The prosecutor handling the murder and sexual-assault case against an Ewa Beach teenager won a delay in the case so he can discuss a legal matter with the Family Court judge who allowed the state to charge the boy as an adult.

First Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Chin asked Honolulu District Judge Edwin Nacino to delay a preliminary hearing for Vernon P. Bartley for two weeks to discuss a legal matter with the Family Court about evidence. Bartley is charged with the rape and strangulation of 51-year-old neighbor Karen Ertell.

“;Because it involves a confidential Family Court matter, this court and counsel know that I am not allowed to place it on the record,”; Chin said.

Nacino granted Chin's request, he said, because of the compelling circumstance and because of the seriousness of the crimes of which Bartley is accused.

Honolulu police charged Bartley, 16, with second-degree murder, first-degree murder and other crimes in Ertell's May 2007 death. Bartley was 15 years old at the time.

Police said in court records that Bartley qualifies for first-degree murder because Ertell was scheduled to testify as a witness in Family Court that Bartley burglarized her home. First-degree murder carries the stiffest punishment under Hawaii law—life in prison without the possibility for parole.

The state needs to present evidence of Bartley's juvenile burglary case in front of a judge or grand jury to justify the first-degree murder charge, said Jack Tonaki, state public defender. And it needs state Family Court Senior Judge Frances Wong's permission to do so because the file is confidential, he said.

Wong is the judge who waived Family Court jurisdiction over Bartley in the Ertell case Tuesday, allowing police to charge him as an adult.

At the time, Bartley was confined at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility for convicted juveniles, according to court records. Police returned him to the facility after he went to court Wednesday to face the charges for the first time.

Bartley's lawyer, Jeffrey Hawk, opposed pushing back the preliminary hearing because he said the state should have been ready.

“;They knew this day was coming,”; he said.