WESTMINSTER – A preliminary hearing for two women charged with murder for their roles in the beating death of a 23-year-old woman outside a downtown Santa Ana nightclub was continued to Monday.

Vanesa Tapia Zavala, 25, and Candace Marie Brito, 27, both office workers from Santa Ana, appeared briefly before Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris at the Westminster Justice Center on Tuesday.

Both women smiled at relatives and supporters in the courtroom before Borris took the bench.

Family members of Annie Kim Pham, who was killed in the altercation outside the Crosby in the early hours of Jan. 18, sat quietly in one part of the spectator gallery where they could not see the defendants, who appeared in blue jail suits inside a holding cage.

Zavala and Brito have pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and their attorneys have said they are innocent.

The preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday was continued because Zavala’s attorney, Ken Reed, is engaged in another trial and could not be present.

Zavala softly answered “yes” when Borris asked if Brito’s attorney Michael Molfetta could stand in for Reed.

OBJECTION TO CHANGE OF COURT

Molfetta objected to moving the case from Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach to Westminster. The case originally was scheduled for Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, but then was sent to Newport Beach and, late Monday, it was assigned to West Court.

Borris noted the objection, but made no immediate ruling.

The West Court area serves a part of the county with a large Vietnamese American population; its Little Saigon community is the center of the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. Molfetta said he was concerned about potential jurors for the case.

“Obviously, the demographic of West Court, given the racial undertones of this case, is something we need to think about,” Molfetta said.

The criminal defense lawyer added that he believes a fair jury can be selected in West Court.

“I am not saying that there’s necessarily no way to get a fair trial in this jurisdiction. I am preserving the issue” for future objections if needed, Molfetta said.

“As long as the jury pool is comprised of people from a countywide pool, then the issue becomes less of a concern,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the judges or courthouses and more to do with wanting to make sure that everybody gets a fair trial.”

The death of Pham, 23, sparked wide interest, in part because one online video appears to show a group of people watching an attack without doing much to stop it. But prosecutors said that video doesn’t show the whole story, and Santa Ana detectives are talking to witnesses and reviewing multiple videos of the fight as they continue to piece together details.

DETAILS OF FIGHT UNCLEAR

The details of what happened leading up to Pham’s death remain unclear. Officials have not determined a motive for the fight, which played out in front of more than 50 people lined up to get into The Crosby.

At a pretrial hearing last week, Deputy District Attorney Troy Pino attacked the perception that Pham died after a long beating watched by mostly passive witnesses, describing a spasm of violence and attempts by numerous onlookers to stop the altercation outside the nightclub.

“I can tell you that there is no evidence that it’s racially motivated. I can tell you there’s no evidence about ‘photobombing,’ ” Pino said.

Police have not yet offered an alternate version of the incident, but five Santa Ana police officers were asked by Judge Borris on Tuesday to return to court for the preliminary hearing and could testify then.

Detectives have reviewed at least three videos of the fight, one of which shows a security guard trying to separate Pham and the women believed to have beaten her.

“If the videotape is the centerpiece of (the prosecution’s) case against Candace Brito, to put it succinctly, that dog won’t hunt,” Molfetta said after Brito pleaded not guilty last month.

Molfetta said Brito was part of a group of Zavala’s friends at the restaurant to celebrate a birthday. He also has previously said Pham threw the first punch after someone in Zavala’s group inadvertently bumped into Pham. Brito was knocked down coming out of the restaurant, he said.

LOOKING FOR PHONE

Reed, Zavala’s attorney, has said as the violence began outside The Crosby, Zavala was hit and lost her phone. She crawled on her hands and knees trying to look for her phone, which police later recovered, he said.

Pham was taken off life support Jan. 21. An autopsy concluded that she died of complications from blunt-force trauma to her head.

It remains unclear why the case has been bounced around to different courts.

Pino said Tuesday it was a decision by the courts and that no official reason has been given.

“My only concern is that we keep it in Orange County,” Pino said. “As long as we keep it in Orange County, I am satisfied.”

For his part, Molfetta said there were reasons for the reassignment and it was not arbitrary. He declined to comment further, adding the reasons “don’t have anything to do with the facts of the case or the outcome of the case.”

Superior Court Presiding Judge Glenda Sanders was unavailable for comment regarding the case assignment to the West Justice Center, said Gwen Vieau, the court’s public information officer.

Register reporters Greg Hardesty and Denisse Salazar contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 714-834-3773 or vjolly@ocregister.com