SURVIVOR TO TESTIFY ABOUT STABBING.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

The trial for four Conejo Valley youths charged with killing an Agoura Hills teen-ager is scheduled to resume Tuesday after a weeklong recess that allowed a defense attorney to take a vacation.

The break came as Los Angeles County prosecutors were in the midst of presenting evidence in the stabbing death of James P. Farris III and the wounding of Michael McLoren. Prosecutors said McLoren likely will testify this week about the May attack behind his family's Old Agoura home.

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Semow said prosecutors were midway through their case when Judge Lawrence Mira recessed the trial April 4 in Malibu Superior Court.

The four defendants are Brandon Hein, 19, of Oak Park; Jason Holland, 19, of Thousand Oaks; Micah Holland, 16, of Thousand Oaks, and Tony Miliotti, 18 of Westlake Village. They are charged with murder, attempted murder, burglary and two counts of attempted robbery.

The jury has heard testimony from nine witnesses, including youths who knew the victims and defendants and adults who encountered the defendants on the day of the attack. McLoren is the prosecution's key witness, though Semow said the other witnesses have given important testimony.

``We've put on a lot of important testimony so far. That wasn't window dressing,'' Semow said.

Semow has told jurors the four defendants attacked Farris and McLoren as they were lifting weights outside a wooden fort behind McLoren's home. McLoren survived. Semow told jurors that McLoren will testify that the four defendants attacked them to steal marijuana from a locked drawer in the wooden shack.

Defense attorneys have argued that prosecutors are going too far in attempting to prove Farris was stabbed during an attempt to steal marijuana, contending Farris was stabbed during a fight.

Attorneys said lengthy pretrial hearings over evidence delayed the trial's beginning until March 26. The trial could last into May, nearly a year after the stabbing.

``It's taken a lot longer than anyone expected,'' said James Sussman, the defense attorney for Micah Holland. ``I don't think it helps or hurts any side.''

In the final delay before the trial, both sides argued over evidence that prosecutors say links the defendants to a San Fernando Valley gang that has spread into the Agoura area.

Prosecutors failed to convince Mira that evidence including address books, letters of correspondence and photos of graffiti link the defendants to the gang.

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