
A 21-year-old San Diego man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to capital murder for allegedly gunning down a teenage girl in the parking lot of a Marina del Rey shopping center last month.
Cameron Anthony Frazier, who is charged in the Jan. 6 shooting death of 17-year-old Kristine Carman, also faces a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery.
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Frazier, who was arrested Jan. 18 by members of the FBI Fugitive Task Force outside his residence in Vista.
Along with the murder count, Frazier is charged with two counts of attempted second-degree robbery involving two other alleged victims, and also faces an allegation that he intentionally discharged a handgun.
The victim lived in Houston, Texas, and was visiting relatives in the Southland. She was shot to death during a robbery attempt while she sat in an SUV with two other people at the Villa Marina Marketplace mall, according to Deputy District Attorney Keri Modder.
Following the shooting, the person behind the wheel drove across the parking lot, stopping in a parking space outside a Panda Express, where the girl was ultimately found dead.
The suspect fled the location in a dark-colored SUV, possibly heading toward the Marina (90) Freeway, police said.
Lacey Carman of Marina del Rey said she was the one driving the vehicle her sister was in, and that “my sister was just murdered in front of me in a robbery gone wrong.” Her sibling, she wrote in a Facebook post, was “beautiful smart and undeserving” of the fate that befell her.
“I pray that God is real and holding my sisters hand right now. I pray that you never have to feel this pain or this self loathing,” she wrote.
Police have repeatedly declined to comment on a CBS2 report that the shooting may have been prompted by an alleged attempt by Lacey Carman’s boyfriend to sell two pounds of marijuana.
Frazier is being held without bail. He is due back at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles on March 2, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial.
— Wire reports
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