Murder in Paradise?

The brutal beating death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui turns upscale La Jolla upside down, leaving five rogue brawlers—the self-styled Bird Rock Bandits—facing trial on homicide charges.

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“Hit him, hit him, f--- him up,” one or two of the Bandits said, egging Cravens on.

Cravens didn’t need prompting. He delivered a sickening blow to Kauanui’s head, some witness accounts say, which sent The Flyin’ Kauaian reeling. Unconscious, Kauanui crumpled to the ground, hitting his head on the pavement. Later, Cravens, who is right-handed, boasted: “I knocked him out with my left hand.” (This statement, Cravens’ lawyer says, proves that Seth didn't intend to commit murder.)

“Get the hell out of here!” Hendricks yelled, as San Diego Police units sped to Draper Avenue. The Bandits split up. Some fled in the SUV, some on foot.

Apparently unconcerned about being collared by the police, House remained at the bloody scene, looking for his tooth, under the limited glow of streetlights on Draper Avenue. He was the first to be arrested.

KAUANUI’S FAMILY and friends thought he’d pull through. “My brother was in perfect shape,” recalls Nigel Kauanui. “We thought he was going to make it.”

Although his skull was fractured in three places, Kauanui talked to EMTs who transported him to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. In fact, as hospital records indicate, “He was some what combative en route.”

In the following days, Kauanui’s brain swelled dangerously, and doctors operated twice, to relieve pressure. The surgeries could not save Kauanui, who lapsed into a coma and was pronounced brain dead at 11:55 a.m. on May 28, four days after his encounter with the Bird Rock Bandits.

“Not all fist fights are innocent,” says Lieutenant Kevin Rooney, of the San Diego Police Department, who led the murder investigation.

“What happened had been in the making for years,” says Rey Hernandez, who coached every one of the Bandits at La Jolla High at one time or another. “If it had been a black or Hispanic gang, somebody would have done something about this a long time ago.”

“What happened is a sign of the times,” Cindy Kauanui says. “The hearts of our youth are growing cold.”

A police search of Seth Cravens’ room turned up a replica Nazi dagger with a swastika on the handle and a notebook containing drawings and words “denigrating persons of Jewish and African origin, and numerous scenes of violence and gore.” But did that prove that the Bird Rock Bandits, sons of moderate privilege, were a street gang, eligible to be charged with murder after a bar fight?

“It’s not a gang,” said J. Christopher Hendricks, Hank’s elderly uncle, who grew up on La Jolla’s beaches, was there when Tom Wolfe came to town and considers The Pump House Gang a work of fiction. “It’s only a group of kids growing up.”

Judge Einhorn seems to agree. Designating the Bird Rock Bandits as a “gang,” under California law, “is like putting a round peg into a square hole,” Einhorn said at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing in late May. “It just doesn’t fit.”

Six credits short of graduating, Hendricks was suspended from the Wildcats football team and was asked to leave the University of New Hampshire. Back home in California, living with his grandparents, he awaits his fate.

Facing prison terms of 25 years to life, four of the Bandits—House, Hendricks, Yanke and Osuna—have made bail. Cravens remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility, in downtown San Diego, unable to raise a $1.5 million bond. His family is now suing Pacific Law Center for allegedly promising to get him bail and not delivering.

“Seth has made poor decisions these last couple of years,” wrote Elmer Heap Jr., leader of the Latter Day Saints Church where the Cravens family worshipped, to Judge Einhorn. “There is no excuse for his behavior and the lack of respect he has demonstrated for people and property.”

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