Girl, 14, Convicted of First-Degree Murder in Slaying of Father : Courts: She faces confinement until age 25 instead of life term because she is minor. Judge rejects claim that man was killed because he was abusive.

A 14-year-old girl charged with killing her father after describing her plans in her diary was convicted of murder Wednesday in Juvenile Court.

The struggle between Daniel Allen and his daughter was an age-old conflict over parental authority that was carried too far, Juvenile Court Judge Robert D. Mackey said. “She’s had a basic teen-age problem of who’s in control,” Mackey said. “It’s not that different a type of problem than every other teen-ager has.”

The teen-ager, allegedly with the help of her boyfriend and another young woman, drugged Daniel Allen, 46, with sleeping pills, shot him in the head, doused his body with gasoline and set it afire in Highland Park last June. Allen’s charred body was found in a shallow grave along the railroad tracks.

During a nine-day trial, prosecutors described Allen, a graphic artist, as the victim of an unmanageable daughter, determined to live with her boyfriend and escape her father’s control. The defense contended that the teen-ager was the victim of abuse who sought police help to no avail and finally killed her violent father to escape him.

But Mackey sustained the petition charging the girl with first-degree murder with special circumstances for using a firearm. “Corrective action by her father would not be abuse,” he said.

The judge set a disposition hearing for Feb. 22.

The charges normally would carry a penalty of life imprisonment plus five years. But because the girl is a minor, she faces confinement by the California Youth Authority until the age of 25. Her name has not been made public because she is a minor.

Guido Anthony Cuza, 18, the girl’s boyfriend, and Evelyn Solorzano, 16, also face murder charges alleging that they helped in the killing. Because they are older, they are being tried as adults, and if convicted could face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The pale, tawny-haired 14-year-old showed little reaction as the judge spoke except to occasionally bite her lower lip. During the trial, she usually slumped in a chair, acting more like an observer than a participant.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Shane Burns said after the ruling that he had been struck by the minor’s “lack of remorse. She was pretty cold-hearted.” The planning and execution of the crime, detailed in diary entries made by the girl and a tape-recorded confession, was also unusual, he added: “You don’t normally see that in kids.”

None of the girl’s relatives were in court Wednesday. Her mother, Debra Williams, was in court during the first week of January but returned home to Texas. Williams raised her daughter in Texas after she and Allen split up.

The girl was reunited with her father in the summer of 1991. According to testimony, he was overjoyed when the girl came to visit and decided to stay.

But the relationship quickly deteriorated. During remarks before his ruling, Mackey noted that the girl came with established problems, which he described as a “sexual obsession” with boys and a “rebellious spirit, one that wanted to be on her own.”

The girl reported alleged abusive behavior three times, Mackey noted, but police investigations did not support the charges. The restrictions Allen sought to impose, such as household chores and limitations on seeing Cuza, Mackey said, “were appropriate for a 14-year-old (but) contrary to (the minor’s) desire to . . . do exactly as she pleased.”