SANDIEGO – Four of the five men who faced murder charges in the death of a professional surfer in La Jolla last year pleaded guilty Friday to lesser felonies, in a case that sparked interest and outrage in the beach community.
Eric House, 21, Orlando Osuna, 23, and Matthew Yanke, 21, all pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter during a court hearing. Henri “Hank” Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.
(photo from the San Diego Union Tribune...the now-guilty defendants with their legal eagles)The 5th "Bird Rock Bandit" has decided that he'll roll the dice:
The fifth defendant, Seth Cravens, has chosen to go to trial in connection with the beating death of Emery Kauanui Jr., who died several days after fighting with the men outside his mother's home.
Cravens, 22, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault and battery. His trial date is set for Aug. 22.
La Jolla is safer today now that these poseur surfers and wanna-be gangstas will be spending some time behind bars:
According to the terms of the plea bargains, House now faces a maximum sentence of three years and six months in prison. Osuna, who in addition to manslaughter pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor battery, could be sentenced to up five years and six months.
Yanke also pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor battery and faces a maximum of three years and six months in prison.
Hendricks, a former University of New Hampshire quarterback, could be sentenced to a three-year prison term, according to prosecutors. However, the judge said he would not oppose reducing the charge to a misdemeanor after two years of probation.
For all of you gutless turds who keep leaving your profanity-filled anonymous comments in defending these morons, what do you say now? Don't give me that crap that their lawyers are spinning...i.e. that they took the deal because they really weren't guilty, but wanted to end the possibility of a jury making a mistake. They are going to jail (with the possible exception of Hendricks).
Look at the photo of them in their expensive suits as they sit before the judge...especially Osuna (sitting in the center). Osuna doesn't look anything like this characature from his My Space page:
Now Osuna and his buddies will be "rolling" in jail.
Wish to comment? Remember, I do NOT post anonymous comments. You can make a name up and if you are articulate enough to leave your comment without a string of profanities (gee..."friends" of these guys use profanity?...who knew?) I'll leave your comment up.
21 comments:
Who would defend them? People who are innocent don't opt for jail time. That's ludicrous.
I get the feeling that these 'gangsters' deserve a little more time for murdering someone. They murdered a man and get three years? What a joke.
If these guys had not had their backgrounds, and genetics, would they have gotten more time?
If these guys had not had their backgrounds, and genetics, would they have gotten more time?
What are you suggesting willt? That perhaps if these kids weren't rich white kids from La Jolla with high priced attorneys that maybe they would get stiffer sentences?
Naaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.........
nikki
This is way overboard; the truth will come out during the court, so many " stories were printed" and these guys were friends Emery was with them, in their homes etc
it was a fight between two jealous men over a girl and it turned out into a nightmare
they did not murder: Emery 's body had no markings of being beaten up
he had a blow to the chin and fell back and cracked his skull
no one cornered him, beat him while down; he came out of his condo willingly and took off his shirt and bloodied Eric House to a pulp, then Seth puched him and thats's it, when will you stop making generalisations without looking at the court statements
Hendricks lived in Boston near Doug Flutie for three years, he never saw these dudes much , he worked too hard and was a star athlete in high school, read the article by his friend Noah Brozinsky calle " leave, just leave" in the Cornell sun newspaper;(Hendricks had letters in baseball, football and basket ball and while at UHN he was on the dean's list ) Noha knew Hendricks since they were twelve; Hendrikson of the New York giants wrote a letter,
Doug Flutie, army officers, doctors, trainers, teachers and mothers, Nicklaus of golf fame
If he was such a loser do you think that they would have bothered?
Well, here's the problem Nikki. You are right, this story is kind of overblown. But according to police reports, Seth Cravens and the morons he hung out with had been causing trouble for years and had made drinking and fighting a part of their lifestyle. I am sure you read their Myspace pages before this all happened.
I live in this community. I don't want people like this living here as well. If they want to pretend that they are gangbangers and wreak havoc and mayhem, then they can go do that in jail.
And paint it any way you want to...this was an act of violence that was stupid and unnecessary.
Though Hendricks pleaded out to a lesser charge and may get off lightly, according to police reports and his own admission, he was so brave that instead of trying to break up the fight he held off Emery's girlfriend during it. And then he drove the getaway car instead of helping a dying man.
And lets not forget that he once hit one of his coaches when he was in high school. So don't portray him or any of these other losers as pillars of society.
I guess the easy way out would be to call them kids who made a mistake. Except that mistake cost someone his life and spilled blood in my neighborhood. Nikki, its time to grow up and learn something about accountability...stop making excuses for these guys and realize that there are consequences to your actions.
WORD! Emery has 5 lowlife visitors that some might call "friends" come knock on his door. Eric House threatens Emery, and challenges him to a fight, subsequently getting his wannabe gangster ass kicked. Then, House's scum-bag friends jump in and attack Emery after seeing their little shitheel friend holding his own teeth in his hands. These twat waffles are getting off easy with this plea bargain. The law-abiding citizens of San Diego are still short-changed on the growing number of "kids" (legal adults) that deserve incarceration for their piss-poor choices in life that threaten and harm otherwise decent people in this town. F&*% these guys; save your tears for someone worthwhile.
Nikki
Hi Nigel
At least ,you made sense and you are not hysterical
There are degrees between these guys
Feeling terrible about Emery who should be alive today; you do not know all the facts ; for example there was a hard disc in court, held by the accusation with Emery's voice saying " i am going to kill them, when they come over"
; the defense forced the record to be played and the judge heard it
Emery could have stayed in his condo , he came out swinging and bloodied Eric House to a pulp, when they both fell down fighting,
, Grosso jumped on the two and kicked and screamed she was going crazy , Hendricks pulled her up and the two guys could stand up, which should have been a finish , then Emery said something to Seth Craven who gave him " the blow"
which was fatal
Emery was not beaten while down, the autopsy shows no marks to his body; one blow to the chin and a craked skull, do not forget that
Emery was the one on parole for beating people , yet we grieve his death which made him a saint and we grieve for his poor mom no one should go through this ;
I guess that night they were horrified and freaked , the sound was horrible when Emery fell, they were all drunk
Hendricks was not pointed out by any witness in court for attacking anybody , he lived in Natick and worked his ass, he had no time for punching people , he was stressed by work and that guy has a good brain and had arrived the day before from Boston , how could he know that the ones that he knew in high school were so busy bumping people ? He is kind of humble and did not tell the old buddies that he was on the dean's list etc he acted like a person who had been out of it and the great error he made was to run away, Emery was not alone, Grosso was there and Eric House was there and Eric told the medics " forget me and take care of Emery" he was grief striken. When Emery was not allowed in his condo, he stayed at these guys's houses, when they broke in at the new year's party, they went with Emery's truck , these guys were friends from way back ; Seth is part Samoan, Emery was part Hawaian, Osuna is part Mexican, there was no racism there.
I have poured over documents , read articles mostly negative, some positive like the LA times article by Joel Sappel called
" death in paradise" december 13th 2007 where he speaks of each one of this kids fairly
In conclusion , lets not be like
people in the old south with tar and feathers and lynching
We will learn the truth during the court case of Seth in August and there will be a lot of new elements
Nikki
Hi Nigel
At least ,you made sense and you are not hysterical
There are degrees between these guys
Feeling terrible about Emery who should be alive today; you do not know all the facts ; for example there was a hard disc in court, held by the accusation with Emery's voice saying " i am going to kill them, when they come over"
; the defense forced the record to be played and the judge heard it
Emery could have stayed in his condo , he came out swinging and bloodied Eric House to a pulp, when they both fell down fighting,
, Grosso jumped on the two and kicked and screamed she was going crazy , Hendricks pulled her up and the two guys could stand up, which should have been a finish , then Emery said something to Seth Craven who gave him " the blow"
which was fatal
Emery was not beaten while down, the autopsy shows no marks to his body; one blow to the chin and a craked skull, do not forget that
Emery was the one on parole for beating people , yet we grieve his death which made him a saint and we grieve for his poor mom no one should go through this ;
I guess that night they were horrified and freaked , the sound was horrible when Emery fell, they were all drunk
Hendricks was not pointed out by any witness in court for attacking anybody , he lived in Natick and worked his ass, he had no time for punching people , he was stressed by work and that guy has a good brain and had arrived the day before from Boston , how could he know that the ones that he knew in high school were so busy bumping people ? He is kind of humble and did not tell the old buddies that he was on the dean's list etc he acted like a person who had been out of it and the great error he made was to run away, Emery was not alone, Grosso was there and Eric House was there and Eric told the medics " forget me and take care of Emery" he was grief striken. When Emery was not allowed in his condo, he stayed at these guys's houses, when they broke in at the new year's party, they went with Emery's truck , these guys were friends from way back ; Seth is part Samoan, Emery was part Hawaian, Osuna is part Mexican, there was no racism there.
I have poured over documents , read articles mostly negative, some positive like the LA times article by Joel Sappel called
" death in paradise" december 13th 2007 where he speaks of each one of this kids fairly
In conclusion , lets not be like
people in the old south with tar and feathers and lynching
We will learn the truth during the court case of Seth in August and there will be a lot of new elements
Nikki,
Go back and read what you wrote. Assuming everything you said is correct...do you want guys like this living in your community?
Any of them?
The reason this story struck a nerve with me is this is where I live. I don't want garbage like this in my neighborhood.
Was Emery culpable in some way in what happened to him? Absolutely. Click on the "bird rock bandits" tag and you can read where I have covered that. In fact, had someone else had their skull cracked that night, then Emery would be villified here.
Everything about this case is stupid. Everything. From the original arrogance of the guys who thought that playing "gang banger" was fun, to the parents and friends of these dummies who tried to portray them as "good", to the violent theats I have received in my comment box (that I have not posted)...it is all stupidity.
Nikki, you sound like you may be friends with these guys. If so...why? A hint...if someone is affiliated with a group that says that their idea of a good time is " getting wasted, partying, surfing and womping” (those are the words right off of the original "Bird Rock Bandits" Myspace page, then perhaps you might want to stay as far away from them as possible.
Your character is defined by the company that you keep. Unfortunately, nobody in this group had enough character to steer clear of this tragedy. Who is to blame? Who cares at this point. They all deserve to be punished.
Hi Nigel
I agree with what you say, i hate violence, it scares me as i saw it and it has a life of its own, it becomes a thing so vile and terrifying that it curls your soul, i do not want Seth, Osuna and Yankee near my house, what i am saying is that :lets not bundle them up as one, i have lived and worked in La Jolla for fourty years and i have met some of them and i feel we are like them if we lump them all like a one headed monster; Eric House and Hendricks
were not into that, Hendricks lived in Natick for three years, he was not in La Jolla punching people he was working so how could he belong to a gang ? He did not have the time of day to communicate
You could also call Eric house a victim; he was covered with blood and he was the yougest; yes i think that Seth needs a shrink , yes i think the the ones who went around beating people need shrinks and they need to be real scared so that they will change their ways
i am not for them, but let justice deal with each one; there is an article with the truth for once in the san Diego Union from last saturday the 28th where they finally tell it like it is , the papers have had wild statements but some articles are more balanced which is the way that it should be , justice is a scale, right? So if America is America let that scale work as it should , i love my country and i love our people and i want peace in the streets, but do you know that violence has become rampant on our streets and our cities ? young people drink too much; they have barf bags after parties in some colleges i heard
Hendricks had friends who were and are rational and smart, he was not even in the reataurant when the beer spill took place and Emery did drench House in beer, so essentially it started because of Emery and House being mad at each other
Emery called House an his cell phone and he and House had a to and fro conversstion for a while, Emery wanted House to come and fight , he liked to fight; they all followed like fools ,
When guys are drunk they perform with half their brains asleep
I am not excusing them yet i say
" wait for the court and hear the whole truth" not a one sided , angry expletive bunch of crazy angry, irrational stuff, if so we become like them
i do like your blog and you let everyone express themselves
NIKKI SAYS
who speaks of genetics , Osuna is Mexican, Emery is Hawaian, Craven is Samoan .
To anonymous commenters...I allowed the above comment because I think that may have been "Nikki" based on prior comments and IP address...
However,as a rule I will not allow anonymous comments. So leave a name.
Oh...and leave the vulgarity out.
Except for you, Yiddish.
NIKKI
Who is Yidish?
Me! I'm "Yiddish"... "Yiddish Steel", that is... I like to break out the Clue Bat around this place when personal accountability tries to hibernate.
nikki says
i used to be a teacher and many of my friends and students were Yiddish , i am religious and ethicity blind, they were good smart people, Hendricks best friend at Cornell is Yidish and wrote an article about him on the Cornell sun called " leave , just leave" his name is Noah Brozinsky , they knew each other at twelve and are still good friends
The beauty of our country is that we are all immigrants from somewhere and equal in opportunities , thats where America has the edge, we do not have the horrible cast systems which still exists in Europe, specially in England who never had a revolution like the rest of Europe even though its getting better
So Yiddish steel , keep your good spirits and let the truth come out
when the court case comes out in august, then we will see more clearly the wole picture
Bottom line is that these jerks were looking for trouble and they found it.
I don't care whether Emery was a perfect gentelman. Emery was at home NOT jumping into cars w/ friends pursuing people to fight. These "bird watcher gang" members or whatever they're called, brought it to his front door.. they followed him home.
These were not in the "heat of the moment" decisions, which are a bit more forgivable and understandable. Every single one of these bird watching dudes made the conscious decision to pile into that car and go trolling for trouble. This was premeditated. Murder was not premeditated but a horrible ending to Emery's night was always the plan in every single one of their minds.
A normal person woulda left the trouble at the bar and called it a night. Only crazy psychopaths, gangsters, or young teenagers pile into cars to stalk people to find out where they live to cause further trouble without any fear of the consequences. THAT'S WHY THESE GUYS BELONG IN JAIL. They don't think.. they just do and don't care.
If someone were to threaten me at my home where I stay with my family, better believe I am going to whoop their ass just like Emery did. These men threatened his home and he has every single right in the world to defend it. Sure, he could have called the cops-- then what?? These guys are bullies and would have persisted. The only way to shut up a bully is a good ass kicking.
Emery was right for everything he did. He did not pursue House or the other guys - they pursued him right up to his front door - his "safe" haven" - and threatened him.
nikki says to Roberta
Obviouly you have not followed the
court case; i have and the cell phone converstions are such that Emery invited House to come and fight, Emery did not have to come out of his condo and he did , tore off his own shirt and started beating on Eric House, Emery was on parole for violent behavior in Florida and Oceanside, he had done jail time ; there was also evidence of Emery's voice on a hard disc which they played in court it said " they are coming over and i am going to kill them"
the judge heard it , so did everyone
You can read? so read the court reports before going wild
Emery had no marks on his body and as the newspaper said and the autopsy " he died from a blow to the jaw and a fall on his head" no one beat him up while he was down, his body would have " talked" but there was no such thing NOT A SINGLE MARK of abuse to his body
Some of these guys are vile i agree but read the story like it is and at least two are more decent , so analyse and read and then make a remark
Uhh... Nikki?! I don't know what kind of Teacher you once were, but you're obviously not aware that "Yiddish" is not a race, or ethnicity, or a nationality; it's a language. It's a pigeon-form of German, Hebrew, & English. If one is actually born here in this country (The United States), that person is not an immigrant. They are a natural-born citizen. This country is like any other country on this planet; comprised of people that moved from one country to another by way of immigration. I have news for you: England is in the strangled throes of dhimmitude (look it up). It's not getting better there. Just as most other western European nations are being overrun by Islamic immigration. Those places all suck! Think about this: You can tell how great a country truly is by counting the number of people trying to get in vs. the number of people trying to get out. My spirits are always up, Nikki. I live in the greatest, kindest, most opportunistic country on the planet. I am quite confident that your friend who decided to go to trial gets convicted of the manslaughter and battery charges.
Nikky says to YiDDISH
First of all; i am not a friend of
Set Craven, i have never met him and he deserves what he is going through absolutely
Second of all : i am not born American , i was European and i lived history; i was a child in world war two and i had a semitic ancestor so that we were scarred and i almost died , i was a skeleton in 1944
If Americans did not save us , i would be dead today
When America landed in Normandy, Italy, the south of France i was in Europe
I have an absolute gratitude to America and when the Americans blew down the Nazi sign on the Bradenburg gate i was thirteen and i wrote a poem to America( English is my third language) ; sorry for not being born American yet i have been American for fifty years)
I called my poem
America land of my dreams
When i was knee high
Could i ever cry
For our countries gone under
Because we had to surrender
Shredded by German's plunder
Yet i rejoiced and thanked God when the sun was shinning
I did a lot of day dreaming
Watching the clouds as they went by
The only jewells i saw
were the daisies by the road
Their perfect little rows
Of white petals center gold
and i dreamt of far away lands where people were free
Free to laugh and free to speak
Free of fear and striffe
America land of my dreams you were floating in my inner space like a desert 's mirage
I clung to it with determination
Until the day it came into action
Young GI's fresh faced , full of youth
Smiled at us from their metal girth
Tanks, cannons, guns and the likes
They looked so vulnerable and young
They held my hand " small "
In theirs " strong"
In their palms well fed and reassuring
They could be so loving to a little girl who defied dying
So land of my dreams,
You will come true, in my heart
you grew and grew
Till one day, i will see New York bay
Land of my dreams you will be mine
Yes i was a teacher ; i am a linguist and i speak five languages , i was a dud in maths so that God gave me another talent
Sorry that i made a lapsus , Yiddish is a language which is a mixture of German, jewish spoken in Germany and in America etc
I know that i was wrong as you are right it is not a race, just like Jewish is a religion
Many of my friends went to camps ; six millions Jewish people died in world war two and fourty five millions died also
The people in camps were; Jewish gays, malformed people, gypsies, anti Nazis , Americans, Poles, Norvegians, Belgians, French , Dutch( prisonners of war and anti Nazis)
The soldiers; Americans, British,
Australians, New Zelanders, Canadians, Blacks and whites, Hawaiians, Italians, Russians, free French,dutch, Norvegians etc underground fighters
yes fourty five millions died
Europeans do love America as i know most countries in Europe, i was born in Africa and know a lot of the world yet America is the dearest to me;
As Lafayette, Rochambeau , de Grasse helped America at Yorktown
and i saw their statues in Washington DC ; the old world came to America in order to learn from the new world how freedom was practiced because they had never known freedom before in Europe with the tyrannies of kings and religions
You seem as if you were angry at me, i am not angry with you
What i say and i repeat as we are half intelligent people; let us not lump all these kids as one , let us not be biggots like lynchers of the old south and lynch people
The kids are individuals with individual lives , they should be judged as such
In an existensial sense each one of us is reponsible for his destiny
Some of these guys were not pointed to by witnesses in court such as
" Yes this one punched me then , i know him etc" at least two were not even recognized or pointed to in court which made their sentences lighter , which means that did other things besides punching people , they had a life
NIKKI TO YIDDISH
No America is not like any other country on the planet
America was the new world where people started from scratch and wrote their constitution inspired by their ideals and by philosophers like Locke and Rousseau who aspired to a new world
The world is old America is only two hundred years and some
Europe is thousands of years old with all its past of sufferering,
injustices, persecutions etc
Which is what made America great
because they started from a new,
untouched place and they could create and create away from what they had known
You seem to doubt my intellect which is fine; i had friends like Jonas Salk, Francis Crick, i knew Angela Davis and they seemed to feel that my intellect was accetable by their standards
Intellect is relative to each one of us and as finger prints are unique to each, so is our brain; unique.
My parents were educated and lberal I did receive some education so that i will not put a barometer on everyone that i meet and i would never dare judge their IQ's for i respect their history and their uniqueness, just as i respect yours
PAT
You are wrong hendricks NEVER punched a coach in high school , i was there with him
Anyway things are going fine so stop hating so much
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