Three La Jolla men who were part of a loose-knit group called the Bird Rock Bandits plead guilty on Dec. 22 to violating the terms of their probation by hanging out together and smoking pot. Orlando Sandoval Osuna, 24, Eric Matthew House, 22 and Matthew Yanke, 23, were arraigned before San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn, the same judge who granted them probation. The men are being held in jail without bail until their sentencing on Jan. 22. The judge has not yet determined whether to send the men to jail or reinstate their probation. The defendants pleaded guilty in 2008 to involuntary manslaughter in the death of professional La Jolla surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. Yanke and Osuna had also plead guilty to assaulting people at a New Year’s Eve party in 2006. The defendants all graduated from La Jolla High School. San Diego police were tipped off by an unnamed source to the defendant’s violations of their probation. The County Probation Department is in the process of writing a report of recommendation for the court to determine whether to allow the defendants to continue their probation — and possibly start it over — or be sent to prison. Chief probation officerMark Jenkins said it’s not uncommon for criminals to violate their probation requirements.  “What really is the issue is how seriously does the individual take the probation status that the court has provided to them?” Jenkins said. “That’s something that we’re always looking at. When you’re looking at going to prison when you haven’t necessarily been there before and don’t necessarily have a criminal history, I’m surprised when someone doesn’t take that grant of probation seriously. People learn lessons differently and sometimes it takes more severe sanctions to learn a lesson.” The series of events that eventually led to the murder of Kauanui started on the night of May 24, 2007 when Kauanui apparently fought with House and poured beer on his head earlier at the La Jolla Brew House on Fay Avenue. Kauanui was driven home and the three defendants, along with Henri Hendricks and Seth Cravens, later appeared at his mother’s house on Mount Soledad to fight Kauanui. Cravens dealt the fatal blow that knocked Kauanui to the ground and caused his skull to split in three places. Cravens is now serving 15 years to life in prison. The defendants wrote in their plea bargains: “I aided and abetted Seth Cravens in an assault on Emery Kauanui which resulted in Mr. Kauanui’s death by agreeing with (names of co-defendants) to go to Mr. Kauanui’s house for the purpose of assaulting Mr. Kauanui with knowledge of Seth Cravens’ reputation for violence.” Judge Einhorn had dismissed the allegation the men were involved in a gang, despite the fact the men called themselves the Bird Rock Bandits for crashing parties and assaulting people.  — Neal Putnam contributed to this story.