MAN ORDERED TO TRIAL IN '95 RACIAL SLAYING; DEFENDANT FACES ASSAULT CHARGES FOR ATTACK ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRANSIENT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

A key witness to the 1995 racially motivated killing of an African-American transient was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on assault charges.

Michael Thornton, who was a juvenile in 1995 but is now over 18, had testified for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing of two young men and a woman charged with fatally beating 43-year-old Milton Walker Jr.

``He is charged with assault with an intent to commit great bodily injury and commission of that offense based on the victim's race,'' Deputy District Attorney Carla Arranaga said.

Thornton was found unfit to be tried as a juvenile in Sylmar Juvenile Court. He will be arraigned next week in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Thornton was not charged with murder, Arranaga said, because ``the facts of the case indicated that that was not warranted given the degree of participation.''

Walker was fatally beaten with a two-by-four in a vacant lot behind a McDonald's restaurant in the 800 block of West Avenue I, officials said. Walker's battered body was found by an employee of a neighboring business shortly after 9 p.m.

Ritch Bryant, 21, Randall Rojas, 18, and Jessica Colwell, 18, are charged with murdering Walker, who prosecutors say was killed to earn his killers lightning bolt tattoos, considered a badge of honor among white supremacists.

The three defendants, described as Lancaster skinheads, are charged with murder and a special circumstance allegation - that Walker was killed because of his race. The special circumstance allegation could elevate the charge to a capital crime.

However, Rojas and Colwell were juveniles when the killing occurred so are ineligible to receive the death penalty. A committee of prosecutors have to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Bryant.

Thornton testified at the July preliminary hearing that he, Bryant and Rojas decided to go to McDonald's and ran into a white woman who said Walker had kicked her in the back.

Thornton testified that the three approached Walker, and Thornton punched the victim after asking whether he kicked a white woman, officials said. Rojas then hit Walker in the face with a two-by-four and beat him with the board until Thornton pulled Rojas off and told him to stop, Thornton testified.

After the three left, Thornton testified that Bryant said he wanted to ``earn bolts'' and returned to the scene with Colwell less than an hour later.

Thornton testified that Bryant told him the next day that he earned his bolts. Bryant hit the victim with a two-by-four and Colwell poked Walker in the eye with a pole, prosecutors said.

Bryant and Rojas already have been sentenced to prison for hate crimes.

In March 1997, Rojas was sentenced to two years in prison after he admitted beating David Wilkerson, 19, outside a 7-Eleven in September 1995. In that case, authorities said Rojas and a 20-year-old accomplice walked up to the victim and asked if he was ``down with the white race,'' investigators said. When the man said he was Latino, they started to beat him.

Rojas was arrested for investigation of the Walker killing at a halfway house where he was sent after completing his sentence.

Bryant was sentenced to eight years in prison for a December 1995 attack on an African-American student at Antelope Valley High School. He pleaded guilty to assault and admitted committing a hate crime in the beating and stabbing of the African-American student with a screwdriver as he walked across the Antelope Valley High baseball field between classes.