San Diego

A federal judge in San Francisco refused this week to dismiss a murder charge against Stephanie Stearns, accused of helping her boyfriend kill a wealthy San Diego yachstwoman on a remote Pacific island in 1974.

Ruling as the prosecution neared the end of its case, visiting U.S. District Judge Samuel King of Honolulu said there was enough evidence to go to the jury on a charge that Stearns, 39, aided in killing Eleanor (Muff) Graham.

Defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass had argued that the evidence showed, at most, that Stearns concealed the whereabouts of her boyfriend, Buck Duane Walker, from authorities and was an accessory after the fact. She could not be charged with that crime because the statute of limitations has expired. There is no such limitation for a murder charge.

Graham and her husband, Malcolm, disappeared from Palmyra atoll, 1,100 miles southwest of Hawaii, in August, 1974. Her remains were found on Palmyra in 1981; her husband’s body has never been found.

Stearns and Walker, who had sailed to Palmyra aboard their own leaky boat earlier in 1974, showed up in Hawaii aboard the Grahams’ yacht, which had been renamed and repainted, two months after the Grahams disappeared.

Stearns and Walker were convicted of stealing the boat and sentenced to prison. After Mrs. Graham’s bones were found, the couple was charged with murder, and the trials were transferred to San Francisco because of news coverage in Hawaii.

Walker, 48, was convicted in June and sentenced to life in prison.