14-Year-Old Girl Held After USC Student Slaying Faces 7 Felony Charges

A 14-year-old girl arrested with four teens suspected in a fatal beating of a 24-year-old USC grad student was not charged in connection with the death, authorities said Thursday.

The girl, who was not named, was initially arrested in the high-profile slaying of grad student Xinran Ji, officials said. Ji was on his way home from a study group July 24 when he was fatally beaten with a bat in a botched robbery, prosecutors said.

Two men, a 17-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl were charged with capital murder in connection with the slaying, prosecutors said.

The 14-year-old girl was initially detained in the case as well. But she does not face charges in Ji's slaying, prosecutors said.

She faces charges in a separate robbery try of a man and a woman at Dockweiler Beach following the attack on Ji. No one was hurt in the attack that was foiled when the man flagged down police alerting them to the crime. Dockweiler Beach is about 20 miles southwest of downtown LA.

The girl faces charges include carjacking, attempted second-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury, said Greg Risling, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Jonathan Del Carmen, 19, Andrew Garcia, 18, Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16, are charged with one count each of murder with the special circumstance of murder during an attempted robbery, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Garcia and Del Carmen.

Garcia, Ochoa and Guerrero also face charges in the Dockweiler Beach case. Those charges include second-degree robbery, attempted second-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon -- a bat.

Ochoa and Guerrero are not eligible for the death penalty because they're not adults. If convicted, they each face life in prison without the possibility of parole.