Arguments from both the defense and prosecution on the final day of the preliminary hearing for the stabbing of UC Berkeley senior Chris Wootton foreshadow what the presiding judge predicts will be a "tough" trial.

After both sides contributed their final arguments in Alameda County Superior Court Friday, Judge Vernon Nakahara said there was sufficient evidence for the defendant, 21-year-old Berkeley resident Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, to stand trial on charges of murder.

"This is going to be one case that the jurors are going to have to decide," Nakahara said in a court transcript of the hearing.

Before Nakahara gave his decision, Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew said the tape of a 911 call placed by Wootton before he was stabbed to death showed that he feared for his life.

According to Pettigrew, Wootton said in the tape that "two guys are threatening our lives. One has a knife and one has a bottle; please hurry."

In an earlier interview she said the defendant was identified in the tape as an aggressor.

"The evidence before (the judge) indicates that he and his friends were the initial aggressors," she said in the transcript. "They instigated first a verbal confrontation and then a physical confrontation."

However, Yolanda Huang, the attorney representing Hoeft-Edenfield, said the altercation that led to the stabbing was initiated by what she called a "drunken mob" of fraternity members in the transcript.

"(The stabbing) resulted from a needless, purposeless altercation that was initiated by the members of Sigma Pi fueled by copious amounts of alcohol consumed over an extended period of time," she said.

She said the four fraternity brothers whose testimony identified Hoeft-Edenfield as an aggressor "minimized (their) own inebriation, but acknowledged that (their) companions were under the influence."

But on May 26, Berkeley police Officer Matthew Mcgee said in his testimony that the witness he interviewed following the stabbing showed no signs of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Nevertheless, Nakahara told Huang in the transcript that the witness' alcohol consumption will play a factor in the upcoming trial.

"This is one of those cases where I agree with you, counsel, that there are a lot of folks drinking," he said. "So I do believe there are some elements of defense."

Nakahara also said the evidence presented indicated "some elements of aggressiveness on (Hoeft-Edenfield's) part."

Wootton was set to graduate from UC Berkeley in May 2008, the same month he was killed, and would have pursued graduate work in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley.

The prosecution and defense will reconvene at the Renee C. Davidson Courthouse on June 18 when Nakahara will determine a trial date.

Tags: CHRIS WOOTTON