911 TAPE OPENS `WRONG-TURN' TRIAL IN TOT'S SLAYING.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

To the nation, Stephanie Kuhen is the 3-year-old girl killed when she and her family were ambushed by gang members after they took a wrong turn into a Cypress Park alley.

To David Dalton, she was his niece.

On Tuesday, as the murder trial in the case began, prosecutors played a tape recording of the 911 call Dalton made moments after the 1995 ambush, after he had escaped the hail of gunfire.

``My niece, my little baby niece . . . she's not awake,'' Dalton began in a calm but increasingly edgy voice. ``She's not breathing; she's not breathing at all.''

After a closer look at the little girl, the full extent of her injuries became clear, and Dalton shrieked: ``What the f---, man! My f---ing niece. Nooooo! Nooooo! Nooooo!''

Prosecutor Pat Dixon snapped off the tape, leaving behind the sound of sniffling friends and relatives in the crowded Los Angeles Superior Court audience.

Dixon described the Sept. 17, 1995, Cypress Park shooting as a clash of two worlds - gang members who call themselves the ``Assassins'' and a family that was just blocks away from home when they turned down the dead-end street.

``It was just a wrong turn, and they entered the Assassins' world of death, violence and gunfire,'' Dixon said during his opening statement.

The four men on trial face up to life in prison if convicted of murdering Stephanie and trying to murder her mother, two brothers, uncle and her mother's boyfriend. Hugo Gomez, 24; Anthony Rodriguez, 27; Manuel Rosales Jr., 22; and Augustin Lizama, 24, have pleaded not guilty.

Their attorneys contended that the men did not participate in the shooting or key events that led to it.

And several attorneys suggested during their opening statements that occupants of the Kuhen car bear some responsibility for the tragedy. They told jurors that the family had turned down a clearly marked dead-end street and panicked the gang members by speeding out of the alley and running into a trash can.

The attorneys did not attempt to explain why the family might have gone down the street intentionally.

The car's driver, Timothy Stone, who is Stephanie Kuhen's mother's boyfriend, testified Tuesday that he missed his turn, ended up in the alley and only then realized it was the wrong street.

``I was scared,'' he testified. ``I just had a bad feeling when we pulled in that maybe they were going to reach into the car.''

After passing the group and realizing that he was on a dead-end alley, Stone said he turned the car around and tried to leave. But then the gang was walking toward his car, and someone put a large, green trash can in his path.

Stone said he floored the gas pedal and hit the trash can.

``I saw a muzzle flash come out of a gun,'' he said. ``I ducked . . . I kept flooring it. I could hear gunshots just going . . . round after round . . . more than 15, probably.''

Bullets knocked out the car's windows and blew out at least one tire, causing the white 1986 Ford Thunderbird to slide. Moments later, Stone realized he had been shot in the back; Joseph Kuhen, then 2, was shot in the foot; and Stephanie was hit by a single bullet to the back of her head.