D.A. Rejects Charges Against 5 People in Boys’ Beating Deaths

In a setback for Glendale police investigating the killings of two boys in a La Crescenta schoolyard, the district attorney’s office refused Tuesday to file charges against two adults and three juveniles arrested in connection with the case.

A sixth person arrested in the case--15-year-old Michael H. Demirdjian--pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of murder with special circumstances and robbery in the July 23 deaths of Blaine Talmo Jr., 14, and Christopher McCulloch, 13.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 8 at the county court in Glendale, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Demirdjian’s attorney, Charles Mathews, said his client was with Blaine and Christopher hours before the boys’ bodies were found at Valley View Elementary School in La Crescenta on July 23.

“They spent most of the afternoon together and the early evening certainly on the day the crimes took place,” Mathews told reporters. Mathews would not say if the boys were still alive when Demirdjian saw them last, but he did say the teenage suspect “felt himself threatened when he took off.”

Police had arrested the five others Sunday, but the district attorney’s office said it would not file charges against any of them. They are Cristina E. Kim, 20, an 18-year-old man, two 17-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy. All live in the La Crescenta-Montrose area.

Officials with the district attorney’s office said all five had been arrested in connection with the investigation into the killings. The officials declined to say why prosecutors had decided not to file charges.

Police booked Kim, the 18-year-old man and the other three teenagers Sunday on suspicion of conspiring to commit kidnapping and robbery, but detectives have refused to say how they were believed to fit into the case.

Kim is a UC Irvine student who lives across the street from Valley View Elementary. The 18-year-old man lives about half a mile away from the school on the same stretch of Montrose Avenue that police blocked off for several hours last week. Although police told curious residents that they were investigating a bomb threat, no one was evacuated from any of the densely populated apartment complexes lining the avenue.

Kim’s attorney, Eric W. Lee, asserted that police were grasping at straws.

“They’re trying to make their case,” Lee said. “It’s obvious that they don’t have enough evidence. There’s a very remote connection between my client and the case.”

Lee said police questioned his client about the case, but he said she had no information of use to investigators.

No one answered the door at the home of the 18-year-old man, and a woman who answered the phone at his home declined to comment.

Last week, police arrested Adam Walker, 19, on suspicion of murder in the deaths, but later dropped those allegations. Walker remains in custody on an unrelated burglary charge.

That leaves only Demirdjian in custody, and police have not said why he is a suspect.

Officers say 20 investigators have questioned more than 60 people and searched at least three homes in the case.

“The homicide investigation is ongoing and we’re not going to jeopardize the case at this time,” Glendale police spokesman Sgt. Rick Young said Tuesday, in explaining the department’s refusal to comment further.

Glendale City Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said police typically keep city officials posted on the progress of major cases. But she said she learned about Kim’s arrest only after being contacted by a reporter.

“I would like to know why we weren’t called right up front like we always are,” said Bremberg. “I don’t know if it’s because the chief [Glendale Police Chief Russ Silverling] is out on vacation and [others] didn’t know the drill, but I can’t believe they didn’t know the drill. It’s just one of these things that just unraveled.”

City Manager Jim Starbird, however, said he knows everything he needs to know.

“I’m comfortable that the police are keeping me apprised to the extent that is appropriate,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I know everything.”

Glendale News Press reporter Amber Willard, Times Community News reporter Greg Risling and Times staff writers K. Connie Kang and Sue Fox contributed to this story.