Parolee Pleads Guilty to Kidnapping, Killing Teen

Los Angeles - A parolee pleaded guilty today to kidnapping and murdering a 17-year-old Los Feliz girl who was abducted, forced to try to withdraw money from an ATM then killed inside her car near downtown Los Angeles.

Charlie Samuel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the July 24, 2009, slaying of Lily Belle Burk. During the sentencing hearing, he apologized to the girl's family.

He pleaded guilty first-degree murder, kidnapping to commit robbery, second-degree robbery, attempted first-degree ATM robbery, carjacking and kidnapping for carjacking. He admitted special circumstance allegations of murder during a carjacking, kidnapping and robbery.

The plea deal saved him from a possible death sentence.

Burk, a National Merit Scholar who attended North Hollywood's Oakwood School, had injuries from head to toe, including a fatal wound to her neck, a deputy medical examiner testified at a preliminary hearing in the case.

The teen also had two superficial wounds lower on her neck and injuries consistent with bite marks on the left side of her face and left ear, along with bruising on her back and contusions on her knees and feet, according to the examiner.

Her body was found in the front passenger seat of her black Volvo S40, which was spotted in the parking lot of a food processing plant on Alameda Street the day after she disappeared.

Police said Samuel abducted the teen as she was about to get into her car near Wilshire Boulevard and Wilshire Place after going to Southwestern University School of Law on the afternoon of July 24, 2009, to pick up some tests for her mother, who is a professor at the school.

The girl, at Samuel's orders, made unsuccessful attempts to get money from a downtown ATM before calling her parents in an effort to get money, police said.

Surveillance footage taken outside the Union Bank branch at 120 S. San Pedro St. in Los Angeles showed a young woman and a man walk toward an ATM.

Police arrested Samuel after seeing him drinking in public from a paper bag containing a can about 5:25 p.m. the day the teen disappeared.