Man Pleads Not Guilty in Valley Village Slaying

A man who police said fled to Mexico after brutally stabbing a woman in a Valley Village apartment pleaded not guilty Friday to murder charges.

Douglas Oliver Kelly, 35, is charged in the September slaying of Sara Weir, a 19-year-old Warner Bros. production assistant who was stabbed in the chest 34 times with a pair of scissors.

The victim, who was raised in Thousand Oaks, was reported missing Sept. 7.

Police have said that Weir hired Kelly as a personal fitness trainer after meeting him at a Burbank gym where he worked as a janitor.

Kelly’s former girlfriend discovered Weir’s decomposing body Sept. 15 in the apartment she had shared with Kelly in the 4900 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Prosecutors said the girlfriend, Michelle Theard, threw Kelly out of her residence Aug. 31 after she was beaten by him.

Kelly was arrested for beating Theard and spent a short period in jail, eluding an arrest warrant issued by Florida officials by giving a slightly different birthday. Officials said the different birth date prevented them from discovering the outstanding warrant.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen M. Cady said Theard moved out of the apartment but occasionally returned to retrieve mail and clothes, eventually noticing a foul odor in the residence, Cady said.

“The body was not in plain view,” the prosecutor said. The source of the odor was not discovered until Weir’s naked body was found.

Kelly was apprehended at the international border in Laredo, Tex., the day before Thanksgiving. Police said he was making his first trip back into the United States after murdering Weir and driving her Ford Bronco to Ensenada, Mexico, where he sold the vehicle.

Judge Leland B. Harris accepted Kelly’s not guilty plea and ordered him to return to court Jan. 13 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.