Judge Orders Girl, 16, Transferred From Jail

A judge has ordered a 16-year-old female murder defendant who has been incarcerated in virtual isolation at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility for nearly a month be returned to a juvenile hall.

Anait Msryan, who has been in custody since 2000, was transferred on Oct. 9 from juvenile hall to the sheriff’s custody for fighting, gang activity and possession of contraband, including money, alcohol-based mouthwash, tongue rings and a sexual device, according to a probation official.

But Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green found the disciplinary offenses cited by probation officials did not warrant Msryan’s transfer. On Tuesday, he ordered Msryan moved back to juvenile hall.

Green called Msryan “a challenging individual” for probation officials but said she did not appear to be any worse than other juvenile offenders in their custody.

Her attorney, Theodore S. Flier, and Peter Glick, legal counsel for Sheriff Lee Baca, had asked the judge to move Msryan out of Twin Towers because of inadequate housing for teenage girls.

“There is no housing facility at the county jail for [minor] females so she is segregated from all the other people in custody,” Flier said in court. “She is, in effect, in solitary confinement.”

Msryan is charged in the stabbing death of 17-year-old Raul Aguirre, a Glendale student who was trying to break up a fight between rival gang members outside Hoover High School.

Prosecutors say Msryan drove the getaway car for her boyfriend, Karen Terteryan, now 20, and Rafael Gevorgyan, now 17, who are also charged in Aguirre’s slaying.

Msryan had been housed in juvenile halls since her May 2000 arrest.

All three defendants have remained in custody while their attorneys and prosecutors fought over the process in which the original indictments were issued. After a successful appellate court ruling for the defendants, prosecutors refiled murder charges last December.