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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

'Auntie' loaned car, credits cards to Hawaii teen accused of murder, friends testify


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Accused killer Vernon Bartley claimed that belongings of murder victim Karen Ertell, including her car and credit cards, were loaned or given to him by his “auntie,” friends of Bartley testified today.

One of the friends, a juvenile now attending Campbell High School, said that hours after Ertell died, Bartley said he had gotten into a fight with the auntie and that she had hit him on the forehead with a coffee cup.
Then she loaned him her late-model Volvo sedan, the witness said Bartley told him.
Bartley also asked the friend if he had ever killed anyone, witness said.
Another friend, Rambo Sadie, 23, said Bartley asked him if he had ever had sex with an older woman.
Bartley is accused of raping and murdering Ertell, 51, the morning of May 25, 2007, in her Ewa Beach home.
Bartley, 17, was 15 years old at the time of the offenses but is being tried as an adult in a nonjury trial before Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall.