*CRIMINAL CASE UPDATE*

TRIAL SET TO START FOR TWO TEEN GIRLS CHARGED WITH MURDERING LAKE ELSINORE WOMAN DURING CARJACKING

MURRIETA - Trial is scheduled to begin Monday, July 20, 2009, for two teenage girls charged with murdering a Lake Elsinore woman so they could steal her car and go to Knott's Berry Farm.

Dayana Cordova, 18, of Lake Elsinore and Anna Alejandra Salinas, 17, of Perris are charged with the Oct. 17, 2007, murder of Angelina Arias. Cordova was not an adult when the murder happened however both teens are being tried as adults.

Each defendant has been charged with murder, carjacking, kidnapping and child endangerment.

The victim was found lying in the street by a man who heard gunshots outside his home. When he went to help the woman, he saw a Chrysler 300 driving away. The evidence shows that inside the Chrysler - which belonged to the victim - were Cordova and Salinas, along with the victim's young child who had just been picked up from the babysitter. The child was later found safely on a front porch in Perris.

The stolen car, which Salinas was driving, was stopped by a Riverside County sheriff's sergeant in Perris. In the car were personal items belonging to Salinas including her purse and her school identification card.

Investigators found that, on the night of the murder, the two girls had been at a Lake Elsinore restaurant where the victim worked as a waitress. Arias kindly offered to give the girls a ride home before being shot twice, pushed out of her car and left for dead as the girls drove off with the baby still in the car.

The gun used to kill the victim belonged to Cordova's father and was loaded by Cordova before she took it from the house, the evidence shows.

The trial is being held in front of Judge F. Paul Dickerson in Dept. S304 at the Southwest Justice Center, 30755-D Auld Road, Murrieta.

The case, SWF023165, is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon.