the five men committed the crimes for the benefit of a gang.
Soliven said previous testimony showed how Cravens and others would ask people at beaches where they were from. He cited testimony in which Cravens told women not to invite people from East County or Pacific Beach to their parties.
Soliven quoted remarks from a woman he interviewed who said she and her boyfriend were surrounded by men believed to be the defendants on Windansea beach and had beer and sand poured on them because they were from another area. The woman told police the men told her they didn’t like people who showed up at the beach with shoes instead of sandals and that they must be from East County.
The female victim was also quoted as saying one defendant said people who wear caps with the brim backward must also be from East County. Her boyfriend had a beer bottle broken on his shoulder in the October 2006 incident. Cravens and Osuna were identified by one witness as being present.
Soliven testified another gang characteristic is for assaults to occur in groups so they could surround a victim and cause “fear in the community.” Soliven said the surrounding of Kauanui by all five men showed they acted like a gang.
House and Kauanui argued earlier that night at a bar, and Kauanui poured beer over House’s head, according to testimony. Soliven said the incident represented “a challenge” by Cravens and the others, and “challenges don’t go unanswered.” He said that is why they showed up at Kauanui’s house later that night.
Kauanui’s blood/alcohol level at the hospital was .17, which is twice the legal limit. His former girlfriend drove him home after the incident with House. Cravens allegedly called Kauanui on his cell phone and he came outside, where he was beaten.
The men have all pleaded not guilty. Cravens is the only one not to have posted bond, and he remains in the George F. Bailey Detention Facility on $1.5 million. House and Yanke are free on bonds of $1.5 million and $1 million, respectively. Osuna and Hendricks are both free on $500,000 bond. All four men are banned from going to any beach as a condition of bond.