Man To Stand Trial In 2014 Stabbing Death Of Elderly Woman In Berkeley
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A judge Wednesday ordered a 20-year-old Richmond man to stand trial on charges of murder, attempted carjacking, attempted robbery and elder abuse resulting in death for allegedly fatally stabbing a 72-year-old woman in Berkeley in 2014.
At the end of a preliminary hearing, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess also ordered Kamau Berlin, who was only 18 at the time of the incident, to stand trial on two special circumstance allegations: committing a murder during an attempted robbery and committing a murder during an attempted carjacking.
Prosecutors allege that Berlin, who attended a Berkeley high school, attacked Nancy Jo McClellan in the vicinity of Russell and Otis streets in Berkeley at about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2014.
McClellan, an Emeryville woman who had been attending a wedding at the nearby Berkeley Zen Center, didn't die immediately after she was stabbed but never regained consciousness and died on Oct. 8, 2014.
Berkeley police Sgt. Peter Hong testified last month that Berlin admitted that he stabbed McClellan and inflicted wounds that led to her death, saying that his admission came when he and another officer left Berlin alone in a police car with a hidden tape recorder running.
Hong said Berlin, who had previously invoked his right to have an attorney when officers tried to question him, "was thinking out loud and verbalizing his thoughts" in his comments on the tape recording.
Hong said Berlin said he "didn't want to go to jail for life and admitted to killing the lady, that he murdered and stabbed the old lady."
A small group of McClelland's friends attended Berlin's hearing.
Hong said he ordered that a sexual assault examination be performed on McClellan because her undergarments had been pulled down.
But Burgess ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to order Berlin to stand trial on an attempted rape charge and the special circumstance of committing a murder during an attempted rape.
Berlin was scheduled to return to court in two weeks to have a trial date scheduled.
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