Charged as Accomplice : Man Faces Murder Trial in Rookie Officer’s Death

A 19-year-old North Hollywood man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for the murder of a Los Angeles police officer killed while investigating a burglary last month.

Although prosecutors said Alberto Beto Hernandez did not participate in the fatal shooting of rookie Officer James Beyea on June 6, he was charged under a California law that allows an accomplice to be charged with a murder committed during a serious crime. A police detective testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Hernandez had confessed he was involved in the burglary.

“He was part and parcel of the group that set off this whole chain of events that led to . . . Beyea’s death,” Municipal Judge Paul I. Metzler said. Metzler also ordered Hernandez to stand trial for burglary.

Hernandez’s attorney, James M. Coady, had argued for dismissal of the murder charge because “there was no evidence that he was in any way involved with the death of the officer.”

Robert Steele, 16, who police said fired the shots at Beyea, was himself killed after four police officers shot at him in an abandoned house in North Hollywood hours after Beyea’s death.

Detective Jerry Stevens testified Wednesday that Hernandez admitted after his arrest that he and Steele had planned the burglary of Alpha Electronics on Lankershim Boulevard. As they were running away with several car stereos about midnight, police arrived.

Hernandez said that when he saw Steele being pursued by Beyea, he ran in the opposite direction and hid in some bushes, Stevens testified. Hernandez said he heard shots but did not see who fired them, Stevens said. Hernandez told police he then saw Steele run away.

According to the testimony of Ignacio Gonzalez, an 18-year police veteran, he and Beyea responded to a burglar alarm at Alpha Electronics and began searching the area.

The men split up, Beyea on foot and Gonzalez in the car, at the intersection of Hinds Avenue and Wyandotte Street. Gonzalez testified that as he returned to the intersection a short time later, he saw his partner and a young man in a white jacket scuffling a block away.

“Suddenly I saw and heard two shots go off and I saw my partner go down,” Gonzalez said, his voice breaking.

He testified that the two men were approximately the same size. Gonzalez said the man in the white jacket then headed for him, fired one shot and ran away.

About four hours later, police dogs tracked Steele to an abandoned house. Officers found Steele, clad in a white jacket, hiding between two rafters near a corner of the attic’s crawl space. Sgt. Gary Nanson testified that Steele refused to put down a gun when ordered to, so “I fired one round into the suspect’s head.”

Nanson said he saw Steele start to pick up his gun and heard several shots fired by the three other officers.

Meanwhile, other officers found Hernandez hiding in bushes near the abandoned house after a resident called police about a prowler.

Hernandez will be re-arraigned in San Fernando Superior Court on July 29. He is being held without bail.