DAUGHTER TELLS OF MOTHER'S SLAYING : 16-YEAR-OLD TESTIFIES HER SISTER STOPPED HER FROM CALLING 911.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

As her big sister's boyfriend pistol-whipped their mother, 16-year-old Amy Bray tried to dial 911 for help, but the sister cut off the call by yanking the phone line out of the wall, the girl testified Thursday.

Amy Bray acknowledged that her sister, Amber Bray, and her mother fought frequently, sometimes physically. She said her sister would ``whine'' to boyfriend Jeff Ayers about problems with her mother.

``She used to complain that she had a really bad life and that my mom made her do everything,'' she testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing in Burbank Municipal Court.

Amber Bray, 18, and Ayers, 21, each have been charged with one count of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 42-year-old Dixie Hollier, Bray's mother.

Hollier, a Warner Bros. Records employee, was shot, pistol-whipped and stabbed in the early hours of Jan. 16 in the family's Oak Street home in Burbank that she shared with Amber, Amy and her 6-year-old son, Benjamin Hollier.

Testimony is expected to continue today as Judge Alan Kalkin decides whether Ayers and Amber Bray will face trial in Superior Court.

Ayers was arrested after police reportedly found him in the process of stabbing Hollier with an 8-inch kitchen knife. Before the stabbing started, police said Hollier had been shot and pistol-whipped. Amber Bray was initially just brought in for questioning, but she was placed under arrest a few hours after the slaying when police discovered evidence linking her with plans to kill her mother.

Although Hollier lived a modest lifestyle, police said Bray and Ayers plotted her death, believing they could benefit financially through inheritance and insurance settlements.

Amy Bray testified she was awakened at about 5 a.m. by ``two bangs.'' Amber Bray was already up and told Amy not to leave their bedroom because ``there's a man out there.''

Amy ignored Amber and ran into the kitchen.

``I saw Jeff Ayers hitting my mother in the head with a gun,'' Amy Bray said.

The scene was so unbelievable, Amy testified, that she at first thought Ayers and her mom were just fooling around.

``I thought they were playing a joke on me,'' she said.

Amy Bray, dressed in a T-shirt, gave vague answers to most of the questions posed by both prosecutors and defense lawyers. ``I don't think so'' and ``I don't remember'' were her responses to most of the questions.

It took several tries for lawyers to elicit specific responses to their questions. Judge Alan Kalkin at one point admonished the teen-ager to answer the questions posed to her as completely as possible.

However, lawyers got Amy Bray to admit that Amber tried to stop her from calling 911. Amy Bray testified she tried to call, but her sister yanked out the phone cord.

The 16-year-old created a stir during the hearing when she mentioned that she recorded her recollections of the murder in a diary. Once she was off the stand, police insisted that the girl immediately retrieve her diary from home and bring it to court.

Police described a harrowing murder scene at the family's humble two-bedroom apartment.

Officer Niles Sherman, who was the first to arrive, said he spied Ayers plunging a knife into Hollier through a window near the back of the apartment. When Sherman and two other officers entered the house through the front door, Ayers ``surrendered,'' Sherman said.

Ayers put his hands over his head and then confessed his crime to Sherman, the officer said. Ayers told him he was ``fully responsible'' for the killing, Sherman said.

``For someone who was confessing to me that he had just murdered someone, he was very calm, cool and collected, and he talked to me like I was his best friend,'' Sherman said.

Officer Melinda Wolfe said Hollier was dead by the time police arrived.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Amber Bray, 18, appears in Burbank court for her pre liminary hearing on charges she plotted her mother's violent death.

David Sprague/Daily News