Murder Count Against Girl Is Dismissed

A judge Wednesday dismissed a murder charge against a Fremont teen-ager who wrote in her diary, “I killed my little sister!”

The girl, who was 14 when her 4-year-old half-sister died in August, 1992, was convicted of murder last year. But her conviction was overturned when a judge ruled that her first set of lawyers had represented her incompetently.

At her second trial, the 16-year-old had a new lawyer and a new judge, retired Siskiyou County Superior Court Judge James E. Kleaver. After the prosecution rested its case, Kleaver ruled Wednesday that the evidence failed to prove the girl’s guilt of murder and ordered the charge dismissed.

“It feels good,” said Douglas Horngrad, the teen-ager’s new lawyer. “For (the teen-ager), it’s the end of a very long and awful nightmare.”

The prosecutor’s strongest evidence was the girl’s diary entry which reads, in part: “Dear Diary, I have to get something off my back! I killed my little sister!” But in another diary entry, the girl wrote that she went into her sister’s room, found the little girl unconscious and fetched her mother, Horngrad said.

The girl’s first lawyers, who included famed attorney Melvin Belli, did not offer evidence of that other diary entry at the first trial.

The girl testified that she had fabricated the apparent confession so her mother could have an answer to the puzzling death. Lawyers on both sides agreed that the teen-ager is deeply troubled.

“I was not surprised (by Kleaver’s ruling) in that it was the right verdict and we felt from the beginning of the proceedings that we had a judge that was listening very carefully,” Horngrad said.

Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Golde said he was disappointed by the judge’s ruling Wednesday and believes that the teen-ager is guilty.

“I still believe that there’s a secret in that house,” Golde said. “The truth is hidden there. This girl was killed. . . . The truth is locked up between (the family).”