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Suspect in California stranger killings is from Hawaii

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lila Alligood, 18, is seen in this photo from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
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The other suspects arrested in Portland, Ore. are Sean Michael Angold, 24; and Morrison Haze Lampley, 23. (Mulnomah County Sheriff's Office/Portland police via AP)

One of three drifters accused of killing a tourist in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and a yoga instructor hiking in Marin County went to school in Hawaii, school officials confirmed.

Lila Scott Alligood, 18, appeared briefly in court Wednesday for the first time since they were charged with the two alleged murders.

Alligood, Morrison Haze Lampley, 23, and Sean Michael Angold, 24 did not enter pleas Wednesday in Marin County Superior Court but appeared with new buzz cuts after having their hair cut in jail. Alligood and Angold had both sported long hair when they were arrested last week.

Lampley, accused of pulling the trigger of a stolen gun in both killings, yawned frequently as the trio was assigned court-appointed attorneys.

Santa Barbara television station KEYT reported Alligood attened elementary school there, before moving to Hawaii.

A Facebook page for Mahealani Lila Alligood shows she went to Honokaa High and Elementary School. She also attended Parker School in Waimea.

School officials could not say anything else about her, citing confidentiality rules.

KEYT, quoting unnamed friends of Alligood’s mother, Marta, said she is heartbroken and struggled to rein in her daughter, who had fallen in with a bad crowd while living in Hawaii.

Among the likes on Alligood’s Facebook page are the Grateful Dead, High Times magazine and the Hawaii Meth Project.

Alligood and the other suspects were ordered to return to court Oct. 26. All three could be sentenced to death if convicted, but Marin District Attorney Edward Berberian said he will decide later whether to pursue the death penalty.

Public defender David Brown, who represents Lampley, declined to comment about the case Wednesday morning to The Associated Press, saying he needs time to review the evidence. Angold and Alligood are still waiting to be assigned lawyers qualified to handle possible death penalty cases.

Alligood seemed on edge throughout the proceedings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Attorney James Nielsen, who runs Alternate Defenders Inc. and is working to find her and Angold attorneys, said he whispered to her to take a deep breath.

“She was anxious,” he told the Chronicle. “She turned 18 in July, and this is overwhelming.”

The three are charged with shooting backpacker Audrey Carey, 23, in the head and stealing her camping gear, passport and airline tickets. Her body was found Oct. 3 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where officials believed she had camped during a three-day music festival. Carey lived in Quebec and had just started a backpacking trek in the United States and Europe.

They also are accused of killing Steve Carter, 67, while he walked his dog along a popular hiking trail in Marin County, 20 miles north of the city. Carter was shot multiple times, and his body was discovered on Oct. 5, investigators say.

Followers credited Carter with improving their romantic relationships by teaching tantra, a philosophy of meditation, yoga and sexuality famously embraced by rock star Sting.

His Doberman Pinscher also was shot but is expected to survive. The three are charged with animal cruelty.

The suspects have "no fixed address," Marin County sheriff’s Lt. Doug Pittman said. They were arrested outside a Portland, Oregon, soup kitchen last week.

They were found with the stolen gun, Carter’s Volkswagen station wagon and items belonging to Carey, according to investigators and a criminal complaint.

The complaint also charges Lampley with being a felon in possession of a gun. It says he was convicted in July of receiving a stolen car in San Diego.

Little is known of the circumstances leading up to both killings, such as how the suspects came to know each other and how long they had been in the Bay Area,  the Chronicle reported. Residents in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood said the three had camped out in Buena Vista Park, blending in with the area’s extensive transient population, and they had a reputation for erratic behavior and methamphetamine use.

Investigators said they are looking into the possibility that the accused killers may have committed more crimes before they were taken into custody.

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