SAN DIEGO : Death Penalty Urged in Slaying of Youth
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Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for an alleged crack cocaine user who reportedly admitted killing the 11-year-old son of the woman he lived with because the youth stood between him and the television set he wanted to steal.
During his arraignment in Superior Court, Steven Bell, 26, was charged with two special circumstance allegations--murder during a robbery and murder during a burglary. He pleaded not guilty.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Sickels told Judge Frederic Link that prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty for Bell.
Bell told a polygraph administrator that he killed the boy June 4 so he could purchase more drugs, according to evidence presented at a preliminary hearing. The slaying took place in a house in Logan Heights.
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