SAN DIEGO - A teenage girl accused of killing her adoptive mother by striking her at least 15 times with a claw hammer in their Scripps Ranch home was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a murder charge.
Heather D'Aoust, 15, allegedly left incriminating information about her plans for the May 25 killing of Rebecca D'Aoust on her cell phone and computer, according to investigators who testified in her two-day preliminary hearing.
FBI Special Agent Tim Hamon testified that he examined the cell phone of the girl, who is being tried as an adult, and found a text message draft that was labeled "Anonymous."
Hamon, who is assigned to the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, read the message out loud in court, "Wake up. Kill with hammer as they wake up. Hide bodies in back seat of van. Drive to church. Leave them with Christian-hating note, steal money. Bike home. Go to sleep again."
Other parts of the message, which was apparently not sent, mentioned spending the rest of the day with friends.
The note ended with plans for the day after, according to Hamon, "Report to authorities, act panicked and explain I waited a day to see if they returned."
A list of numbers in Heather's cell phone displayed by prosecutors had her mother labeled as "Vulture."
Becky D'Aoust was counselor and Student Council advisor at Spreckels campus.
The body of the 56-year-old victim was found by her husband, James D'Aoust, who heard a muffled scream and went downstairs to investigate. The woman, a school teacher and counselor, died at a hospital the next day.
Patrick Lim, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigator also assigned to the computer forensics organization, said he examined an Apple computer sometimes used by the defendant.
Late the night before the killing, someone used the computer to view a Web page titled "BigDaddyBlog-Merk's Top Ten Murder Weapons," Lim said. A hammer ranked sixth on the list, he said.
Google search phrases included "lethal household things," "parents murdered by child" and "children who kill," Lim said.
The latter phrase led her to a Web site called "The Crime Library," where a page was viewed that was titled "The Unthinkable-Children who kill and what motivates them."
San Diego police Detective Cynthia Munoz said she spoke with a female friend who was with Heather the day before the killing.
"She and Heather were in the back yard," Munoz said. "It had rained that day so they got wet. The rule was that the bedroom door was to remain open. Heather was changing her clothes and the door was closed for a moment when her mother came in. She later admitted they were engaging in sexual activity and they had an argument."
The argument raged for 45 minutes, after which Heather made comments to her friend like "God I hate her" and "I want to kill her," Munoz said.
The friend reported that she got scared and went to a bathroom, where she called her mother and asked to be picked up.
On Tuesday, James D'Aoust testified his adoptive daughter had been troubled for more than a year. She made suicide threats and was kicked out of Maranatha Christian School in 4S Ranch, he said.
One day in March, the girl pleaded with her mother to take her to a hospital because she felt suicidal, her adoptive father said. That same day, the father of one of her friends called his attention to a suicide note she posted on her MySpace page, he said.
In April, she ran away from home for five days.
"I believe there are two Heathers," D'Aoust said.
What he called "Peaceful Heather" could be seen through her writings as detailed and aware. A personality he referred to as "Heather Two" was dissociative, angry and highly sexual, he said.
Heather is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly attacking James D'Aoust with the hammer when he came downstairs.
Her lawyer, Paul Pfingst, said Heather suffers from mental illness that predated the killing.
The defendant was 14 at the time of the attack. The D'Aoust family, which includes two natural daughters, adopted Heather when she was very young.
Jonathan Lucas, a forensic pathologist with the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, testified that Rebecca D'Aoust was struck repeatedly in the same general area on the left side of her head and also on her hands. She died of blunt force trauma, he said.
Judge Michael Wellington ordered D'Aoust to return to court on Tuesday to have a trial date set.
