O.C. Man Held in Death of Niece, 11

Two weeks after his release from jail on probation violations, a man was arrested early Wednesday on suspicion of killing his 11-year-old niece at their Laguna Niguel home, police said.

The girl’s grandmother checked on sixth-grader Sonia Dawes before going to sleep about 12:40 a.m. and found her in bed “bleeding and unresponsive,” said Jim Amormino, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman. Neither the grandmother nor the girl’s mother, the sister of the man arrested, had heard any suspicious noises, he said.

Sonia was pronounced dead on arrival at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. Authorities would not confirm television reports that the girl was stabbed in the neck multiple times.

The killing -- the second in the city in 15 months -- stunned neighbors in the girl’s gated condominium complex, where her second-floor unit looks out on a private park and tennis courts.

Teachers and administrators at Sonia’s former grade school were also mourning the girl they described as “so sweet and so innocent.”

“She was a likable young lady,” said Karen Clay, principal at Foxborough Elementary School in Aliso Viejo. “School did not come easy to her, but she was a B student because she tried so hard.”

Minutes after the grandmother’s 911 call, an off-duty Los Angeles police officer reported seeing a man running near her home, in the same complex where the girl lived, then getting into a taxi.

“She just thought that looked suspicious,” Amormino said.

At about 2:45 a.m., Irvine police arrested William Orren Dawes, 26, after spotting him wandering near Technology Drive and Alton Parkway, about nine miles from the condominium complex. Dawes was wearing black clothes, gloves and a black beanie. A 12-inch knife was tucked inside his waistband, authorities said.

Dawes had been living with his niece, his sister and their mother at the Casa La Paz condominium complex on the 24300 block of El Pilar, authorities said.

Neighbors said they saw Dawes wandering the complex at night, talking to himself and crying. He looked “like somebody you wouldn’t want to tangle with,” said Joan Eaton, 75. “He looked strong as an ox.”

Dawes is being held without bail at Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. He is set to be arraigned at Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Niguel today.

Dawes had spent the last three years in and out of jail on drug, assault and check-fraud charges, according to court records. His most recent sentence began June 17 after he violated probation for earlier cases and failed to report to his probation officer.

In one of those cases, he pleaded guilty in August 1999 to attacking a man with a hammer and served 60 days in jail. Last year, Dawes pleaded guilty to possession of an opium pipe, typically used for smoking methamphetamines, police said. In that incident, police were called because he was clutching a bat and yelling at customers at a Home Depot store in Laguna Niguel.

After his Sept. 7 release from jail, he was living in the Laguna Niguel condo.

Teachers and school officials at Don Juan Avila Middle School in Aliso Viejo, which Sonia had just started attending, were alerted to her death and a crisis center was set up in the library.

Foxborough Principal Clay sent an e-mail and a computerized telephone message to students’ parents Wednesday, informing them of the death.

Clay said Sonia’s grandmother was the “savior” in Sonia’s life, providing stability when her parents moved around. The girl’s parents had been in and out of the girl’s life, Clay said.

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Times staff writer Christine Hanley contributed to this report.