2nd Teen-Ager Convicted in 1991 Slaying of Woman at Zuma Beach

A Superior Court judge in Santa Monica found a second New Mexico teen-ager guilty Monday of murder and robbery in the stabbing death last year of a Northridge woman at Zuma Beach.

Michael Loretto, 18, also was found guilty of two special circumstances of committing great bodily injury in the death of Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, after she spent May 28, 1991, sunning herself on the beach.

“The facts have shown that the acts of the defendant did show beyond a reasonable doubt a reckless indifference to human life,” Judge David Perez said after the one-day trial.

Perez found Loretto not guilty of special circumstances of lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon.

Loretto, who will be sentenced Nov. 17, faces a maximum of life in prison without possibility of parole, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss.

Loretto’s conviction came a week after Perez found a co-defendant, Guillermo Bustos, also 18, guilty of stabbing Kirkham twice as Loretto held her down in a women’s restroom at the Malibu beach, according to testimony by Los Angeles County and New Mexico investigators.

Taped statements by Bustos and Loretto admitting their guilt to investigators were played at both trials. On Monday, Loretto’s taped statement indicated that he followed Kirkham into the restroom after watching her on the beach for several hours and hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground.

Asked why the teen-agers had the knife with them, Loretto said, “Because we were just country boys in the city.”