Barona Slaying Will Go to Trial

Judge John M. Thompson decided Friday that there are “sufficient facts” for a case involving a death on Barona Indian Reservation to go to trial.

Barona tribal member Stanley Lloyd Jr., commonly known as Scooter, entered a plea of not guilty Friday to a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Christopher Carioscia of Santee.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Nov. 8 and is expected to take up to three days.

Opening statements are due to start Nov. 14.

The trial is expected to last about a month. Judge Thompson told attorneys Friday that jurors will have a break from Nov. 23 to 25 for Thanksgiving.

Carioscia went missing on Barona Indian Reservation sometime after midnight on Oct. 26, 2010. His body was found Dec. 6 in an isolated area near Barona Speedway on the reservation. A medical examiner testified in Lloyd’s preliminary hearing that Christopher died of multiple gunshot wounds, some of which came from behind.

Carioscia and Lloyd had known each other since elementary school, friends of the family have said.

Defense attorney Roland Haddad of La Mesa told the judge, “What we have here is strong suspicion but it’s a matter of ... whether there’s any believable evidence that connects Mr. Lloyd to this crime.“

Throughout the preliminary hearing, Haddad raised questions about how much alcohol or drugs the witnesses had consumed on the night of a fire-pit party on the reservation, where Lloyd was alleged to have shown people a gun and talked about having “killed a kid” over a heroin deal gone wrong.