Susan Estrich writes about the case as a parent’s worst nightmare at NewsMax this a.m. The interesting connection here is perhaps Estrich’s link to Michael Dukakis and the whole uproar over Willie Horton back in 1988:
You just have to see the picture of her: a girl on the verge, finding her style, raising her voice, about to embark on a life she could barely yet imagine. This summer she was supposed to volunteer helping homeless drug addicts on Skid Row. Instead, according to police, she was killed by one.
Her mother is a lawyer and law professor, her father a journalist. She was driving a Volvo.
Forgive me for identifying: When my daughter was her age, barely two years ago, she got an advance for her first novel, “Hancock Park,” about a girl like Lily. Many of the girls at her school drove expensive, not to mention dangerous (in my book), cars. I smiled because the other used Volvo belonged to a girl whose mother is also a sensible lawyer, which is what I like to think I am. Like Lily’s mother.
A man abducted Lily across the street from her mother’s office in what was once the Bullocks Wilshire, which Southwestern Law School converted into classrooms, offices, and an impressive library.
Lily called both of her parents to ask how she could withdraw money from an ATM with her credit card so she could buy shoes.
Her parents said she sounded rushed, not scared.
She was dead in her car before her parents got home from work.
The guy they picked up, with her car key and cell phone, was arrested because he was clearly a junkie who’d done something wrong. While being held on unrelated charges, 50-year-old parolee Charlie Samuel was tied to Lily’s murder two days later by fingerprints at the scene.
Some people (many of them formerly liberal) are screaming that he’s a repeat offender and parole violator who should’ve been locked up …
On the jump, what the DA said late Tuesday about the case against Charles Samuel, the parolee accused of abducting 17-year-old Lily Burk then killing her late last week:
LOS ANGELES – The District Attorney’s Office filed capital murder and other charges today against a 50-year-old parolee accused of kidnapping and killing a 17-year-old girl who was abducted on Friday.
Charlie Samuel, also known as Charles Samuel (dob 6-21-1959), is scheduled to appear for arraignment this afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court Department 30 at the downtown Criminal Justice Center.
Samuel was charged in case No. BA 359518 with one count each of murder, kidnapping to commit a robbery, second-degree robbery and attempted first-degree automated teller machine robbery. The complaint alleged the special circumstances of kidnap murder and murder during a robbery. It also alleged two prior felony convictions, a 1987 robbery conviction in San Bernardino County (SCR45024) and a 2006 conviction in Van Nuys of petty theft with a prior (LA052855).
Although filed as a capital case, the District Attorney’s office will not make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty until the case moves closer to trial. If the prosecution opts not to seek the death penalty, the only other possible penalty for Samuel, if he is convicted as charged, is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Samuel was accused of killing Lily Belle Burk, who was abducted from the Wilshire area Friday afternoon. Her body was found in her car early Saturday near Alameda and Fourth streets.
The case was filed by Deputy District Attorney Truc Do of the Major Crimes Division. She and Deputy District Attorney Eric Harmon, also of the Major Crimes Division, will prosecute the case.
