Legal News Post

A California parolee has pleaded guilty to murder in the slaying of a 17-year-old girl who was kidnapped, forced to withdraw money from a bank then beaten to death.

Fifty-year-old Charlie Samuel's plea Friday means he avoids a possible death penalty for the July 24 killing of Lily Burk.

Samuel pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping to commit robbery and other charges. He was arrested for an unrelated drug crime before Burk's body was discovered in her black Volvo.

Police say Samuel abducted Burk after she went to Southwestern University School of Law to run an errand for her mother, who is a professor there.

Samuel had been on parole after serving time for petty theft.