CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) — The grandmother of the 17-year-old who's accused of stabbing Lisa Thorborg to death on a Carlsbad hiking trail in November doesn't believe her grandson could have committed the crime.
Christie Hernandez said that she talked to her grandson, Haloa Beaudet, just after Tuesday's virtual court hearing where new surveillance images were revealed and the judge allowed the release of the teen's name. Images of his face have been ordered to remain withheld from the public.
"[He said] 'I'm strong. I'm going to be positive. You and papa [don't need to] worry. Tell everyone in the family that I'm okay and I'll be home soon," Hernandez told ABC 10News.
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On Wednesday, the DA's Office confirmed that it filed a motion to request that the teen be tried as an adult but that it will take almost a year before a hearing is set where a judge will make the determination.
The prosecution said this week that a surveillance camera captured Beaudet running barefoot on the street away from the trail a few minutes after Thorborg was believed to have been killed.
Other images show him on the trail in the days after the murder. Detectives said that his DNA was found on the victim's shorts and a pair of his sandals were found near her body. His attorneys argue that he is a free spirit who often left his sandals behind and Thorborg may have picked them up, which is how his DNA got on her.
"He would not have done this. It's like stabbing me in the neck," added Hernandez.
Hernandez said that he had been living with her and doing online schooling for the last two months after moving to San Diego from Hawaii. She described him as a kind young man who is incapable of violence.
"We go to the store and he's helping little old ladies pick out which watermelons are good and which grapes are the sweetest and holding doors open. So, this just really baffles me," she stated. "They got the wrong person. The killer's still out there."
The teen's attorneys said that no weapons were found on him and that he had no injuries or signs of struggle on his body.
