D.A. Refuses to Charge 5 Arrested in Glendale Case

In another setback for Glendale police investigating the killings of two boys on 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.

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

A preliminary hearing for Demirdjian is scheduled for Aug. 8 at the Los Angeles County Courthouse in Glendale, according to Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Demirdjian’s attorney, Charles Mathews, said his client was with McCulloch and Talmo 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 whether the boys were still alive when Demirdjian saw them last, but did say the teenager “felt himself threatened when he took off.”

Police arrested five additional suspects in connection with the case Sunday, but the district attorney’s office said it would not file charges against any of them: 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 were arrested in connection with the investigation into the killings. But they declined to say why prosecutors decided not to file charges.

*

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 at the time that they were investigating a bomb threat, no one was evacuated from any of the densely populated apartment complexes lining the avenue.

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

Kim’s attorney, Eric W. Lee, said 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 concerning the case, but said she possesses no information of use to the police.

“She doesn’t know anything,” he said.

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 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 just Demirdjian in custody. Police have not said why he is a suspect.

Police say a team of 20 investigators has questioned more than 60 people and searched at least three homes in the case. Since Monday, they have imposed a news blackout and refused to comment on the investigation.

“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.

*

A police spokesman on Monday flatly denied that the department had made any more arrests in the case. On Tuesday, Young refused comment.

Glendale City Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said police typically keep city officials posted on the progress of major cases. 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 Russell Silverling] is out on vacation and they 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.