Prosecutor in Zuma Beach Slaying Seeks Use of Tapes

A Los Angeles deputy district attorney said Wednesday that he hopes to play at a court hearing today tape recordings in which he said two teen-agers confessed to stabbing a Northridge woman to death in a Zuma Beach restroom.

Harvey Giss, who is prosecuting Michael Loretto, 17, and Guillermo Bustos, 16, said he hopes to enter the tape recordings by police as evidence during the second day of a fitness hearing in Sylmar Juvenile Court that will determine whether the youths will be tried as juveniles or adults.

The district attorney’s office has said prosecutors will seek a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Investigators said they believe the two youths, along with a friend, Jason Alexander, 17, ran away in late May from the small New Mexico town of Pojoaque and took a bus to Southern California to avoid a burglary investigation. After a brief stay in Los Angeles, Loretto and Bustos allegedly accosted and stabbed Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, in a public restroom at the beach, took her car and purse and returned to New Mexico.

The three were arrested June 5 after New Mexico State Police discovered Kirkham’s wrecked car on a highway north of Santa Fe.

Alexander was not charged in the slaying and was later released.

William Martinez, a sheriff’s detective from New Mexico, testified Wednesday during the first day of the hearing that he took Loretto and Alexander into custody June 5 at Alexander’s house. He said Alexander’s father, who had seen his son earlier with the stolen car, contacted police after viewing a news report showing the abandoned car and composite sketches of the suspects in Kirkham’s death. Alexander’s mother, Rebecca, testified that her husband told her about her son’s possible involvement in the crime just minutes before police arrived.

Under questioning, she denied that her answers were influenced by fear that her son might be implicated by her testimony. She said she had spoken to Loretto’s mother and attorney, and was “here to help Michael.” She was not asked to elaborate.

Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Mark R. Frazin, one of the attorneys defending the youths, declined to say what arguments he will use to defend the youths.