Brother Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying

An Agoura Hills teen-ager pleaded not guilty in Malibu Municipal Court on Monday to charges that he shot his older brother to death in the family’s home on New Year’s Eve.

Bradley M. Minkoff, 18, was arrested Jan. 13 at a friend’s apartment in North Hollywood. Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators had obtained a warrant charging him with the murder of his brother, Michael, 20. His arraignment, originally scheduled for Jan. 16, was postponed until Monday after Minkoff’s attorney, Dennis E. Mulcahy, asked for more time to study police reports.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Loni Petersen opposed Mulcahy’s request Monday that Minkoff’s bail be lowered from $1.5 million to $75,000 so that he could be released to his parents’ custody, noting that two shots were fired and that Minkoff hid for 13 days after the crime.

Investigators said Minkoff stayed with actor friends who did not know he was being sought by deputies. The friends later said they believed Minkoff was joking when he told them he had killed his brother. Petersen said such statements about his brother were “a sign of a lack of remorse.”

Judge Lawrence J. Mira declined to reduce the bail, and Minkoff remained in custody. Mira ordered him to return to court Feb. 20, when a preliminary hearing date will be set.

Defense attorney Mulcahy could not be reached for comment.