San Diego
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused to delay the scheduled retrial of Charles Tyberg, accused of killing a San Diego police officer when he was 16 years old.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor refused without comment requests by prosecutors to postpone the retrial, scheduled for Feb. 17. An indefinite delay was sought while the Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal to reinstate Tyberg’s first-degree murder conviction.
Tyberg was convicted in 1983 in the slaying of Kirk Johnson, who was shot to death Feb. 20, 1983, in Marian Bear Park, next to California 52. Investigators said Tyberg, the stepson of a deputy sheriff, was wearing his stepfather’s uniform and was driving his patrol car the night of the shooting.
The conviction was reversed in June by the 4th District Court of Appeal after it threw out Tyberg’s confession. The justices ruled that a detective wrongfully coerced Tyberg into confessing by pretending to be his friend, and they ordered a new trial.
The California Supreme Court refused to review the appellate court’s finding, prompting prosecutors to go to the nation’s highest court.
Tyberg remains in the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana without bail.
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