Man, 21, Gets 25 Years to Life in Newport Beach Murder

NEWPORT BEACH —  A Superior Court judge sentenced 21-year-old Stanley Frank Anaya to 25 years to life in prison Tuesday for his role in the Balboa Boulevard murder of John David Fahey.

Prosecutors said Fahey, 21, was an innocent bystander caught in a brawl that began with a love spat between his roommate and his next-door neighbor.

According to police, Fahey was chased down the street by a group of men wielding baseball bats and sticks wrapped with tape and was beaten and shot to death in front of a restaurant on Balboa Boulevard on Sept. 30.

Ten people were arrested in connection with the killing, and nine of them have been convicted of offenses ranging from murder to conspiracy and assault, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr.

Anaya, of San Pedro, was charged with first-degree murder and was alleged to have fired the shots that killed Fahey.

A jury convicted Anaya of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon but did not find beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Anaya who fired the shots, said his lawyer, George A. Quevedo.

Quevedo argued that because the jury had not found that Anaya was the shooter, he could not have acted with premeditated malice. Quevedo asked Superior Court Judge Ragnar R. Engebretsen to reduce the conviction to second-degree murder.

The judge refused and imposed the mandatory sentence of 25 years to life.

Anaya’s co-defendant, former UCI student Heather Rene Rose, 22, also was convicted of first-degree murder, aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon, Gannon said. She is scheduled to be sentenced March 15.

Police said that the incident started as a result of a spat between Rose and Fahey’s two roommates--Rose’s former boyfriend Brent Claxton and Jennifer McCarty.

According to Gannon, Rose called some of her “gang friends,” who came over to the apartment and attacked Fahey and Claxton as they were leaving their apartment. Only Claxton escaped.

Gannon said others convicted in connection with the attack were:

--Tito Huizar and Reynoldo Zepeda, both of Long Beach, convicted of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon. Huizar was sentenced to six years, Zepeda to eight. Zepeda, however, also was given 25 years to life for an unrelated drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.

--Leroy Lujan, 29, of Carson, convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life.

--Roman M. Woolem of San Pedro and Larry Pena and Robert Pimental Jr. of Long Beach, who all pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon. Woolem was given a three-year term, and the others are scheduled for sentencing March 12.

--An unidentified 17-year-old, sentenced to the California Youth Authority.

The last defendant, Richard Kirk Nogawa, 22, who was a sophomore at UC Irvine at the time of the attack, is still awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, Gannon said.