Granddaughter Is Charged in Beating

A 16-year-old girl was charged Tuesday with attempted murder after her grandmother was bludgeoned with a flashlight over the weekend in their Glendora home.

Prosecutors said Heather Ann Melton, a student at Whitcomb Continuation High School in Glendora, was charged as an adult because of the severity of the injuries to her grandmother, Margaret “Peggy” Dion, 70.

Melton’s bail was set at $500,000 by Superior Court Judge Daniel S. Lopez during a brief court appearance Tuesday at Citrus Court in West Covina. Her arraignment was delayed until Feb. 14. She remained in custody at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.

Dion is in stable condition at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood with five skull fractures, a shoulder injury and multiple bruises, prosecutors said.

The teenager is accused of chasing her grandmother through the house and repeatedly beating Dion over the head with the flashlight Sunday morning after an argument over her having uninvited guests in the house.

Kevin Ruth, a senior officer with Glendora Police Department, said a review of department records showed officers had been called to the house in the 300 block of East Temmera Lane eight times in the last year alone. “There were several disturbances and one report of a missing teenager,” he said.

Police were called to the home Sunday by a jogger who was passing by the house about 7:20 a.m. and heard the grandmother’s screams for help.

Glendora police officers discovered the grandmother lying in her garage and had her airlifted to the hospital. Melton was later taken into custody at a local church after calling police, Ruth said. The teenager shared the middle-class home on a cul-de-sac in the southern part of Glendora with her grandmother, mother and three sisters.