SAN DIEGO – A San Diego Superior Court jury found a member of the so-called Bird Rock Bandits guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the fatal beating of a professional surfer in La Jolla in a high-profile case that had attracted national attention.
Seth Cravens, 22, was convicted in the 2007 death of Emery Kauanui, 24, who died from brain injuries several days after suffering what prosecutors described as a sucker punch to the face thrown by Cravens.
Expecting a jury decision today in the murder trial of self-proclaimed gang-banger Seth Cravens in the killing of Emery Kauanui.
I constantly get anonymous emails and comments that proclaim Cravens' innocence, tell me that I don't know "the truth", and defend the behavior of those involved.
Here's the deal...NOBODY involved was "innocent" of anything. A group of thugs all got boozed up at a local bar and thought it would be a good idea to fight. Someone died as a result of this idiotic behavior. Nobody had the brains or the courage to intervene and stop this.
Was Kauanui an "innocent" victim? Probably not. He was dumb enough to go outside to confront the FIVE morons who wanted to fight him. Kauanui had a history of stupid behavior before the night of his death.
But no matter what the jury decides about Cravens, he is not "innocent". He is a punk who needs to grow up. He did throw the punch that killed Kauanui...that is not even in dispute.
His attorney claims it was in self-defense. Here's a question for her: What the hell was Cravens doing at Kauanui's house in the first place?
5 comments:
FRANK
IT WAS RECORDED ON THE CELL PHONES THAT SETH CALLED ERIC HOUSE AND THEN SETH CRAVEN TO COME OVER AND FIGHT DUH :
DUH!
Does that mean you should bring 5 guys to a fight?
DUH!
Why couldn't a bunch of drunken morons just simply have gone home instead?
DUH!
I guess if someone challenges you to a fight, you must go fight.
DUH!
Frank, if this is your attitude, I guess it won't be long until you join your buddies in jail...
Frank
The duh was not too bright, sorry ; but in court they went through the timing of the cell phone calls and the courts said that it went that way;
As soon as Emery went home he started calling on his cell phone
Eric House and Seth Craven, they did not call him, he did
So they had agreed to a one to one fight,
They had arrived together in one car so that they went to Emery in one car, they were all drunk and stoned in a stupor ( remember they were young kids so was emery) yet he was older twenty four i guess
I agree about your comments on Emery's conduct before and some of the other guys before they were not sterling from the word go
So why did Emery get out of his condo , wiped off his shirt and beat the tarr out of Eric House?
Then he got up and continued to swing
He may have seen too many Bruce Lee movies
i respect your unbiased and tough opinion sorry about the duh
I work and keep clean and i understand that Hendricks took his lumps and got out of jail and works hard and keeps it clean
His fault was saying " lets get out of here " not good, but that did not kill Emery as he never touched him ; i know i am his buddy, he is not a puncher, the guy is a hard worker and has been all of his life, he needed seven units to get his degree at UNH
Hey Frank,
Now that was MUCH better...in fact, it was probably the most articulate account of what probably happened that night that I have read.
Including in the newspapers.
Admittedly, I have not been in court, nor was I at the scene that night. I really do not know what happened. The reason I blog about this is two-fold:
1. This all occurred a few blocks from my home.
2. This was one of the most senseless and stupid "murders" I have ever heard of. These kids were posing as "gangbangers" before all of this happened. They each had advantages in life they could have been using to get ahead, yet they wasted their time "surfing, partying and whomping".
Emery lost his life because he was wasting it. By some accounts, he was a talented enough surfer that he could have made a very comfortable PEACEFUL living. But he spent more time drinking and taking drugs (allegedly...that is from a police report I have previously linked to). He clearly was not "innocent" the night we was killed.
Hendricks is an interesting cautionary tale. His story is a reminder that "you are who you roll with". High school bonds aside, if you hang out with troublemakers, don't be surprised if you find yourself in trouble. While he likely was not as complicit in the killing as originally portrayed by the media and police, he certainly could have been a "cooler head" and perhaps stopped this from occurring. And by a few different accounts, it appears he spent more time keeping Emery's girlfriend away so the fight could continue, then he did trying to separate the combatants.
I have written previously that I hope Hendricks pulls his life together, finishes his education, and uses the experience to counsel other wanna-be thugs.
Cravens? The guy is a maggot...even if the jury finds him "not guilty". Yet there is even hope that he could change. All of them are young enough and hopefully this horrible experience will teach every associated with the "Bandits" that the "partying and whomping" lifestyle is stupid.
Surfing is pretty cool.
Especially when you do it sober.
Frank
I am glad that you understood my
" version" of that terrible night
which is pretty true as i heard it from several participants and witnesses who do not have too much of a bias i feel
The thing about Jenny ( Emery's girl friend) is that she is small and threw herself on top of Emery and Eric House's bodies while they were struggling on the ground
If you can imagine two young athletes being separated by a small girl and on top of that being intoxicated as they were. Honestly Nigel and i think that you are a smart man with tough and honest opinions which makes you pretty rational and pragmatic , i feel that her intervention would have failed except maybe hurting herself it was futile at that point
Hendricks parents saw the writing on the wall and took off for Natick Mass with their kids and stayed there FOR THREE YEARS where they felt " safe" away from what you cannot stand in your neighbourghood
The clincher was that when summer break came Hendricks came for a two weeks breather and was invited by these guys to a " high school reunion" and as Hendricks is pretty mellow, he went
He had been their quarter back and felt good about it
He was not a devotee of these people as his life had taken him to a pretty rigid curriculum and his friends were like Noah Brozinsky at Cornell whose article you published and liked so much, lets face it Noah is very bright and still a friend with whom Hendricks correspond
It was a " quirk of fate" and i admit that night these kids made terrible mistakes but they did not kill Emery, the punch did and their past caught up if it was as bad as some of them are described
as being , yet lets not bunch them up together as one , we beleive there were degrees in their mutual behaviors
End of story and thank you
your articles are great
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