A.V. RUNAWAY TO GET NEW TRIAL.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

A Lancaster runaway convicted in the grisly slayings of three members of an Arizona family will get a new trial after the Arizona Supreme Court refused to review an appellate court ruling that overturned her conviction.

Kimberly Lane, who was 14 at the time of the 1996 killings, was sentenced in June 1998 to life in prison, but an appeals court overturned the conviction, saying Lane's confession was involuntary on the grounds of her young age and below-average IQ.

``It will be sent back to the trial court,'' said Ron Wood, Lane's appellate attorney. ``At the present time, the state has no physical evidence. They have no confession, it having been deemed inadmissible. It doesn't look like the state has a very good case.''

Mohave County prosecutors could not be reached Monday for comment. Their offices were closed because of the Columbus Day holiday.

Lane was convicted in May 1998 of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and armed robbery. She was sentenced a month later to two concurrent life terms.

She was charged in the killings along with Frank Anderson, the 49-year- old neighbor with whom she ran away from home, and Bobby Poyson, a young transient they met in Arizona.

Anderson and Lane lived in the same trailer park in Lancaster. Authorities said Anderson left his wife and began hitchhiking from Lancaster with Lane on July 29, 1996.

Killed were 37-year-old Leta Kagen; Kagen's boyfriend, 50-year-old Roland Wear; and Kagen's 15-year-old son, Robert Delahunt. Kagen's husband found the bodies Aug. 16, 1996, on an isolated parcel his wife owned in Golden Valley, Ariz., 15 miles west of Kingman.

Authorites said the three were killed for their truck.

In its November 1998 decision, the court of appeals found that the trial judge erred by allowing prosecutors to use statements given by Lane to a detective. The court ruling said Lane has an IQ of 84, or low average, and a maturity level of a 10-year-old.

``Under the totality of her circumstances, Lane was incapable of making a knowing or voluntary decision to waive her rights and speak with (the detective),'' the appellate court said. ``A confession not voluntarily given strikes at the very heart of our concept of a fair trial, and thus, it is a violation of due process. Accordingly, the admission of an involuntary confession constitutes fundamental error.''

According to the appellate ruling, Lane lived in a small trailer next to the unit occupied by her father and his various girlfriends. Sometimes Lane's younger brother lived with her, but, eventually, he went to live with their mother, records show.

Lane, neglected and abused, often turned to others for food and medical attention, records show. Anderson allowed his home to become a place of safety for her.

Lane and Anderson traveled to Arizona, where, without money or means of transportation, they were taken in by the victims. The victims' residence was a ramshackle trailer, filthy and without running water, gas or electricity, located amid a chicken coop, discarded camper, camper shell and piles of rubbish, records show.

As part of a plan to get the truck, the three victims would have to be ``disabled,'' the appellate court ruling said. Lane, acting as a decoy, allowed Delahunt to kiss and touch her when Anderson entered the room with a knife and began to attack Delahunt, records show.

Lane fled the room, panicked because she never believed that Anderson or Poyson would actually hurt anyone. ``It is undisputed that Lane had no part in the actual killing . . .,'' the decision said.