Two men involved in the 1993 melee that left a 17-year-old San Clemente boy dead had their murder convictions overturned this week by an Orange County Superior Court judge based on a new law prohibiting the convictions of defendants not directly involved in a murder.

Rogelio Vasquez Solis, 45, and Saul Penuelas, 46, both had their second-degree murder convictions vacated by Orange County Superior Court Judge Cheri Pham on Thursday, May 5.

She re-sentenced the pair to 18 years in prison for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, said Solis’ attorney, Randy Ladisky.

Because both men have been behind bars for 29 years, they are not expected to serve any more time.

Solis was being held in Orange County Jail so it will take a week or so to process him out of the system and free him, Ladisky said. Penuelas was recently granted parole and appears to be out of custody.

The two will be placed on two years of parole supervision, and if they remain out of trouble that time could be shortened, Ladisky said.

The two were convicted in connection with an Oct. 15, 1993, melee at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente that left Steve Woods dead.

The trouble started about 9:30 p.m. when four cars full of high school students, who were hanging out after a football game, were speeding away from a group of other youths they came in conflict with, Ladisky said in court papers.

The conflict started when one youth punched another student for “flipping him off” the day before at school, Ladisky said.

Based on what some said, the teens in the cars believed they were being attacked by gang members so they began speeding away to warn other fellow students, and that prompted several beachgoers, including Solis, to hurl objects at the cars, Ladisky said.

Solis chucked a dirt clod at the cars, Ladisky said.

A paint roller impaled Woods in his head, Ladisky said.

Solis and Penuelas were convicted in 1996 and sentenced in March 1997 to 15 years to life in prison. They were convicted under a legal standard of aiding and abetting the killing, but that law was changed in 2019 to require a defendant’s more direct participation in a killing to be held liable for a murder.

Co-defendant Arturo Villalobos admitted hurling a paint roller at the car and pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and admitted a sentencing enhancement for gang activity and was sentenced to six years in prison, according to court records.

When Pham told the defendants she was vacating the murder convictions, Solis smiled, Ladisky said: “He’s a very soft-spoken guy and spent 29 years in prison for throwing a dirt clod at a car.”

“I’m happy for his family,” Ladisky said of his client. “Their son gets to come home after all these years. I’m hoping he gets a second shot at life, and I’m grateful to give him that chance. I know he will be successful at whatever he does.”

In her ruling, Pham said, “No one identified either petitioner as having thrown a paint roller, which was what ultimately killed the victim. …

“Mr. Penuelas drove his father’s truck, which had paint supplies in the back,” the judge said. “Both petitioners grabbed rocks and/or dirt clods (i.e. whatever was quickly accessible to them as the victim drove away) and threw them at the victim’s vehicle.”

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