8 Indicted in Fatal Stabbing at Woodland Hills Party

A grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted eight young men who allegedly crashed a Woodland Hills birthday party, armed with bats, clubs and a knife, in connection with the stabbing death of the party’s 20-year-old host.

Details of the indictment won’t be available until Tuesday, when the indictment is unsealed and the eight are arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court. But, sources said, the grand jury returned the indictment on Thursday; it supersedes charges already filed in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino declined to discuss the case, citing grand jury secrecy. But some details emerged Friday from the public court file and during interviews with defense attorneys.

According to court records in Van Nuys, three of the men--Michael Baker, 19, Christopher Bryan Paonessa, 18, and Dino Ferrari Riggio, 18, all of Chatsworth--were charged with the March 2 slaying of video store clerk Jason Shaw. Five 18-year-olds from Simi Valley were charged with conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon.

They are identified in court records as Aaron Douglas Bowden, Bryan Zoltan Dyer, Frederick James Estrada, Kevin Charles Heschong and Jose David Lucas.

According to the court records and lawyers’ accounts, the dispute began about 11:30 p.m. March 1, when Baker demanded that Shaw give him a balloon filled with “party gas”--nitrous oxide. Shaw had been handing out the gas-filled balloons in his bedroom but had grown tired of the chore and turned Baker away.

After he continued to demand a balloon, other party-goers punched Baker, giving him a black eye, and Shaw threw him out of the party. Baker, according to court records, “stated he would return and ‘get’ Jason Shaw.”

He paged his friends, summoning them to meet him at Mason Park. The others allegedly agreed to help him.

At some point, court records alleged, Paonessa gave Baker his knife--the alleged murder weapon. They returned to the party house, in the 23800 block of Sylvan Street, about 2 a.m. They left their pagers and jewelry with five teenage girls for safekeeping, armed themselves with bats, sticks and an automotive locking device and burst through the front door.

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During the ensuing melee, Baker, Paonessa and Riggio allegedly burst into Shaw’s bedroom. In the scuffle, Shaw was stabbed in the heart and a lung. He ran from the bedroom and into the backyard, then collapsed and died in the family room. His roommate, Daniel Parkison, also was stabbed but he is recovering from his wounds.

Defense attorney Mark Werksman, who compared the fight to “the storming of the Bastille,” said his client, Paonessa, denies entering the house.

“Certainly, he didn’t go there with the intent to kill anybody,” Werksman said. He added that identification of his client by various witnesses remains a crucial issue in the case.

Riggio’s attorney, Bruce Hill, said his client’s behavior differed little from that of others at the party. “The party-goers and their friends did virtually the same thing. They were from the same mold,” the defense attorney said. “It’s a shame across the board,” he added.