Judge Orders Trial in Polly Klaas Slaying : Courts: Charges against Richard Davis, accused of kidnaping and killing the seventh-grader, could lead to the death penalty.

Richard Allen Davis was ordered Friday to stand trial in the abduction and murder of Polly Klaas, the shy seventh-grader whose kidnaping last fall terrified parents everywhere and spawned an extraordinary search by volunteers to find her.

After hearing from 24 witnesses during a three-day preliminary hearing, Sonoma County Municipal Judge Robert P. Dale said the evidence created a strong suspicion that Davis snatched Polly from her Petaluma bedroom at knifepoint and strangled her.

In all, Davis faces 11 criminal charges, including murder, kidnaping, false imprisonment and assault with intent to commit a lewd act on a child. The murder charge carries four special circumstances. If any of those special circumstances are proved at trial, Davis could be sentenced to death.

In an unusual move that hushed the courtroom, Dale delivered a harsh, five-minute monologue summing up his feelings about the notorious case.

“This case leaves many gnawing questions,” Dale said. Among them are when and how Polly died and whether she was still alive when two sheriff’s deputies questioned Davis shortly after the kidnaping.

“I don’t know (the answers),” Dale said. “I don’t think any of us knows, except for one person. Polly Klaas can’t tell us.”

Dale also called Davis’ assertion that he kidnaped Polly in a drug-induced haze “absurd and totally without credence.”

“This is not a person who is intoxicated, this is not a person who is confused,” the judge said, referring to evidence alleging that Davis brought pre-cut strips of fabric into Polly’s home to bind and gag her and two friends. “This is a person who has a plan . . . and continued to carry it out.”

Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, sat with his head bowed during Friday’s brief hearing. After the judge’s ruling, he clasped hands with Petaluma Police Sgt. Mike Meese, the lead detective in the case.

Later, a shaken Klaas said the week’s testimony had been “absolutely awful” to listen to. “If I could turn back time I would turn back time, but it’s impossible to do that,” Klaas said. “Polly is dead . . . and nothing will ever bring my heart back or fill the emptiness that I feel.”

Davis, 39, sat passively through the week’s testimony. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Barry Collins, said he was not surprised by the judge’s findings because the standard of proof that prosecutors must meet at a preliminary hearing is low.

Collins said he would consider a plea agreement if the district attorney would drop efforts to obtain a death sentence for his client. Prosecutors have said that is not an option.

Polly was kidnaped Oct. 1 from her Petaluma bedroom, where she was hosting a sleep-over for two schoolmates. Her body was found two months later after Davis, a repeat felon who committed his first crime at the age of 12, was arrested and confessed.

In key testimony this week, Polly’s friends identified Davis as the intruder, and four other witnesses said a man resembling Davis was outside the Klaas home in the hours before the crime. FBI forensics experts linked fibers from Polly’s clothing and bedroom carpet to those found in Davis’ car.