Plea Is Not Guilty in Triple Murder

A 17-year-old boy who earlier this week was ordered to be tried as an adult for three murders in Clairemont pleaded not guilty Friday.

Manuel Flores Jr. was ordered held in County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail by San Diego Municipal Judge H. Ronald Domnitz.

Flores is one of two people charged in the Aug. 9 slayings of April Gilhousen, 20; her son, Bryan, 3, and Kevin Chandler, 29, all of whom lived in the Clairemont house where they were killed.

The co-defendant is Christopher Box, 20, a former football player and wrestler at Clairemont High School, who is awaiting a May 1 trial on the three murder charges.

A Juvenile Court judge on Wednesday ordered that Flores, also a high school football player, be tried as an adult at the conclusion of a weeklong hearing.

Domnitz ordered a Jan. 18 preliminary hearing.

The district attorney’s office has filed special circumstances allegations against Box and will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Special circumstances allegations cannot be filed against Flores because he was a minor at the time of the crime, even though he has been certified to be tried in adult court.

Prosecutors claim the three were killed during a robbery that involved a marijuana sale.