Fifteen-year-old charged as adult in murders of two younger teens

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - A 15-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with murdering and robbing two teen-age boys whose beaten bodies were found in a schoolyard.

Prosecutors charged Michael Hrayr Demirdjian as an adult while police also investigated a second person arrested in the case, a 19-year-old man.

Demirdjian, of La Crescenta, appeared in Los Angeles County Superior Court but his arraignment on two counts of murder and two counts of robbery was postponed to Aug. 9 at the request of his attorney.

The murder counts, with special circumstances of multiple murder, robbery and torture, would be punishable upon conviction with a sentence of life without parole. Because of Demirdjian's age, the death penalty cannot be sought by prosecutors.

Police continued to investigate Adam Walker, 19, who was booked late Tuesday for investigation of murder. A decision on whether to seek charges against the La Crescenta man was expected Thursday, a police statement said.

The bodies of Christopher Reid McCulloch, 13, of La Canada Flintridge, and Blaine Steven Talmo Jr., 14, of Glendale, were found Sunday night on a playground at Valley View Elementary School near the Glendale-La Crescenta city line. Talmo was the son of a sheriff's sergeant. Both died of blunt force trauma.

A neighbor who spotted the bodies near his backyard fence said a concrete bench was atop one victim's throat and a rock by the other boy's head.

Police have declined to discuss a possible motive for the slayings.

''We will not release any additional information which we believe has the potential of compromising the integrity of this investigation,'' the Police Department statement said.

The 15-year-old arrested Monday was an acquaintance of the victims and lived just blocks from the crime scene.