The 16 year old girl who slashed the throat of a 75 year old woman in an upscale Berkeley neighborhood after encountering her on a public sidewalk has appeared in court again. Her psychiatric evaluations are completed sufficiently to allow her case to move forward, and she will be given a physical examination, including a CT brain scan early next month.

Oakland Tribune writer Kristin Bender, whose coverage of the case has been the best in the Bay Area media, has outed the teen's name, Marilyn Webster. According to her reporting:

During her stays at Fred Finch [a county youth center], sources said Webster has thrown garbage and appliances at staff members and once attempted  to hit a male staff member with a stick. In another incident, she punched and scratched a fellow student while the two were in a classroom together, according to authorities.

Last month, an attempt to do a psychiatric evaluation on Webster ended when she kicked a juvenile hall staff member in the groin, sources said.

Webster's public defender is clearly laying the basis for a claim that Webster is the helpless victim of circumstances, and possibly a plea of insanity:

The 16—year—old Oakland girl accused of slashing a Berkeley woman's throat had an "upbringing that would blow your mind," her public defender said Tuesday following a court hearing.

Meanwhile Hamaseh Kianfar, the former county mental health worker and published authority on Sufism who drove Webster away from her victim, facilitating her escape, and who failed to report the incident to police, will appear in court on May 3rd to enter a plea.

Thomas Lifson   4 27 05