A 16-year-old 'Ewa Beach boy charged with raping and strangling a neighbor will be the youngest juvenile on O'ahu to be tried as an adult in criminal court.

Vernon Bartley is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Karen Ertell in May 2007. She was a neighbor of Bartley, who was arrested a day after the crime at his home when his father called police to turn him in.

Bartley was rearrested by Honolulu police at the Alder Street juvenile detention facility after a Family Court judge yesterday allowed him to be tried as an adult. Bartley admitted to planning the offense, said he acted alone, and that he waited for Ertell in the carport of her residence, according to a police affidavit filed in the case.

Ertell's body was found inside the home by her boyfriend and her daughter after co-workers reported she had not come to work and her Volvo sedan was found at Geiger Park.

Ertell, 51, the owner of Koko Crater Coffee Roasters in Kaka'ako, was scheduled to testify against Bartley in a separate burglary case before her death.

Police described the murder as "very well-planned, very well-executed," and called it "heinous and outrageous."

Prosecutors first requested a waiver so that Bartley could be tried as an adult just after the murder in 2007. Family Court Judge Frances Wong held a hearing on the request on Sept. 25 and then took the case under advisement.

"There was a decision made by the Family Court and he was arrested this morning," said first deputy prosecuting attorney Douglas S. Chin. "We are ready to move forward on this case."

Bartley, who was 15 at the time of the crime, likely will face up to a dozen charges, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, sexual assault and car theft, according to his attorney, Jeffrey Hawk.

"I would like everyone to remember Vernon is a child and he's being treated as an adult," Hawk said. "This is a very difficult time for him and his family. Every child is a product of his environment and his family. No child does this sort of thing without … reason."

After Bartley was arrested in 2007, law enforcement officials said he had a juvenile record of at least 10 arrests. The youth came to Hawai'i with his family from New Zealand in 2005.

According to the police affidavit, Bartley admitted to choking Ertell. He also admitted to taking cash and credit cards from Ertell's wallet as well as her telephone, iPod and 2006 Volvo, the affidavit said.

Bartley, however, denied having sex with Ertell. But DNA evidence recovered from a condom matched Bartley's.

It's only been in the past 10 years that defendants as young as 15 could be sent to the adult criminal justice system. In 1997 state lawmakers passed a law that allowed 15-year-olds to be treated as adults in serious felony cases.

Previously, all youths under 16 had to be treated as juveniles and released at age 19, no matter what the crime, according to Family Court officials.

Ertell's family members were pleased with the judge's decision to grant a waiver but frustrated by how long it took. Malanie McLellan, Ertell's daughter, also said she does not look forward to reliving the horror of her mother's death.

"It's taken 16 months just to get to this decision and he hasn't technically served one day in jail for my mother's murder," said McLellan, speaking by phone from Eugene, Ore.

"There is a little relief that he'll be prosecuted as an adult but it's still a reminder that my mother is dead. Hopefully he'll be punished to the full extent of the law. In the end he's still alive and my mother's not."

The crime shocked residents of 'Ewa Beach and prompted action by an area lawmaker.

State Rep. Kymberly Pine, R-43rd ('Ewa Beach, Iroquois Point, Pu'uloa), introduced a bill that would have required juveniles accused of certain violent felonies to be tried as adults.

"Karen's Law" mandated that juvenile offenders accused of first- or second-degree murder be waived from the juvenile court system and tried as adults. But the bill died when House Judiciary Chairman Tommy Waters declined to schedule a hearing on it.

"I believe that no family should have to go through what the Ertell family went through," Pine said.