Teen Guilty in Rape, Slaying of Two Girls, 11

On his 17th birthday, Kevin Earl Hindmarsh was found guilty Thursday on two counts each of murder and sodomy with a foreign object in the slayings of two Palos Verdes Peninsula girls last May.

The Rancho Palos Verdes teen-ager, who was tried as an adult, faces 72 years to life in state prison. Torrance Superior Court Judge Cecil J. Mills set sentencing for March 14.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for three days.

Hindmarsh did not take the stand during the five-day trial.

Neda O’Sullivan and Kristin Joy MacKnight, both 11, were found brutally beaten and sexually assaulted the afternoon of May 10, 1984, in a condominium in the gated Rancho Palos Verdes Ridgegate complex, where O’Sullivan lived with her mother and a 15-year-old sister.

Neda was already dead. Kristin died the next day at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Neda’s mother, Shahla O’Sullivan, sobbed as the clerk read the verdicts. Outside the courtroom, she declined to comment.

Her daughter, Audrey, however, when asked what sentence Hindmarsh should receive, quickly replied, “The maximum.”

Kristin’s 21-year-old sister, Cindy Plumlee, also broke down in tears in the courtroom. Later, in the hallway, she said: “We’re just glad it’s over. We still don’t understand why it happened.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger Kelly called the verdict “proper” and said Hindmarsh should receive the maximum sentence.

“He is a very dangerous individual,” the prosecutor said. “Even to have him out (on parole) at (age) 52, that still causes me some concern.”

Both Disappointed

Defense attorney Josh Fredricks said he and Hindmarsh were obviously disappointed with the trial’s outcome.

“It is not a very good birthday for Kevin,” Fredricks said, adding that he plans to appeal the verdict.

“Kevin took it rather stoically when he stood in front of the judge,” Fredricks said. “But he broke down into tears when he went into the back room. After all, he’s only 17.”

The coroner’s report said both girls died from multiple skull fractures caused by repeated blows to the head. Investigators believe a bloodied hammer found at the scene was the murder weapon.

Neda also had been strangled, and her neck, shoulders, chest and hair had been singed, probably with a butane lighter, the crime report said. Both girls had been sexually assaulted with a foreign object, the coroner’s office said.

Kristin, who lived in nearby Rolling Hills Estates, had been visiting Neda, a close friend and classmate at Dapplegray Intermediate School.

Wrote a Note

Hindmarsh, who lived in a nearby condominium complex, was a student at Miraleste High School. He had apparently tried to date Audrey O’Sullivan, who was a classmate, Kelly said. In a note, the youth had tried to convince Audrey to stay home the day of the killings, the prosecutor added.

When questioned hours after the killings were discovered, Hindmarsh told investigators he had never been to the O’Sullivan home that day. He said he was at a swimming pool in the complex when the murders took place.

Homicide investigators, however, found the teen-ager’s palm print in the O’Sullivan home.

Detectives also found traces of blood on tennis shoes Hindmarsh was wearing the day of the murders. A lab technician testified during the trial that the blood type could not be specifically identified as belonging to the victims, but he said it was consistent with the blood types of Hindmarsh and Neda.

Seen at Location

A resident at the condominium complex testified that she had been at the pool that afternoon and never saw Hindmarsh. Two teen-agers also testified that they saw Hindmarsh at the complex the afternoon of the killings.

A security guard at the complex told jurors that he saw Hindmarsh twice at the O’Sullivan home--once trying to climb onto the roof; the other time, putting his ear to the front door.