Boy, 15, Gets CYA Term in Sex-Slaying of Neighbor, 7 : Justice: The youth will probably be released by age 25. The victim’s mother says he is beyond rehabilitation.

A Newhall teen-ager, described by his victim’s mother as a “monster,” was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Friday for sexually molesting and murdering a 7-year-old neighbor, whose body was found stuffed behind his bed three days after she disappeared.

Curtis Cooper, who was 14 when he strangled Sara Nan Hodges in March, will probably spend about 10 years in custody because the California Youth Authority can retain jurisdiction over him only until he reaches the age of 25.

During an emotional sentencing hearing, Linda Hodges, the victim’s mother, condemned Cooper’s parents for failing to notice early warning signs of his emotional problems.

“Although it is impossible to conceive of a human being involved in such a vile act, it is hard to believe that this boy never showed any signs before this incident,” she said, reading from her prepared statement. “I believe that those responsible waited far too long to seek help.”

Now, she said, she believes Cooper is “a disregarded monster,” who cannot be rehabilitated and must be kept away from society for as long as possible. She said she regrets that the criminal justice system “deems it necessary to give youth a second chance at age 25.”

“This sentence is just a slap on the hands,” Hodges said. “It is important that this boy’s life be somewhere where he can be kept from committing such an act.”

Cooper, a slender youth clad in a gray juvenile hall sweat shirt, sat with his eyes closed. His mother, Crystal Cooper, dabbed tears from her eyes.

Crystal Cooper discovered Sara Hodges’ decomposing body in her son’s bedroom last Easter, while trying to track down the source of a foul odor. The body was stuffed between a wall and the headboard of his water bed, and Cooper had set up a fan to try to blow the smell out the window.

Authorities had been looking for the missing child for three days, using dogs, helicopters and mounted-search posses, and Cooper had been one of the first to volunteer to help search for her.

Cooper pleaded guilty to murder with a special allegation of sexual assault the day his trial was to begin on Nov. 2, 1989.

Deputy Public Defender Barbara Duey, Cooper’s attorney, said Cooper wants and needs psychiatric therapy. She blamed Florida social service agencies for neglecting Cooper’s obvious problems, which she said were manifested in his unruly behavior.

Duey said Cooper “has been looking for help for years” for his “severe emotional problems,” but in Florida, he was “shifted from agency to agency” without ever receiving appropriate treatment.

Cooper moved to Newhall from Florida--where he had lived with his father--in February after he had been arrested for a string of petty thefts and burglaries.

The Alderbrook Drive house where he lived with his mother was five doors from the home of his blonde, blue-eyed victim. The two sometimes went horseback riding together.

Duey said Cooper is “very remorseful, has taken responsibility for his actions, is well aware of how the incident has impacted the community, and has been accepting of his punishment.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Michelle Rosenblatt pointed out that Cooper “was able to sleep for three nights with Sara Hodges behind his bed. How can a person who was able to do that be a person with a conscience or remorse?”

She said Cooper planned the murder about a week before it occurred, and had planned--but never carried out--a similar murder two years earlier, while in Florida.

“He had a belief that he had to kill to have sexual relations,” said Rosenblatt.

Linda Hodges said that the killing has devastated her life and her family.

Four months after his daughter’s death, Sara’s father, Walter Scott Mann, 36, of Ojai, shot and killed himself on her grave at Newhall’s Eternal Valley Memorial Park after an all-day vigil there.