Charles Allegedly Confessed Role in Slayings to a Friend, Affidavit Says : Crime: The document focuses on inconsistencies in the murder suspect’s statements to police, and contradictory ones given by others after the killings.

Murder suspect Edward Charles III called a friend the day after his parents and younger brother were found dead in a burning car and confessed tearfully that he had killed them, according to a police affidavit.

“I think I did something terrible,” Charles allegedly told the friend on the afternoon of Nov. 8. “I think I killed my family.”

His alleged confession is mentioned in a 13-page affidavit that Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives gave to the court in seeking a search warrant for the Fullerton home that Charles shared with his parents, Edward and Dolores Charles, and brother Danny Charles, a performer and USC student.

The bodies of the three were discovered stuffed in a family car that had been doused with gasoline and set afire outside a La Mirada high school Nov. 7. Charles, who was arrested two days later, was charged Monday with three counts of murder with special circumstances, which could mean a death penalty if he is convicted.

The affidavit, filed in court records, focused on inconsistencies in Charles’ statements to police, and contradictory statements given by others after the murders.

Although Charles told police he was at his fiancee’s home watching television when the burning Honda was spotted, the latter’s brother said Charles called him around that time asking for a ride home from a park about half a mile from the fire, according to the affidavit.

The police document also said Charles changed his story about where he spent the night of Nov. 6--the time that authorities believe the family was murdered. Charles was seen at his family’s house early the next morning wiping the driveway with a rag, according to the affidavit.

The search warrant said authorities were looking for a hammer and knife believed to be the murder weapons. Autopsies determined that Charles’ father and younger brother were bludgeoned, and that Danny Charles, who was found unburned in the trunk, was also stabbed and strangled. Dolores Charles had bruises on her throat, but the cause of death was not known because her body was so badly burned. Investigators have said no weapons had been found.

During the alleged telephone conversation, Charles repeated the confession when his friend did not believe him, investigators said.

“The friend wasn’t believing him and (Charles) said, ‘It’s all over the television.’ And he hung up,” Sheriff’s Detective Ron Lancaster said in an interview. The friend, who was not identified in the affidavit, called police. Authorities tried to meet with Charles that night but could not find him, according to the affidavit.

Lancaster said authorities believe the friend is the only person to whom Charles allegedly has confessed.

Charles has steadfastly maintained his innocence to authorities, and his defense lawyer denied that his client had confessed to anybody.

“It’s absolutely false. . . . There was no statement whatsoever to anybody,” said Deputy Public Defender Ronald E. Klar, who was assigned to the case Wednesday. “A man does not confess to crimes he’s not guilty of.”

Klar said he had not seen the affidavit and had received only scant police reports so far. He declined to reveal Charles’ defense strategy, except to say that he would attack claims of a confession in court. Arraignment is scheduled Nov. 28.

Klar said he spoke with Charles on Wednesday and described him as “saddened and a little depressed.”

Charles’ fiancee, Tiffany Bowen, declined to comment Wednesday.

The prosecutor in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent, said the allegation of a confession strengthens a case he believes is already strong.

“That statement, in my mind, is not necessary to prove guilt,” he said. “It really is something additional that makes the case better.

“It’s nice to have a statement from a defendant admitting participation in crimes, even at an early stage,” he continued. “The public is confident that the police have got the right man. . . . There are no lingering doubts.”

Charles initially told investigators he spent the night of Nov. 6 at the Bowen home in Fullerton, but when the Bowens disputed that, he said he had been at his family’s home that night, according to the affidavit. On the night of the fire, he said, he went to Bowen’s home, where he has lived off and on in recent months, and never left after 8 p.m. But Bowen’s brother, Richard, later told detectives he had given Charles a ride about 9:15 p.m. to the service station where Charles worked as a mechanic.

According to the affidavit, Richard Bowen said Charles called shortly after 10 p.m. asking for a ride home from a park a little more than half a mile from the La Mirada school where the car was found burning shortly before.

The affidavit also said Charles was seen the night of the murder driving a car that matched the description of the Honda that burned. Minutes before he was seen in the car, a neighbor had reported hearing a man’s voice crying for help from the trunk of a car with a similar description near the family’s home. According to the affidavit, Charles told police the car he was driving that night belonged to the Bowens, though the family owns no such car.

Times staff writer Anna Cekola contributed to this report.