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Suspects In San Leandro Tattoo Party Killings Plead Not Guilty

HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- Four suspects in a shooting after a tattoo party in San Leandro last October that left three people dead and three others wounded pleaded not guilty Friday to three counts of murder and four counts of premeditated attempted murder.

Suspects Aaron Stewart, 19, of Fairfield, Anthony Perry, 21, of Oakland, Stanley Turner, 19, of Oakland, and Paul Arthur Stevenson, 21, of Oakland, are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Aug. 29 for a pretrial hearing.

Stewart and Perry were arrested March 1 and Turner was arrested on March 2. Stevenson was arrested on Oct. 20, 18 days after the shooting on Oct. 2, 2011.

In addition to murder and attempted murder, the four men are charged with the special circumstance of committing multiple murders, which means that they could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole if they're convicted of at least two counts of murder, including at least one first-degree murder.

Police said the shooting occurred around 1:20 a.m. on Oct. 2, about 50 minutes after the end of a tattoo party held at a warehouse in the 2600 block of Alvarado Street in San Leandro.

After the party, the suspects allegedly shot at a green Ford Explorer containing six of seven people inside. Three of the victims died from their injuries, police said.

The seventh victim ran from the car after the incident, but police later located him.

Killed in the shooting were 16-year-old Leneasha Northington, a student at San Leandro High School, 19-year-old Shanice Kiel of San Francisco, who had been accepted at San Francisco State University, and 23-year-old Joshua Alford of Oakland.

Stevenson, Perry and Stewart are all charged with firing the shots that killed the three victims.

Turner joins them in being accused of three counts of murder and four counts of premeditated attempted murder for allegedly providing the 9 mm handgun used in the triple homicide and driving the suspects out of the area to avoid arrest.

San Leandro police estimated shortly after the shooting that about 200 people attended the party, most in their late teens or early 20s, and that the party was heavily promoted on social media sites such as Facebook.

The party had ended by the time the shooting happened around 1:20 a.m., but there was still a large group of people in the parking lot, police said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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