Juvenile defendant sentenced to 7 years for fatally stabbing an elderly hiker

A judge on Thursday sentenced a man to seven years in prison for fatally stabbing a 68-year-old woman on a hiking trail in a coastal San Diego County town when he was 17.

A passerby found Lisa Thorborg’s body on Hosp Grove Trail in Carlsbad, California, in November 2020.

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The teen was arrested shortly after the killing and no motive was ever disclosed. He pleaded guilty last month to one murder count in a deal that stipulated that he could not be tried as an adult, The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported. His name was withheld because he was a minor at the time of the offense.

Thorborg’s family members did not speak at Thursday’s sentencing hearing, according to the newspaper.

Police found the teen’s flipflops near the crime scene, and his DNA was found on Thorborg’s clothing, according to a detective who testified at a hearing in 2020. He was also seen on video surveillance footage running away from the area about 15 minutes after Thorborg was believed to have been stabbed, according to the investigation.

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Surveillance video and a license-plate reader showed the teen’s grandmother dropping him off near the crime scene about an hour before Thorborg’s death, according to the newspaper.

Both the teen and Thorborg were from Oregon and had moved to Carlsbad in recent years. The teen had been sent to live with his grandparents after being suspended from his boarding school.

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Juvenile Court Judge Robert Trentacosta said he would be sent to the California state prison system’s juvenile division and receive no credit for the roughly 20 months he had already spent in custody.

He was also ordered to pay $2,110 to a victim restitution fund.