SAN DIEGO -- A man accused in the 1998 stabbing death of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe must stand trial on murder charges, a judge ruled Monday.

Superior Court Judge Gale Kaneshiro found that there was probable cause to believe that 33-year-old Richard Tuite (pictured, left) killed the Escondido seventh-grader. Her bloodied body was found in her bedroom on the morning of Jan. 21, 1998.

"I'm not surprised or shocked -- a little disappointed," Tuite's attorney, Brad Patton, said after the hearing.

He said that the trial could start in mid or late summer and take two months to complete.

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Patton and attorney William Fletcher presented evidence that they say points to the victim's older brother, Michael Crowe, and two friends -- Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser -- as her killers.

The three originally were charged with Stephanie's murder. But charges were dropped in 1999 when a DNA test revealed the victim's blood on a filthy red shirt Tuite wore the night of the killing.

The case was turned over to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and the state Attorney General's Office three years ago.

"Mr. Tuite has (Stephanie's) blood on him," Special Assistant Attorney General David Druliner said in his closing argument.

Prosecutors put on evidence that they said showed two police interrogations of the now-20-year-old Treadway were coerced and therefore unreliable.

Druliner said Escondido police investigators made "multiple assumptions" early on in the case, making it "theory-driven" as opposed to "evidence driven."

"It's unfortunate. It's extremely unusual," the prosecutor said. "I've never seen it in 27 years of prosecution."

Druliner said Tuite, a diagnosed schizophrenic, was seen in the area of the Crowe home the night before Stephanie's body was discovered. Tuite knocked on doors asking for a person named "Tracy," the prosecutor said.

Neighbors in the Crowe neighborhood in rural northeast Escondido were apprehensive and fearful of the transient, Druliner told the judge.

"We know Richard Tuite killed Stephanie Crowe," the prosecutor said. "What really confuses the case is the statements of Joshua Treadway."

Druliner contends that Treadway was threatened and mistreated by Escondido police detectives during more than 25 hours of interrogations over a three-day period, prompting him to lie and implicate his friends in the murder.

But Patton said Treadway's interrogation on Feb. 10, 1998, produced a "very compelling statement of guilt and culpability."

Treadway's testimony on the witness stand was "completely without credibility," Patton told the judge.

The attorney said scientific evidence will also be presented at trial showing that blood specs on Tuite's shirt could have been caused by contamination.

The Crowe, Treadway and Houser families sued the Escondido Police Department and others for alleged civil rights violations. The civil case is slated for trial next month in federal court.

Tuite will be back in court March 17 for arraignment and to get a trial date. He faces 27 years to life in prison if convicted.