SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- Five men appeared in Sonoma County Superior Court but delayed entering pleas Monday morning to the shooting murder of a Santa Rosa man in a parking garage 18 months ago.

The Santa Rosa men have been appointed attorneys and are scheduled to enter pleas June 30. The defense attorneys said they have not yet received a signed copy of the indictment.

Nicholas Angel Mejia, 30, Raul Leon Lopez-Granados, 20, Joseph Kenneth Lopez Sr., 39, Joseph Kenneth Lopez Jr., 19, and Paul Louis Whiterock, 28, were indicted by a grand jury June 6 for killing Matthew Toste, 32, of Santa Rosa in a Seventh Street parking garage on Dec. 3, 2006. The prosecution is alleging the murder was gang related and the defendants also are charged with conspiracy.

The indictment alleges the defendants talked about getting retaliation for a beating Mejia was involved in and Lopez Jr. obtained a semi-automatic handgun. All five drove to the parking garage and began walking to the Ultra Club 7.

Santa Rosa police said they encountered Toste, his girlfriend and his female cousin. The defendants allegedly made derogatory comments to Toste's cousin and when he defended her he was shot twice in the chest. The indictment states Lopez Jr. committed the murder.

Toste died at the scene. Whiterock and Lopez Jr. were arrested the day of the shooting but were released from the Sonoma County jail on Dec. 6 when the district attorney's office said further investigation of the murder was needed before it filed a criminal complaint.

Assistant District Attorney Diana Gomez said there are between 1,500 and 2,500 pages of transcripts and an equal number of pages of police and other reports on the case. Geoffrey Dunham, Lopez-Granados' attorney, said his client likely will not enter a plea on June 30 unless that information is provided to the defense and reviewed before then.

Dunham also said the publicity the murder received raises the possibility the case will be tried in another county.

Some of the defendants also were indicted by the grand jury in four other unrelated cases.