SAN DIEGO — Defense attorneys are fighting prosecutor efforts to try an 18-year-old as an adult in the trial of the 2020 murder of Carlsbad hiker.
The defendant, Haloa Beaudet, was arrested as a juvenile and charged in the murder of Lisa Thorburg but he is now 18-years-old, and he remains in the juvenile court system.
The judge allowed CBS 8 into juvenile court Monday, where a future hearing was announced to determine whether to try Beaudet as an adult.
He's charged with murdering Thorborg, 68, by stabbing her twice in the neck along a trail in Hosp Grove in November 2020.
In court Monday, the judge confirmed a court hearing will be held on August 22 to determine whether Beaudet’s case should be transferred to adult court.
The judge said the hearing could last ten days, where witnesses will be called, including an investigator working for Beaudet’s defense team.
Prosecutors allege Beaudet's DNA was found on the victim's shorts and surveillance photos showed the defendant in the area shortly after the murder happened. Other photos taken by hidden cameras showed the Beaudet on the same hiking trail days later.
During a preliminary hearing in 2020, the teenager's grandmother testified he was a "sweet boy" with no history of owning weapons.
“Easygoing, loving, respectful. Everybody who ever met him said what a polite young man he is,” Christie Hernandez, the grandmother, told the court in 2020.
But prosecutors said, while living in Oregon, Beaudet was suspended from school multiple times for fighting.
During the future hearing in August, a juvenile-court judge will consider the seriousness and sophistication of the crime, the teen’s criminal history, and whether Beaudet can be rehabilitated, among other factors.
WATCH RELATED: District Attorney’s office wants teen accused of murdering Carlsbad hiker to be tried as an adult (May 2022).