A 16-year-old boy was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the killing of a missing 13-year-old Beaverton girl found dead in a shallow stream earlier this month.
Daniel Ryan Gore appeared via video conference in Washington County Juvenile Court and did not enter a plea in the May 8 death of Milana Li.
The circumstances of Li’s killing remain unclear. Investigators have not said whether Gore knew Li or how Li died.
The girl’s parents and grandmother sat in the back of the courtroom next to a Russian language interpreter who translated the proceedings for the family. They moved to Beaverton three years ago from Pavlodar, a city in the northeast of Kazakhstan, near the Russian border.
Li’s mother, Assel Li, stood up to speak, clearing her voice between words and staving off tears.
“I feel that my family will be not safe if he will be out and I feel that it’s dangerous for him to be outside, inside the community,” she said. “And I have a small kid, another girl. She’s 5. That’s all.”
Judge Brandon Thompson said Gore will remain in custody until his next court appearance on June 3, citing probable cause that the teen had committed a violent felony.
Gore appeared on video from the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center in Portland, wearing a green shirt and sitting alone in a brightly lit room.
Gore did not speak during the hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Dustin Staten told the judge the state has requested that Gore be tried in adult court. The judge confirmed he had received that request, along with one from the state for an order sealing the probable cause affidavit.
According to Staten, Gore had a criminal history stretching back to fall 2020, when he and another juvenile tried to set a movie theater on fire. On two other occasions, Gore and a co-defendant went into a movie theater to damage and steal from it, Staten said in court.
Gore is accused of second-degree arson, criminal mischief and second-degree theft in those cases.
Gore violated his probation in February after he stole a men’s sport coat and a jacket, Staten said.
The Washington County District Attorney’s office recommended that month that Gore be held in a detention center, saying he had twice run away from Harkins House, a temporary shelter in Hillsboro for minors with pending criminal cases.
The Washington County Juvenile Department recommended Gore be released to his family instead. Washington County Circuit Judge Michele Rini agreed, and Gore was sent to stay with his father and stepmother in Salem, according to Staten.
He ran away two weeks later, Staten said.
Gore’s father emailed a Juvenile Department counselor April 4 that his son was likely staying in the Progress Ridge area of Beaverton, Staten said. Neither Beaverton police nor the Washington County District Attorney’s Office were notified by the Juvenile Department, he said.
A little over a month later, Milana Li’s body was found in a small stream near the Westside Regional Trail to Barrows Park.
The sixth grader was last seen May 8 at her family’s apartment near Southwest Murray Boulevard and Scholls Ferry Road, when she left for a walk around 4 p.m. Li’s family started worrying when she didn’t make it back to the apartment by her 8 p.m. curfew.
Li was reported missing at 1 p.m. the next day, Beaverton police said. About 24 hours later, officers were called to the Westside Regional Trail, near the intersection of Southwest Barrows Road and Horizon Boulevard, for what they described as “suspicious circumstances.” Barrows Park is less than a mile from the girl’s home and school.
An autopsy found Li had died in a homicide, Beaverton police said, but they have released no other details of the killing.
County spokesperson Philip Bransford issued a statement Friday saying Gore was on probation for nonviolent offenses at the time of Li’s killing. He said all juveniles in the system undergo assessments that factor into the Juvenile Department’s recommendations to the court. He declined to identify the results of Gore’s assessment, saying they are confidential under the law.
“It is these assessment findings, along with recommendations from the prosecution and the defense attorneys, that inform the court in setting the terms of probation,” he said. “For Daniel Gore, these terms included releasing him to his home under the supervision of his parents.“
Bransford said, “Our hearts go out to Milana’s loved ones and everyone affected by her death.”
Juveniles charged with Measure 11 crimes no longer are automatically sent to adult court under a 2019 law that aims to keep young defendants in Juvenile Court, where sentences are shorter and the focus is on rehabilitation.
But prosecutors under the law may request a hearing where they can ask to have a youth moved to adult court – and Washington County prosecutors have done that in Gore’s case.
During those proceedings, known as waiver hearings, a judge must determine whether the youth possessed “sufficient sophistication and maturity” to appreciate the crime and whether keeping the youth in Juvenile Court is in their interest.
The court can also consider “the aggressive, violent, premeditated or willful manner” of the crime among other factors.
According to state court data, 819 juveniles have been accused of Measure 11 crimes since the law went into effect.
Prosecutors have sought to move 50 of those cases into adult court. So far, data shows judges approved those transfers in four cases. The cases are in Jackson, Marion, Washington and Clackamas counties, according to the state.
If found guilty and Gore remains in Juvenile Court, he would be released from Oregon Youth Authority custody no later than age 25.
A first-degree murder conviction in adult court carries a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison, but juveniles waived to adult court and convicted can seek parole after 15 years.
Under the new law, they also are eligible for what’s known as a second look hearing halfway through their sentence. Their release may be considered during that proceeding.
A GoFundMe for the Li family had raised more than $38,000 as Friday afternoon.
-- Catalina Gaitán; @catalinagaitan_ and Noelle Crombie; @noellecrombie
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