3 TO BE CHARGED IN SLAYING OFFICER: LOVE, VENGEANCE GONE WRONG FUELED VIOLENCE.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The three men accused of fatally stabbing a Canyon Country man just wanted to rough him up, but things got out of hand, a sheriff's homicide detective said Tuesday.

``I don't think the plan was to kill him,'' said Sgt. Joe Holmes of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. ``They just lost control.''

Murder charges are expected to be filed today against the trio - neighborhood friends who went after a man romantically involved with the estranged wife of one of the suspects.

Leugardo Martinez, 46, Roberto Arrieola, 22, and Rafael Hinojosa, 38, were arrested Monday in the death of Newhall Signal pressman Agustin Garcia, 24, who was abducted Sunday outside the newspaper office in Valencia and later found dead in a Saugus industrial area.

``This was an issue of love,'' said Detective Robert Harris. ``Martinez had a wife that was seeing the victim.''

Police said the men waited for Garcia to finish work Sunday and planned to kidnap him, beat him up and find out where Martinez's wife had been living since she left Martinez about two weeks earlier.

But something went wrong.

Early Sunday, the trio stopped by the newspaper, located at 24000 Creekside Road, to ask Garcia's co-workers when he ended his shift. They came back about 5 p.m., and witnesses watched the men grab Garcia, stab him and force him into a minivan.

Minutes later, the men were seen dumping Garcia's body at a Newhall industrial park at 26000 Springbrook Ave., police said.

A security guard, who saw the men speeding away from the industrial park, and another motorist, who spotted the van driving erratically on the Golden State Freeway, followed the van and wrote down the license plate.

Police said the van was registered to Martinez.

On Monday, investigators discovered the burned, gutted van parked in Arleta. Witnesses told police they saw the suspects igniting the van, catching themselves on fire.

Hinojosa and Arrieola were later found at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, where they were being treated for their burns. Arrieola has been transferred to a burn center in San Bernardino.

``(Arrieola) is burned so badly that he can't be jailed,'' Harris said.

Hinojosa suffered burns to his arms and face. Detectives believe that he was injured while attempting to extinguish Arrieola's flames.

Hours later, Martinez turned himself in to police at the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys station.

``He was very distraught,'' Harris said. ``It got a bit too much for him and he surrendered.''

Martinez and Hinojosa remained in Sheriff's Department custody Tuesday, and Arrieola was expected to be moved to a hospital jail ward.

Garcia had worked for the Newhall Signal off and on since 1997. He lived with his mother and brother in Canyon Country and played in a band. Detectives said Martinez's wife had lived with Garcia since she separated from her husband.

``It was a complex event that had an unusual outcome,'' Harris said. ``A lot of credit goes to the community of Santa Clarita for being as observant as they were.''