“They weren’t gangsters,” says Richard Kenvin, 47, a filmmaker who grew up surfing Windansea. “They were gangsta chic.”
Whatever you do, don't call it a gang.
What seems beyond dispute is that a security guard at the bar asked Mr. Kauanui to leave and that Mr. House and four others — Mr. Cravens; Orlando Osuna, 23; Matthew Yanke, 21; and Henri Hendricks, 22 — later drove to Mr. Kauanui’s home, prosecutors say to retaliate against him.
Mr. Kauanui’s head “buckled up and down like a bobblehead doll” during the fight, Mr. Hendricks told the police. When Mr. Kauanui fell back onto the sidewalk, his head landed on the concrete with what Mr. Cravens described to the police as “a loud thud.”...
As word spread of Mr. Kauanui’s death — he died four days after the beating from head injuries at Scripps Memorial Hospital — more than a dozen people reported assaults by one or more members of the Bird Rock Bandits, most of which involved at least one of the defendants. By the end of last summer, all five men were facing not only charges of first-degree murder, but also the gang allegations.
Pro Surfer’s Death Exposes Beach Town’s Violent Side
By ABBY AGUIRRE
SAN DIEGO — The affluent community of La Jolla has long produced beach cliques, most formed around the inclination of surfers and other beachgoers to guard their local break.
In particular, the locals who frequent Windansea Beach — a storied break once frequented by the professional surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. and a little-known group whose members call themselves the Bird Rock Bandits — are among the most territorial in all of California.
But last spring, Mr. Kauanui was beaten to death, and five young men from La Jolla, all in their 20s, were charged in his murder. In court last week, prosecutors said that because the men were members of the Bird Rock Bandits, they should be prosecuted under tough state laws that apply to criminal street gangs.
The men have pleaded not guilty, suggesting that Mr. Kauanui’s death was an accident, and they deny that their group is a gang. At a hearing that began Wednesday, in San Diego Superior Court, their lawyers are seeking to have the gang-related allegations — so-called enhancements that can result in much stiffer penalties at sentencing — dropped.
“They are as much a gang as any fraternity,” said Mary Ellen Attridge, the lawyer for one of the men, Seth Cravens, 22.
