Gang member Edward (Tony) Throop, convicted of murder in the drive-by slayings of two Saticoy men, will be evaluated by state prison officials to see whether he should be sentenced to prison or the California Youth Authority, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Allan Steele ordered a 90-day psychiatric evaluation by Department of Corrections staff at Chino for Throop, who faces a maximum of four life sentences without possibility of parole in the April 7 slaying.

The evaluation is required by law for any juvenile convicted as an adult.

Throop, now 18, was 17 when he fired shots from a fellow gang member's car with a .22-caliber rifle, killing Rolando Martinez, 20, and Javier Martinez, 19, and wounding two others outside a baptism party in Cabrillo Village, a Saticoy housing development.

If prison officials recommend that Throop not be put in prison immediately, he would be held at a California Youth Authority facility until he is 25, then transferred to state prison to serve the rest of his sentence.

Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 14, 1992.