4 Youths Were ‘Happy’ After Killings, Girl Says : Courts: She testifies at the preliminary hearing of the alleged triggerman in the drive-by shooting deaths of two Cabrillo Village men.

Minutes after they allegedly killed two Cabrillo Village men in a drive-by shooting, four teen-age boys were happy but nervous and eager to build alibis, a witness testified Friday.

Lorina Gallardo, 14, testified at the preliminary hearing of Edward (Tony) Throop, 17, of Ventura in Ventura County Municipal Court. He is accused of being the triggerman in the slaying of Javier Ramirez, 19, and Rolando Martinez, 20.

Investigators say the men were killed just after midnight on April 7 when Throop and three other juveniles fired at random into a group of party-goers outside an apartment in Cabrillo Village in Saticoy. The motive, investigators say, was revenge against a Cabrillo Village gang, but the victims were not gang members.

Lorina testified that, earlier in the evening, she and several other girls were at a slumber party in Ventura when Throop and the other youths showed up. The group drove to an orchard to drink beer and vodka, she said. The boys blamed the Cabrillo Village gang for throwing rocks at Throop’s car and for beating up one of the other boys, she said. Authorities say all four of the boys have gang affiliations.

The boys then took a rifle, wrapped in a white towel, from the car trunk and dropped the girls off, the witness testified. They returned within minutes.

“I asked them if they had done the shooting,” the girl said. At first they did not respond, she said. Then Throop said yes, she said, and they all admitted it.

“The boys said they went through and shot into the camp,” Lorina said, using a slang term for Cabrillo Village, an apartment complex built on the site of a former farm labor camp.

“They said Tony was trigger-happy . . . and fired the gun till it was empty,” the girl said. The boys told her they had seen people falling to the ground as the shots were fired, she said.

The boys “were happy but were nervous as they were talking about it,” Lorina said. She said they told the girls to keep quiet and to make up stories about where the group had been that night.

Throop and the other boys were arrested a few days after the shooting. All are charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy. Two 16-year-olds are awaiting hearings on whether they will be tried as adults.

Throop has already been ordered to stand trial as an adult, while the fourth suspect by law must be tried as a juvenile because he is only 15.

Two men who were wounded in the gunfire also testified about the gunshots that disrupted the christening party they were attending.

Ilmer Maradiaga, 22, said one bullet hit him in the cheek and came out below his left ear, causing a partial loss of hearing. A second bullet lodged in his chest, he said.

Rudy Gutierrez, 19, said loud music from the party prevented him from hearing the shots, but he felt a pain in his back and was knocked down by the impact of the .22-caliber bullet.

Gutierrez said he hangs around with Cabrillo Village gang members and knows Throop from Mar Vista Continuation High School, which they both attended.

Although they had never talked with one another or fought, Gutierrez said, he and Throop did not get along.

“We looked at each other bad,” he said. “It means we don’t like each other.”

Asked if there was a reason for the animosity, Gutierrez said no.