Zubia's cousin Savina Garcia took the witness stand to tell Judge John Fielder how the murder affected her life.

But she soon directed her comments at LaSalde, who sat shielded by her attorney, facing forward.

Garcia told LaSalde that if she really loved Zubia, she would have saved her.

"I loved her too, OK," LaSalde shouted.

Fielder stopped the hearing and had LaSalde taken to the back to end the verbal exchange with Garcia.

As Garcia was leaving, she yelled to LaSalde, "I don't forgive you, and I really hate you."

Deputies dragged LaSalde from the courtroom. After she was out of sight, she screeched at the top of her lungs and thumping could be heard from the hallway where she had been taken. The details of what happened were not available.

Deputies herded families from both sides out of the courtroom for a break, but as they left, they began screaming at one another.

Following the hearing, Zubia's cousin Paula Garcia said her family was angry with LaSalde's family because they have not shown remorse.

"They should be more supportive, but they were challenging us," Paula Garcia said. "I don't think that's right. ... That's Amanda's family too."

LaSalde's family said they believe their daughter should have been tried so the facts of the case could come out.

"They say they have all this evidence -- I say take it to the box," LaSalde's father, Ramon LaSalde, said. "She's doing what she can to prove her innocence."

LaSalde tried to back out of the plea agreement, but a judge decided she had no legal right to do so.

"I believe in my daughter, and she would not do that," said her mother, Linda Medina, referring to the killing.

She said her side of the family had hurt feelings too.

"It was pretty upsetting hearing Amanda's family downing our daughter," Medina said.

Several members of Zubia's family continued to speak out about the death, stating their belief that other people were involved and that the investigation should continue.

"There may be (other people who participated in the crime) but there is no evidence to prove it at this point," Deputy District Attorney Elva Nunez said.

Zubia's family also wanted a stiffer punishment for LaSalde.

"You are the one I am most outraged about," Zubia's grandmother, Angela Aceves, said during the sentencing hearing.

Nunez said after the hearing that she believes LaSalde's deal was fair.

"Her role was a lesser one in the assault," she said.

Nunez said photos showed LaSalde kicking Zubia while she was gagged on the floor.

"She participated in the brutal assault," she said.

Investigative reports said Zubia was beaten, burned with cigarettes and mocked over two days before she was stuffed into a suitcase and put in a car trunk in mid-July.

She is believed to have died in the car, apparently of suffocation. Her body was then stuffed into a metal barrel.

The barrel with the body inside was found in an east Bakersfield garage on July 19.

Deputy District Attorney Elva Nunez said the other defendants in the case called DeLeon the mastermind. The prosecutor said one picture showed Zubia lying on the floor defenseless and gagged as DeLeon kicked her in the head.

District Attorney Ed Jagels said prosecutors believe DeLeon started the pummeling that Zubia, 17, received by accusing her of stealing her drugs.

"They were all blaming each other," Nunez said, adding that they all played a role.

Nunez also told the judge that DeLeon did not come forward with her story about Zubia until after she was arrested on suspicion of having guns in her home illegally.

As Nunez explained the facts of the case to the judge, DeLeon sobbed.

DeLeon's defense attorney said that her client was sorry for what she did.

Judge Skip Staley told DeLeon that she was lucky not to be tried in adult court.

Staley sentenced her to the California Youth Authority, a state-run detention system for those who committed crimes when they were under 18. DeLeon was 17 at the time of the killing.

Prosecutors let DeLeon be sentenced in juvenile court in exchange for her testimony against the other defendants. But the other defendants made plea agreements before DeLeon had to testify.

Jagels said his office gave DeLeon the agreement partly because she was a lesser player in the actual beatings.

DeLeon's mother, Stella Adams, said her daughter was not the mastermind and that the ringleaders coerced her into participating.

When asked about the picture of DeLeon kicking Zubia in the head, she said, "The other two girls forced her to do that."

However, in jailhouse interviews, Erika LaSalde and Maricruz Galaviz, who both took plea agreements in connection with Zubia's death, were nervous about saying anything that would incriminate DeLeon.

Galaviz refused to identify the person who dealt what she believed was a fatal blow to Zubia.

Medical reports revealed Zubia actually suffocated to death.

When asked about DeLeon, LaSalde's face became red and she started crying and shaking slightly.

"Look at what happened to Amanda and Robert," LaSalde said.

Zubia's family has long fought for DeLeon to be tried as an adult. They believe she was a major participant in Zubia's death and should be punished accordingly.

With a Bible in her hand and tears in her eyes, Zubia's maternal grandmother, Angela Aceves, told DeLeon of the pain she caused their family.

"Crystal, you took somebody who I loved very much," Aceves said. "You had no right to take her life. ... I see you as a little idiot girl who doesn't know the consequences of her actions."

LaSalde, 19, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on one count of assault with a deadly weapon. She faces seven years in prison.

Galaviz, 27, and Antonia Heredia Salazar, 33, pleaded no contest to one count each of first-degree murder and were sentenced Dec. 23 to 25 years to life in prison.

A fifth defendant, Robert Vallejo, 19, was killed in jail in July by other inmates.

Investigative reports said Zubia was beaten, burned with cigarettes and mocked over two days before she was stuffed into a suitcase and put in a car trunk in mid-July.

She is believed to have died in the car, apparently of suffocation. Her body was then stuffed into a metal barrel. The barrel with Zubia was found in an east Bakersfield garage on July 19.

-- Staff writer Christina Sosa contributed to this report.

She is believed to have died in the car, apparently of suffocation. Her body was then stuffed into a metal barrel. The barrel containing her body was found in an east Bakersfield garage on July 19.

LaSalde, interviewed at the downtown jail Tuesday, said she and Zubia had been close as young girls, but grew apart when they became teenagers.

Zubia had a baby at a young age, and LaSalde, though also a young mother, was more interested in partying and doing drugs, LaSalde said.

"I wasn't listening to my mom," LaSalde said. "I wanted to be on my own."

LaSalde spent a few months in juvenile detention because of her drug use, and only started to spend time with her cousin again when she got out in October 2003, she said.

LaSalde's life was starting to get on track. She was 18 and had a job at Sears, an apartment of her own and was attending college. LaSalde and Zubia spent Saturday nights hanging out and cruising Niles together.

But a couple of months before Zubia's killing, LaSalde said she started to fall back into drugs and again became a heavy user.

"I was starting to use it (methamphetamine) every day," LaSalde said.

Drugs, LaSalde claims, played a central role in her cousin's death. A day in mid-July of last year, possibly July 10, a girl named Crystal DeLeon, who was 17 at the time, called LaSalde's apartment and said Zubia had stolen some drugs.

At first, LaSalde did not believe that Zubia, who was at the apartment at the time, would steal drugs, LaSalde said.

But when Zubia offered to pay for the missing drugs, LaSalde said she became convinced Zubia stole them.

LaSalde said Zubia was using a lot of drugs the last time she saw her, about a week before Zubia's body was discovered.

But LaSalde said she could not explain why the coroner's examination found no drugs in Zubia's system when she died.

LaSalde said she doesn't remember why she got in a fistfight with Zubia on the night of July 12. The girls fought, but Zubia was uninjured and stayed at DeLeon's house when LaSalde went home, LaSalde said.

LaSalde spent the next three days sleeping off drugs at her apartment, she said.

The next time she was out of bed, she was awakened by deputies knocking on her door. That was the afternoon of July 15.

LaSalde said that the deputies asked her if she knew Maricruz Galaviz, 27, and Antonia Heredia Salazar, 33, two other women involved in Zubia's death. LaSalde said she lied to the deputies that day, telling them she did not know the women.

Investigators have claimed that LaSalde can be seen in pictures taken of Zubia's beating, but LaSalde said there must be some mistake.

LaSalde said she believes her former defense attorney, Gael Mueller, had mistaken pictures taken of another suspect for LaSalde.

LaSalde turned herself in to authorities the next day, on July 16. She was initially charged with first-degree murder, but accepted a plea bargain of one count of assault with a deadly weapon that caused great bodily injury.

LaSalde later tried, unsuccessfully, to withdraw her plea. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 3, and will likely serve seven years in prison. LaSalde maintains her complete innocence in Zubia's slaying.

There were several others also charged in Zubia's death.

Another of LaSalde's cousins, Robert Vallejo, 19, was charged with murder but was beaten to death in Lerdo in July.

Galaviz and Salazar were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in December after pleading no contest to one count each of first-degree murder. Salazar is also LaSalde's cousin.

DeLeon made a plea bargain on one count of murder in juvenile court and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28.