Daniel Uruiza and Guillermo Garcia, both 16, and Raymond Sullivan, 17, are scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 27 on charges of murder and intent to promote a criminal street gang in San Bernardino Superior Court.The Three teenagers were ordered held over for trial Tuesday in last year's deadly stabbing of 16-year-old Robert Banuelos near Arroyo Valley High School. After listening to testimony from law-enforcement witnesses, Judge Kyle Brodie determined that sufficient evidence was presented during a preliminary hearing to try the trio. Uruiza also faces a special allegation of using a weapon, a knife, according to court documents. "This brings us one step closer to bringing justice to the victim's family, and hopefully closure," said Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster, who is prosecuting the case. Banuelos was confronted and stabbed near Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, after school on May 20, according to San Bernardino police. He was a documented gang member from the Los Angeles area, according to earlier accounts from police. Witnesses said the defendants, who are members of a Westside street gang, were "putting in work" for their gang, Detective Pete Higgins testfied. Higgins told defense lawyers during questioning that Banuelos was targeted for death after a fight involving him and Garcia. Uruiza and Sullivan did not attend Arroyo Valley, authorities said.With Uruiza charged as having the weapon, lawyers for Sullivan and Garcia aimed to portray their clients at the hearing as bystanders at an after-school fight. Uruiza's lawyer, James Gass, declined to comment when reached after the hearing.
Highway Patrolman James Helm said the defendants were part of a group of young men who crossed Ninth Street in front of his patrol car, 20 to 25 minutes before the stabbing. Helm later heard a dispatch about the stabbing. In court, he identified two of the defendants, and was mostly sure about Garcia except for a different haircut, as being detained for the stabbing near Mount Vernon Avenue and Vine Street. San Bernardino police Officer Edward Lee testified that he was flagged down by a friend of the victim's. During encounters with police before the stabbing, Uruiza and Sullivan had signed "gang cards" identifying them as members and had been added to a street gang injunction on the city's Westside, testified Officer Chris Gray. Uruiza and Sullivan both have tattoos representing the gang, and Uruiza has a tattoo on his stomach in connection with the "Dead Presidents" case, Gray said. In that case, four gang members - two of whom were gang presidents - were gunned down in the driveway of a West Vine Street duplex in July 2000.