DEAD BOY'S FUNERAL WILL PROCEED.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The funeral for a student fatally stabbed last week outside Hoover High School will proceed as planned after a Glendale Court commissioner's decision Wednesday that the body may not be returned to the coroner for additional examination.

Andrew Flier, defense attorney for one of the three teen-agers charged with murder, argued Tuesday that the body of Raul Aguirre, 17, is evidence in a capital murder case and should remain at the Coroner's Office for an independent examination.

Commissioner Steven Lubell's ruling was moot because the body had already been released to Forest Lawn Mortuary.

Reiterating his argument Wednesday, this time in front of nearly two dozen family members, friends and neighbors of the deceased youth, Flier likened Aguirre's body to a weapon. And in a case in which defendants could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, the defense has the right to examine the weapon for itself.

Lubell, citing two similar cases, ruled that a human body is different than a piece of property. But a defense expert may examine the body at the funeral home before Friday's funeral service, Lubell said.

That was the best possible thing that Leticia Aguirre, Raul's mother, could have heard on Wednesday.

``I just want him to rest in peace. I'm hurting a lot and I don't want to hurt anymore,'' she said as she was embraced by her daughter, Lorena.

Charged with gang murder, attempted murder and street terrorism, are Gevorgyan; Karen Terteryan, 17, of Glendale; and 14-year-old Anait Ano Msryan of Los Angeles. They are being held without bail at the Los Angeles County jail. Their arraignment is scheduled for May 23.

Glendale Police say Raul Aguirre and a former Hoover High student were sitting in front of the campus about 3:45 p.m. Friday when a car full of Armenian gang members drove up and flashed signs to the former Hoover student, who is in a rival, Latino gang.

Terteryan, who was expelled from Hoover last year, and Gevorgyan got out of the car, which was driven by Msryan, Terteryan's girlfriend, and attacked the rival gang member, police said. Aguirre, who was not in a gang and was scheduled to graduate in June and join the Marines, tried to help his friend when he was assaulted, police say.

According to police, Terteryan stabbed Aguirre four times and Gevorgyan bludgeoned him in the face with a tire iron. More than 40 students from Hoover High and Keppel Elementary witnessed the attack.

Aguirre died several hours later.

Scott Carrier, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, said the cause of Aguirre's death was listed as multiple stab wounds. The trauma to his head was not life-threatening, he said.

Still, Flier wanted the body to be examined so there was no chance his client could be held accountable for Aguirre's death.

After Lubell's ruling, Deputy District Attorney Steven Lopez, a member of the Hardcore Gang Division, told Aguirre's family and friends that the defense may only look at the body. Anything else would require permission from Leticia Aguirre, and therefore, a court hearing.

Lorena Aguirre said her family could not have withstood another autopsy on her brother.

``He's not some toy or some rag doll they can just play with,'' she said. ``Let him be, you know.''