Pair Will Be Tried as Adults in Stabbing Death

A 17-year-old girl and her teenage boyfriend will be tried as adults on charges of murdering her grandmother in Los Alamitos, a judge ruled Friday.

Jessica Richards and Brian Mote, 17, were arrested and charged with murder several days after police discovered Jean Eleanor Richards, 62, stabbed to death at her home in December.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Owen on Friday also set bail for Richards and Mote at $1 million each. They remain in custody at a juvenile detention facility, pending their arraignment in Municipal Court in Westminster next week.

Richards’ body was discovered Dec. 19 after neighbors noticed a shattered window at her home on Paseo Bonita, police said. Her car was missing from an open garage.

Family and neighbors said Richards and her granddaughter, whom she had raised, had been arguing in the previous months over school and money. Relatives had tried to have the girl placed in foster care or in a home for troubled teens.

Richards’ son-in-law, Jim Schroeder, said the family feared for her safety because the girl had threatened her life on several occasions.

“We wanted to make [Jessica Richards] a ward of the state and were trying to go through proper channels, but nobody would do anything,” Schroeder said at the time.

Police said they had responded to several domestic violence calls at the home.

The suspects were found sleeping in the victim’s car in Las Vegas. Investigators also found a knife in the car that they believe was the murder weapon.