Saul Penuelas

A final suspect charged with murder and assault in the killing of San Clemente teen-ager Steve Woods was ordered Tuesday to stand trial as an adult. Saul Penuelas, who recently turned 18, is the fourth juvenile in the case to face murder and multiple assault charges in adult court. The others, including Penuelas' younger brother, were ordered last week to stand trial as adults on the same charges. Deputy Dist. Atty.

The sentence concluding the final phase of the "paint roller" series of cases ("2 Sentenced in Murder of Teen Killed by Paint Roller," March 29) satisfied no one completely but gave all sides a bit of something. A casualty from the whole matter was human relations in San Clemente (and elsewhere in the county). There is the often questionable practice of law-enforcement entities in their treatment of Mexican-appearing youth, whether citizens, documented, or undocumented. And there is the chasm in society typified on one side by Kathy Woods and her family and friends in their grief and anger over their never-to-end loss and on the other side by the Hispanic families in their grief over their own loss for many years to come and their sons' subjection to the terrors of prison.

The sentence concluding the final phase of the "paint roller" series of cases ("2 Sentenced in Murder of Teen Killed by Paint Roller," March 29) satisfied no one completely but gave all sides a bit of something. A casualty from the whole matter was human relations in San Clemente (and elsewhere in the county). There is the often questionable practice of law-enforcement entities in their treatment of Mexican-appearing youth, whether citizens, documented, or undocumented. And there is the chasm in society typified on one side by Kathy Woods and her family and friends in their grief and anger over their never-to-end loss and on the other side by the Hispanic families in their grief over their own loss for many years to come and their sons' subjection to the terrors of prison.

A final suspect charged with murder and assault in the killing of San Clemente teen-ager Steve Woods was ordered Tuesday to stand trial as an adult. Saul Penuelas, who recently turned 18, is the fourth juvenile in the case to face murder and multiple assault charges in adult court. The others, including Penuelas' younger brother, were ordered last week to stand trial as adults on the same charges. Deputy Dist. Atty.

Four San Clemente youths pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of murder, assault and conspiracy stemming from a confrontation that left a 17-year-old boy fatally injured with a paint roller rod through his head. The defendants--Julio Perez Bonilla, 17, Rogelio Vasquez Solis, 17, Hector Penuelas, 17, and Saul Penuelas, 18--made their first appearances in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel since a Juvenile Court judge ruled last month that they should be tried as adults.

Two defendants charged in the slaying of a teen-ager who was pierced through the head with a paint roller told police they were members of a San Clemente street gang, while two others said they sometimes associated with the gang, sheriff's investigators testified Wednesday.

The mother of a San Clemente teen-ager who was killed when he was speared in the head with a paint roller following a beachside altercation Oct. 15, 1993, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against nine people she said were responsible. Stephen L. Woods, 17, died Nov. 9, 1993, three weeks after two groups of high school friends clashed near San Clemente State Beach.

A Municipal Court judge Thursday ordered four San Clemente youths to stand trial on murder and other felony charges in the slaying of a teen-ager whose head was speared by a paint roller rod. After a 2 1/2-day preliminary hearing, Judge Pamela L. Iles found enough evidence to support nearly all the charges against the defendants, including allegations that gang involvement played a role in the Oct. 15 attack that resulted in the death of Steve Woods at Calafia Beach County Park.

Two youths were convicted of second-degree murder and nine other felonies Thursday for a mob attack at an Orange County beach last year that resulted in the death of a teen-ager after a paint roller rod pierced his skull. Prosecutors could not prove that Hector Penuelas, 17, and Julio Perez Bonilla, 18, hurled the paint roller that fatally wounded a San Clemente High School senior. But Superior Court Judge Everett W.

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.

Extensive news coverage and the recall drive against an Orange County judge may make a fair trial impossible for the last defendants in the slaying of a San Clemente teen-ager speared in the head with a paint roller, their defense lawyers said Wednesday.

It was sadly ironic that one of Steve Woods' favorite songs was "Tears in Heaven." The acoustic melody by Eric Clapton was played one more time before friends and family who gathered Saturday afternoon for an emotional funeral for the 17-year-old San Clemente senior whose death has become a symbol of senseless violence for the local community. Woods died Tuesday after he was speared in the head with the metal rod from a paint roller Oct.