NORTHRIDGE : Youth Gets 25 Years to Life for Role in Slaying at Beach

A second teen-ager convicted of killing a Northridge woman last year at Zuma Beach was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in state prison.

Michael Loretto, 18, was sentenced by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge David Perez in the stabbing death of Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, at the Malibu beach on May 28, 1991.

On Monday, a co-defendant, Guillermo Bustos, also 18, was sentenced to life without possibility of parole after being found guilty in October of stabbing Kirkham while she was in a women’s restroom. Loretto did not stab her but had followed her in the restroom, hit her in the face and knocked her down.

The two teen-agers, and a third youth who was not charged, had planned to steal Kirkham’s car so they could return to their hometown of Pojoaque, N.M., according to trial testimony. Perez gave Loretto 23 months’ credit for time served and good behavior.