Youth, 17, Arrested in Girl’s Slaying

Authorities seeking the killer of 16-year-old Melinda “Mindy” Carmody have arrested her former boyfriend’s teenage brother, hinting that the slaying was retaliation for her testimony against the former boyfriend in court.

“She testified against the guy’s brother on the stand,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Taklender. “You draw your own conclusions.”

The 17-year-old suspect, who was not identified, was arrested Tuesday morning in the 18000 block of Schoenborn Street, just across the street from where Carmody was shot, said Police Capt. Vance Proctor.

The teenager is being held on charges of murder and is expected to be arraigned today in Sylmar juvenile court on a murder charge, Taklender said. Taklender added that prosecutors hope to try him as an adult.

Carmody’s former boyfriend, Juan Manuel Lopez Hernandez, 23, is in jail on charges of assault, kidnapping and burglary, for allegedly beating her and abducting her from her Panorama City apartment.

She testified against him at a preliminary hearing last week, tearfully saying that she was putting her life in danger by doing so, but did not ask for protection. “He said if he can’t have me, no one can,” she testified.

After she was shot, her family alleged that the killing was connected to the testimony she gave.

“There is a connection between the two,” Proctor said Wednesday, but declined to speculate on who made the decision to kill her. “Right now we are still investigating. There are a lot of different witnesses to interview for this case.”

Despite her death, the record of her testimony can still be used against Lopez at his trial, Taklender said.

Carmody left her home Friday night to go to a party with friends. Her body was found later that night in the street in front of an apartment house by neighbors who said they heard five or six gunshots and the sound of people running from the site.

A neighbor, who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation, said she frequently saw Carmody hanging out at the apartment building, sometimes drinking with gang members.

The woman also said she heard “that a contract was out on the girl.’

“It’s been really quiet here the last few days,” she said, speculating that the killers “are just hiding out because they know the police are looking for them.”

Mary Lou Holte, founder of the Town Keepers civic action group, said she met Carmody about two years ago and often talked to her, trying to steer her away from gang companions. She described her as “being 14, but trying to look 25 with her makeup and short skirts.”

“She just couldn’t get away from what she had gotten herself into,” Holte said. “Here is a girl who was grabbing for a family in a gang, just a little girl that was lost and nobody was paying attention. I just wish the judge would have realized that.”

David Myers, the principal at De Anza Middle School in Ventura, where Carmody spent her eighth-grade year in 1993 and 1994, described her as “really well liked, and a gifted athlete.

“She seemed to have an awful lot of friends,” he said.

“She was very gifted,” said physical education teacher Gerald Ornelas. “She loved track and field. That was her specialty.”

Times special correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.