SAN DIEGO – The beating death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui devastated family and fans and rattled the staid seaside community of La Jolla. It upended the lives of five friends from high school who were initially accused of murdering him.

Those emotions will be on display Friday when four of the five defendants are sentenced for lesser crimes after pleading guilty in June.

“You're going to see a lot of emotions on both sides,” said Kerry Steigerwalt, a defense attorney who plans to ask that his client, Matthew Yanke, be sentenced to probation.

A bar argument last year ended with a showdown that left Kauanui, 24, bleeding outside his mother's home in upscale La Jolla. Kauanui was hospitalized with severe head trauma and died three days later after being taken off life support.

Raised in Kauai, Hawaiii, and nicknamed the “Flying Hawaiian,” Kauanui was a fixture at Windansea Beach, a spot just a few blocks from his house, where his favorite surf break is now called “Emery's Left.”

The five former students at La Jolla High School were initially charged with murder but Eric House, 21, Orlando Osuna, 23, and Yanke, 22, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Osuna and Yanke also pleaded guilty to unrelated counts of misdemeanor battery.

Another defendant, Henri “Hank” Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to a felony of being an accessory to the death, and an unrelated misdemeanor battery.

Osuna, House and Yanke face a maximum sentence of four years and six months in prison, said Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney's office. Hendricks faces up to three years.

All qualify for probation-only sentences, Levikow said.

Seth Cravens, the alleged leader of the group, has pleaded not guilty to murder. His trial is scheduled Oct. 14.

Prosecutors initially alleged that the “Bird Rock Bandits” – a name taken from a local area – was a gang, but Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn ruled that the defendants could not be prosecuted under anti-gang statutes because the group wasn't formed specifically to commit crimes.

On May 23, 2007, Kauanui and his girlfriend went to a promotional surf-company event at the bar. Around 1 a.m., Kauanui and House got into an argument that ended with House doused in beer. Kauanui went home in his girlfriend's car after security ejected him from the bar, but the pair continued trading threats by phone.

Within minutes Cravens, House, Osuna, Yanke and Hendricks, a backup quarterback at the University of New Hampshire home on summer break, drove up to the home.

Witnesses told investigators that Kauanui charged out of his house, whipping his shirt off. House lost a tooth in the scuffle, but it was Kauanui who wound up lying in a pool of his own blood after a punch – allegedly from Cravens – sent him crashing to the pavement.