Counselor Admits Slaying : Justice: Ex-convict, 60, who worked with gangs pleads guilty to manslaughter.

Beto Villalobos, a veteran anti-gang counselor who fatally stabbed a member of the gang he counseled, pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge of manslaughter in exchange for a sentence not to exceed six years in prison.

The 60-year-old ex-convict, who was widely praised for his peacemaking efforts on the streets of South Whittier, had been charged with murder for the Aug. 4 slaying of Peter Awana, a 37-year-old Little League coach with ties to the neighborhood gang.

During a brief scuffle in Mayberry Park, according to sheriff’s detectives, Awana pushed Villalobos and knocked off his glasses. Villalobos, who says he feared for his life, pulled a nine-inch hunting knife from his waistband and plunged it once into Awana’s chest.

The two men had argued before, reportedly because Awana feared that Villalobos had links to a prison gang and was trying to take control of the neighborhood. Villalobos tells a different story, contending that they clashed because Awana was urging younger gang members to engage in more violence.

After Thursday’s hearing in Norwalk Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Marilyn Seymour said she thought the plea bargain was appropriate. “From all I can tell, the man honestly thought he needed to defend himself,” she said. “Whether that was a reasonable decision on his part was what I disagreed with.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 29, when Villalobos will receive a term ranging from probation to six years in prison. Because Villalobos faced the possibility of a life sentence, his deputy public defender, Mearl Lottman, advised him to take the deal.

“I thought he had an excellent case,” Lottman said. “But there’s never anything certain about a jury trial.”

Lottman also requested that Villalobos, who has been held on $500,000 bail since turning himself in a day after the attack, be released on his own recognizance. Judge Dewey L. Falcone said he would make a ruling Nov. 4.

Villalobos, who joined a Boyle Heights gang in the 1940s, spent two decades in and out of prison for drug and burglary convictions. His last sentence landed him in San Quentin from 1959 to 1968 for breaking into the home of a South Whittier woman and entering her bedroom while she slept.

But, as The Times reported Thursday, those facts were unknown to almost everyone in the neighborhood. To boost his credibility as a peacemaker, Villalobos had fabricated a reputation as a warrior, telling youths in South Whittier that he had served 20 years for murder.

“It served a purpose--not as an ego-builder, but as a way of opening communication with the kids,” Villalobos said in an interview at the County Jail. “Once you have their ears open, you can feed them some more positive things. . . . The last thing I wanted to do was hurt anybody.”