Girl Also Charged in Fallbrook Mall Slaying : Courts: Authorities say 17-year-old was behind wheel of car involved in June 9 shooting of Ramtin Shaolian.

Murder and conspiracy charges were filed Thursday against a 17-year-old Studio City girl who police say was behind the wheel of a car involved in a fatal drive-by shooting at the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills two weeks ago.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Taklender, filing deputy in the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court bureau, said he will also seek to try the girl--whose name was not released because of her age--as an adult.

If she is tried as an adult, she would join two 19-year-old Van Nuys men--including the alleged gunman--whose preliminary hearing Thursday was continued to July 11. They are each charged with one count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and four counts of attempted murder in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ramtin Shaolian on June 9.

“As the driver in a drive-by shooting . . . she is culpable,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels, who is prosecuting the two men, Tommy Lee Williams and Elliott O’Neal Singletary.

In Van Nuys Municipal Court Thursday, Judge Leslie A. Dunn granted a request by Samuels that phone privileges be taken away from the two men after the surviving shooting victims and other witnesses complained that they have been threatened by the two men.

Three other teen-age girls who were in the car during the incident will not be charged, Taklender said. However, a 17-year-old Van Nuys boy who allegedly sheltered the two men after the shooting and hid the murder weapon was charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder. Prosecutors will not be seeking to try him as an adult.

Both teen-agers charged remain in the custody of their parents. Taklender said an arraignment date has not been set, but that it would likely be in about 10 days. At that time, a date will be set for a hearing to determine whether the girl’s case will remain in juvenile court or sent to Superior Court to try her as an adult.

Taklender said that after reviewing police reports, he decided to file charges against the girl because as the driver, “her involvement was such that it made her an aider and abettor.”

James E. Blatt, an attorney representing the girl, said his client is remorseful and denies any prior knowledge that the shooting was going to take place.

“She comes from a good family, she is a good student and she has been cooperative with the authorities,” Blatt said. “She is a young person who put herself in a position of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We believe that if a judge or jury hear the facts, they will realize that she is also a victim.”

Blatt said his client did not know Williams prior to the night of the shooting and did not know that he had a gun.

Shaolian was shot and killed after he and some friends were leaving a movie theater in the Fallbrook Mall. According to police, a car with the two men and four girls approached Shaolian, and Singletary asked him if he belonged to a gang.

Shaolian responded, “No, does it look like we’re gangbangers?” The car drove around the parking lot and came back toward the group with its lights turned off. Williams allegedly shouted: “Well, you’re gangbanger now,” then opened fire, killing Shaolian and injuring two others. Shots were fired at two other teen-agers, but they were not hit, police said.