Had Eddie Heydaragha not fought, he might have lived.

Instead, the 17-year-old slipped his hands free of the zip ties binding them and tried to ward off the men ransacking his Citrus Heights home the night of Jan. 11, 2004.

Heydaragha ended up slumped on the kitchen floor, covered in blood, according to Sacramento County sheriff's detectives. His throat was slit, his chest punctured with stab wounds and his head bruised by a nearby frying pan.

"I grabbed him and kept telling him to just lie down and that nothing would happen to him, but he kept trying to fight us off," suspect Langimaa Faulalo told detectives from prison, according to a sheriff's request for an arrest warrant.

"I was getting frustrated with him and I took out of my pocket a little pocket knife, a little buck knife. At this time I did not know he was a kid. … The whole time he was struggling, I am poking him. My intention was not to kill him, but everything happened so fast."

Heydaragha's father, returning from a night celebrating a reconciled marriage, found him dead the next morning. Kazem Heydaragha described the scene as a "bloodbath."

The killing of the teen, described by friends and family as level-headed and friendly, paralyzed the Citrus Heights community.

On Thursday, Faulalo, 26, and Benjamin Philipmeth Taholo, 30, were booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of murder and robbery in connection with the teen's death, according to authorities.

The men already were in prison, serving life sentences without the possibility of parole after being convicted in 2007 of killing 21-year-old Danny Johnson just three months after Heydaragha's death.

Investigators believe the two slayings were part of a string of home invasions in which the suspects were "ripping off drug dealers," said sheriff's homicide Detective Brad Jones.

They are looking into whether the suspects can be linked to other crimes, including homicides, believed to be part of that spree, Jones said.

Faulalo, Taholo and at least two other men – one of whom has since died – went to Heydaragha's Citrus Heights home looking for drugs, Jones said.

As they searched the house for occupants, they found Heydaragha washing his hands in the bathroom. Jones said he does not think the suspects were there to find the teen, nor does he think the drugs they were after belonged to him.

In 1993, Heydaragha's father, Kazem, pleaded no contest on two occasions to felony possession of drugs for sale, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

From Pelican Bay State Prison, Faulalo tearfully told detectives that he and others – whom he refused to identify, saying it was "up to you guys to figure out" – tied up the boy's feet and hands so he couldn't stand, according to the search warrant affidavit filed in Sacramento Superior Court.

But Heydaragha fought. The skirmish stretched from the second floor, down the staircase and into the kitchen, Jones wrote in the warrant request.

Faulalo told detectives he blacked out for a period, and when he awoke, Heydaragha was lying on the kitchen floor, still breathing.

Faulalo went back upstairs, then "when I came back down, I saw the frying pan lying next to him, and everybody was yelling, 'We have got to go, we have got to go.' So we just left," Faulalo said, according to a transcript included in the warrant request.

Approached by detectives at Kern Valley State Prison, Taholo invoked his Miranda rights and kept mum. But blood samples linked him to the scene, according to the warrant affidavit.

The men are serving time after being convicted of fatally shooting Danny Johnson in south Sacramento in March 2004. Also convicted in that case was Gary Bruce Ulukivaiola.

Jones said detectives are looking at whether Ulukivaiola was involved in Heydaragha's death, but also said he is not sure whether more charges will come in the case.

New arrests might be made in connection with other homicides and robberies, however, as detectives search for links between them and the deaths of Heydaragha and Johnson.

Faulalo and Taholo are scheduled to be arraigned Monday. In addition to one charge each of murder and robbery, they face special circumstances of committing murder during the course of a burglary and a robbery, and of previously having been convicted of murder, according to a complaint filed by the District Attorney's Office.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.