COURT CONSIDERING GANG EVIDENCE.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Prosecutors and attorneys for four teens charged in the stabbing death of an Agoura youth are battling over the admissibility of address books, letters and photographs that indicate the defendants are gang members.

In arguments over four days that have delayed the trial until at least Tuesday, prosecutors have portrayed the defendants in the May stabbing death of James P. Farris III as members of a violent North Hollywood gang that has spread into the Agoura area.

In testimony on Thursday, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Michael Berg drew a distinction between hard-core gang members and membership in graffiti "tagging crews."

"Generally a tagging crew just wants to leave their mark as much as possible. In my opinion they (the defendants) are affiliated with (the gang)," said Berg, a gang expert with the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station.

Earlier in the week, Detective Rollie Landtiser of the Los Angeles Police Department testified about the activity of the gang in the San Fernando Valley. A ruling by Malibu Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira on the admissibility of the evidence during trial is expected next week.

The defendants are Brandon Hein of Oak Park and Jason Holland of Thousand Oaks, both 19, and Micah Holland, 16, of Thousand Oaks, and Tony Miliotti, 18, of Westlake Village.

They stand charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of attempted robbery in a May 22 attack on Farris and and his friend Michael McLoren inside the wood shack behind McLoren's Old Agoura home.

Mira already has ruled that prosecutors can present evidence that one defendant claimed membership in the gang as the four defendants jumped a backyard fence and approached McLoren and Farris.