Slain Girl Told Judge of Threat

Just two weeks before she was shot to death on a Northridge street, 16-year-old Melinda Carmody tearfully told a judge that her ex-boyfriend had promised to kill her if she ever left him.

“He said if he can’t have me, no one can,” Carmody testified against Juan Manuel Lopez, 24, a suspected gang member who faces charges that he burst into the girl’s Panorama City apartment on March 13, cut her neck with a knife and kidnapped her.

Carmody, who was being schooled at home to protect her from the dangers of her crime-plagued neighborhood, was slain Friday night outside a Northridge apartment building where witnesses said she frequently hung out with friends.

Lopez has been in jail since his March 15 arrest, and his public defender said Monday that he believes Lopez was not responsible for the killing. Police refused to discuss the case. But in an interview with The Times, Carmody’s grandmother said she believes the girl’s death is related to her stormy breakup with Lopez.

Edna Steffen of Sherman Oaks said her granddaughter--known to her family as Mindy--began dating Lopez last year, when she was 15. But the girl ended the relationship because she was unhappy with his alleged gang involvement.

“He kept saying he was going to get out, but never did,” Steffen said. “My granddaughter just didn’t want to be around him anymore.”

During a preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Superior Court on the charges against Lopez last month, Carmody testified that he called her the morning of March 13 and asked if he could come over. She said she refused.

“I’m scared of him,” she said, according to court records. “He told me if I ever broke up with him, he would kill me.”

An hour after the call, the girl testified, Lopez broke into her house through the garage and asked if she wanted to leave with him. When she refused, she said, “he came at me with a knife.”

Carmody said Lopez cut her on the back of the neck, knocked her down, choked her and dragged her upstairs by the hair. He stuffed some of her clothes into a bag and forced her outside into a car driven by a man Carmody didn’t recognize, she said.

Lopez then took Carmody to his aunt’s house in Los Angeles and left. The woman cleaned Carmody’s wound, which was not serious. Four hours later, the woman returned Carmody to her Panorama City apartment, the girl testified.

Lopez was arrested two days later and held on assault, kidnapping and burglary charges. He has pleaded not guilty. He remained in Los Angeles County Jail on Monday in lieu of $130,000 bail, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Baird.

Steffen said her granddaughter later sought refuge at Steffen’s home. But on Friday, Carmody got a phone call from two girlfriends inviting her to a party that night. At 7:30 that evening, Steffen said, they picked up Carmody.

Steffen said detectives told her that the friends drove her granddaughter to Northridge, where she was pushed out onto the street.

“She was surrounded by those girls and their friends,” said Steffen. “She tried to run when she was shot four times in the back.” Coroner’s deputies said Monday that they had not examined the girl’s body and could not describe her wounds.

Deputy Public Defender Dennis Cohen said he believes Lopez was not involved in the killing. He said Lopez, who lives with his parents near Northridge Middle School, has no record of violence and has been arrested before only for traffic infractions.

“Ms. Carmody’s unfortunate death, I don’t think has anything to do with my client,” said Cohen, emphasizing that Lopez was in jail at the time of the slaying. “Out there in today’s world it’s a pretty dangerous place, especially in parts of this town.”

Steffen described her granddaughter as “smart and perky” and said she was being taught at home to help insulate her from violence and other problems in her neighborhood. Before Carmody’s relationship with Lopez soured, the young man had been quiet and reserved and had once helped Carmody’s mother move to a new home, Steffen said.

But after the killing, Carmody’s mother ripped up photographs of her daughter with Lopez, changed the locks on her apartment and fled to another location, said Steffen.

A woman who lives near the site of the slaying outside a Northridge apartment building said she heard shots and tires screeching just before she spotted Carmody lying face down in the street, with no one around.

“I didn’t know where she had been shot, but I knew she wasn’t going to make it,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

Another nearby resident, a teen-age boy who also asked not to be identified, said Carmody was seen as often as twice a week hanging around outside the building with teenage friends who live there.

“She would just kick back with them all the time,” he said.

Steffen said her granddaughter tried to stay calm after she was allegedly beaten and kidnapped by Lopez. “Even on the night of the kidnapping, she tried to be funny and blow it off like it was nothing,” she said.

But, Steffen said, the girl was not well-versed in the dangers of the streets.

“She was naive,” said Steffen. “And that’s what got her killed.”

* Times staff writer Jack Cheevers contributed to this story. Williams is a Times staff writer and Riccardi is a correspondent.