San Diego

Two witnesses testified Thursday that they saw a 17-year-old defendant at a Clairemont house where a triple murder had just taken place.

The preliminary hearing for Manuel Flores Jr. began in San Diego Municipal Court in the Aug. 9, 1989, killings of a mother, her 3-year-old son and another man who lived at the house.

April Gilhousen, 20, was found stabbed to death in her home; her son, Bryan, who had been strangled and beaten, was found on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Kevin Chandler, 29, was found on the same street about a mile from the boy’s body.

The co-defendant in the case, Christopher Box, 20, has already had his preliminary hearing, and his trial is scheduled to begin May 1. The district attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty for Box but is prohibited from doing so in Flores’ case because Flores is a minor.

Rodney Nicholson, a key prosecution witness, identified Flores as the companion of Box outside the home Aug. 9.

Nicholson said he went to Gilhousen’s house that day, knocked on the door and was hit in the arm by Box with a baseball bat. Nicholson said he fled for his life, but later returned with a friend, Dennis Burns, to pick up his car parked nearby.

Nicholson said he and Burns ran into Box and Flores again and that Box offered him $100 to pay for the injuries to his arm. He said Box said he had hit him because he mistook him for someone else.

Burns also identified Flores in court.

The hearing continues today and may last until next week.

Testimony by other witnesses in Box’s case indicated that the slayings may have occurred after a marijuana transaction at the house.