Teen can be tried as an adult in Ewa Beach murder
POSTED: Tuesday, October 07, 2008
A state judge waived Family Court jurisdiction this morning over an Ewa Beach teenager accused of killing his neighbor last year.
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The judge’s decision allows Honolulu police and prosecutors to charge Vernon Bartley, 16, as an adult. Homicide detectives immediately arrested Bartley and took him to a Honolulu Police Department cellblock.
Bartley’s lawyer Jeffrey Hawk said he anticipates the prosecutor’s office will charge the teenager with first-degree murder and other crimes in connection with the May 25, 2007 death of 51-year-old Karen Ertelll and burglary of her Ewa Beach home. Bartley was 15 when Ertell’s body was found.
Hawk said he expects prosecutors to claim that Bartley killed Ertell because she was scheduled to testify against him in another criminal prosecution.
The punishment for first-degree murder is a mandatory life prison term without the possibility for parole.
