SAN DIEGO : Accused Killer Is Ordered to Trial

A crack cocaine user accused of fatally stabbing an 11-year-old Logan Heights boy so he could steal a television and stereo from his home told a polygraph administrator that he committed the crime so he could buy drugs.

Steven Bell’s admission of the brutal slaying was revealed Friday in Municipal Court. After a preliminary hearing, Judge Jay M. Bloom ordered Bell to stand trial in Superior Court on murder and robbery charges.

Paul Redden, who administers lie detector tests for the San Diego Police Department, said the 26-year-old Bell told him that he did not expect Joey Anderson to be home on June 4 when he went to the 28th Street home where Bell lived with the boy and his mother.

“Defendant told me that earlier that day he had been out smoking crack cocaine, and he was out of money,” Redden testified. “He was going to Debra Mitchell’s house to take the television and stereo.”

After confronting the youth, Bell stabbed him in the back, Redden said he was told.

Redden reported that Bell told him he then sold the television for $80 and the stereo for $20 near the intersection of Imperial and 28th streets and used the cash to purchase more cocaine.

Bell will be held without bail pending his arraignment Aug. 14.