Prosecution Rests at Trial in ’93 Pasadena Triple Slaying : Courts: Defense begins calling witnesses. Girlfriend of one of the three defendants gives him an alibi in Halloween night killings of three boys.

The prosecution in the murder trial of three boys killed on Halloween, 1993, rested its case Tuesday after calling more than 50 people to testify, clearing the way for the three defense attorneys to begin calling their witnesses.

Lorenzo Alex Newborn, 25, Karl Holmes, 20, and Herbert Charles McClain Jr., 26, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of three boys and attempted murder of three others in a case that drew nationwide attention and galvanized Pasadena community activists.

On Tuesday, Newborn’s former girlfriend told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury that Newborn was with her from 7 p.m. on the night of the murders until 9 a.m. the next morning. The 18-year-old woman said the two only left her bedroom that night for minutes at a time.

Under cross-examination, the woman said that although she knew Newborn was a suspect in the case, she never told authorities that Newborn was with her the night of the murders.

Prosecutors allege that the three men and two other defendants--Aurelius Bailey and Solomon Bowen, who will be tried separately next month--were out to avenge the death of a fellow gang member who was killed earlier that Halloween.

If convicted, each could face the death penalty.

Edgar Evans, 13, and Stephen Coats and Reggie Crawford, both 14, were mistaken along with three other friends for rival gang members while the group trick-or-treated their way home from a birthday party.

Prosecutors attempted to show during their case that plans for the shootings were laid that night, outside the hospital where Fernando Hodges was dying.

Newborn’s attorney, Carl Jones, began his case by calling Hodges’ girlfriend, who testified that she did not see McClain or Newborn that night at the hospital, contradicting a prosecution witness who said the defendants were there.

The woman also said that the prosecution witness was not at the hospital that night.

Prosecutors countered by tracing the steps of Hodges’ former girlfriend, asking her to outline her movements in and out of the various hospital lobbies and rooms, including the one-hour or so period when she said she returned home to get her then 3-month-old baby.

On Monday, the prosecution called Stephen Coats’ younger brother, who escaped injury in the attack, to outline the last few hours of his brother’s life.

Just before he died, Stephen pushed his younger brother out of harm’s way, the younger Coats said.

“Stephen turned around and sort of like gave me a nudge and pushed me and . . . I heard him say, ‘I’m hit.’ ”

Edgar, he said, was the first to fall after the group heard what most of them assumed were firecrackers.

“We walked like another step or two and we noticed [Edgar] turned around like holding his stomach area,” said the boy, now 15.

Prosecutors asked if he heard Edgar say anything before he ran from the scene.

“He said, ‘Mama,’ ” the boy replied.