Posted on 11/18/2008 3:48:40 PM PST by nickcarraway
A San Diego Superior Court jury finds Seth Cravens guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the fatal beating last year of a professional surfer in La Jolla. Above, Cravens reacts to the verdicts. Cravens' defense lawyer, Mary Ellen Attridge (right), said they would appeal the verdict.
Shortly after the death of Emery Kauanui, a framed photo of Kauanui and his mother, Cynthia Kauanui, rested on the white picket gate in front of the home they shared. SAN DIEGO – A San Diego Superior Court jury found a member of the so-called Bird Rock Bandits guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the fatal beating of a professional surfer in La Jolla in a high-profile case that had attracted national attention.
Seth Cravens, 22, was convicted in the 2007 death of Emery Kauanui, 24, who died from brain injuries several days after suffering what prosecutors described as a sucker punch to the face thrown by Cravens.
Cravens also was convicted on four counts of assault with a deadly weapon to produce great bodily harm, one count of misdemeanor battery and one count of making a criminal threat.
He was acquitted on two other assault counts and one misdemeanor battery count stemming from previous unrelated assaults that came to light after Kauanui's death.
Cravens faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison. San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn scheduled sentencing for Jan. 12.
Cravens sat back in his chair and alternately gazed up and then down as the verdicts were read to a packed courtroom that included Kauanui's mother and Cravens' father, but otherwise showed no emotion. Later, as the jury was leaving the courtroom, he shook his head slightly.
Outside the courtroom, the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Sophia Roach, said the conviction “sends a strong message to the community that brutality will not be tolerated.”
She said that young Kauanui's life will never be replaced.
Advertisement “The family will live with this sadness forever,” she said. Cravens' attorney, Mary Ellen Attridge, said in court that the defense would appeal the verdict.
Prosecutors said Cravens was one of a group of five men who attacked Kauanui on May 24, 2007, outside Kauanui's mother's home.
Attridge contended that her client acted in self-defense. Prosecutors said the only person really defending himself was Kauanui, who suffered a skull fracture and died in the hospital four days later.
The five men, all graduates of La Jolla High School, had engaged in many alcohol-fueled fights in the neighborhood over several years, prosecutors said during the trial.
Gang-affiliation charges originally were sought against the men, but Einhorn ruled that the group did not fit the definition of a gang under state law. Jurors began deliberating the case Nov. 10 after a two-week trial. They were instructed to consider lesser offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter if Cravens had been acquitted of second-degree murder, which alone carries a possible prison sentence of 15 years to life.
On Monday afternoon, the jury told the judge it was split 11-1 on the murder charge. Einhorn sent a written response to the panel, which he did not reveal in court. He asked them to return to court Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.
According to testimony, Cravens and four others – Eric House, Matthew Yanke, Orlando Osuna and Henri “Hank” Hendricks – left the La Jolla Brew House, where House and Kauanui had gotten into an altercation.
The men drove to Kauanui's mother's home on Draper Avenue in La Jolla, where the fight broke out. At one point during the skirmish, Kauanui rose to his feet after being on the ground, according to testimony. He argued with Cravens, who witnesses said hit Kauanui once in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.
Yanke, House and Osuna pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter. House and Yanke were ordered to serve 210 days each in county jail. Osuna received the longest jail term at 349 days.
Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
The prosecution had sought prison terms for everyone but Hendricks.
Earlier this year, Cynthia Kauanui filed a civil lawsuit seeking unspecified damages against the five men, accusing them of wrongful death for beating or assisting in the beating of her son.
The La Jolla Brew House also is named in the suit.
Hard to picture this in way mellow La Jolla.
/mark
Oddly appropriate name: five to one? I’d say all of the attackers were cravens.
La Jolla High School is in a very wealthy community. Hopefully the victim's mother can hit them in the pocketbook really hard for ganging up on and murdering her son.
This is good news. I remember the discussions when it happened: we wondered if anyone would be convicted.
Sounds as much "self defense" as the Hells Angels currently on trial are claiming, for having pulled guns and shooting some Outlaws that parked on the opposite side in the same Custer State park scenic overlook area during last year's Sturgis MC Rally.
"Preemptive self defense" somehow doesn't make the cut legally, in most places.
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