A bill that would toughen laws for juveniles accused of murder is back before state legislators while the brutal slaying that prompted the legislation remains unresolved.

"Karen's Law," named after Karen Ertell, the 'Ewa Beach businesswoman who was allegedly raped and murdered by her then 15-year-old neighbor on May 25, 2007, would ensure that 15- to 17-year-olds charged with first or second-degree murder would be tried as adults.

Vernon Bartley admitted to planning the killing, said he acted alone and said that he waited for Ertell in the carport of her home, according to a police affidavit.

On Oct. 7 a family court judge allowed Bartley to be tried as an adult — 13 months after a city prosecutor requested it.

Bartley's trial is scheduled to begin in March.

Ertell's body was found inside her home by her boyfriend and her daughter after co-workers reported she had not come to work and her Volvo sedan was found at Geiger Park.

Ertell, 51, the owner of Koko Crater Coffee Roasters in Kaka'ako, had been scheduled to testify against Bartley in a burglary case.

Police described the murder as "very well-planned, very well-executed," and called it "heinous and outrageous."

Malanie McLellan, Ertell's daughter, who along with her husband and Ertell's boyfriend found Karen's body, said the new law is needed because waiting to see if the person accused of killing your loved one will be tried as an adult is too painful.

"It was torture to have to wait for so long to see if he would be tried as a juvenile or tried as a adult. It was a big waste of time. It really prolongs the grieving process, uselessly," said McLellan, who is in town from Eugene, Ore., to urge lawmakers to support the bill.

"Every day we're reliving it, so we may as well relive it and do something useful instead of just sitting there and grieving for nothing. My mother's name could go on and do something useful for people."

McLellan and others will don pink shirts and hand out fliers at a rally scheduled for 12:15 p.m. today.

"Karen's Law" was first introduced at the start of the 2008 legislative session but died when former House Judiciary Chairman Tommy Waters declined to schedule a hearing on it.

The bill's author, Rep. Kymberly Pine, R-43rd ('Ewa Beach, Iroquois Point, Pu'uloa), said the law requires a waiver hearing that can take more than a year before a juvenile accused of murder can stand trial as an adult.

The additional hearing, coupled with the long delay before trial begins, does not consider the suffering of the victim's family and loved and ones, she said.

"It's really cruel and unusual punishment for the family," Pine said. "The thought, for my constituents, that he had a chance, despite how brutal the crime was, that our current system might let him out in a few years, it terrified them. They felt a sense of injustice."

First deputy prosecuting attorney Douglas S. Chin, who is handling the Bartley case for the city, said the City Prosecutor's Office backs the bill.

"Vernon Bartley was charged with raping and strangling his neighbor to death. We had to ask the family court to waive jurisdiction over Bartley and that took over a year of litigation in a closed courtroom to resolve," Chin said. "With Karen's Law, cases like these can be brought to trial much sooner and justice served more quickly."

Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu, D-41st (Waipahu, Village Park, Waikele), chairman of the House Judiciary committee, said he is "open" to discussing the bill but wants it amended.

Karamatsu wants to limit the bill to first-degree, pre-meditated murder and include a psychiatric evaluation to ensure that the juvenile is not mentally ill. Also, he said, it should include a provision ensuring that a juvenile being tried as an adult is not thrown into general population at an adult prison.

"I'm open to having discussions on this bill," Karamatsu said.