A.V. MAN FACES TRIAL IN SLAYING OF GIRLFRIEND.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

A Lake Los Angeles man was ordered Monday to stand trial on charges that he murdered his girlfriend, whose body was found along with the remains of her handicapped dog in a Littlerock septic tank.

Steven Gordon Swaim, 42, has pleaded not guilty in the August 1994 death of Barbara Ann Weston, 51, whose body was found in the septic tank that once served a trailer where the couple lived. An autopsy determined that she died from blows to the head from a blunt instrument.

Weston's remains were found in August by current residents cleaning up the property in the 9800 block of East Avenue S-14, but authorities said they believe the victim was killed two years ago.

``There was a blanket wrapped around a corpse - the skeletal remains of a human,'' said homicide Detective Joseph Martinez. ``There was clothing left on the skeletal remains. The left side of the skull was crushed.''

Found with Weston's body were the bones of her pet dachshund mix and a wheeled cart used by the dog, which was paralyzed in the rear legs.

Martinez testified during the preliminary hearing that Swaim told investigators he hit Weston repeatedly with a pipe wrench during a fight two years earlier. The dog was crying, and Swaim hit the dog and killed it, Martinez said. Swaim said he placed Weston and the dog in the septic tank and buried it with plywood, corrugated tin and 6 to 8 inches of dirt, Martinez testified.

Swaim said he then cleaned up the blood in the trailer, Martinez said. He later asked his mother, who lived in a house on the same property, whether she had seen Weston, and she said no, Martinez said.

Swaim told his mother that he and Weston had fought and that she left to return to Oklahoma, Martinez said. Swaim said he got rid of Weston's clothing but kept her purse containing her identification in his father's garage, where homicide investigators recovered it, Martinez said.

In court records, Swaim told investigators that he was very remorseful that he killed Weston. ``He said it didn't have to happen,'' Swaim said in court records.