SAN DIEGO -- A young woman accused of trying to disfigure her teenage sister by throwing boiling oil on her was ordered to stand trial on charges of assault and aggravated mayhem.

Amber S. Jackson, 20, faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutor Teresa Santana said after a preliminary hearing Monday.

The 15-year-old alleged victim testified that 15 minutes before the Sept. 27 attack, Jackson, (pictured, left), came to her bedroom door at her home on 50th Street.

The teenager testified that her sister said, "You got a pretty face, but beauty doesn't last forever."

"(Jackson) said, 'You think I'm a joke,'" the victim said. "And I said, 'Well, yeah, you are a joke.'"

Jackson left the hallway but soon returned, carrying what looked and smelled like boiling oil, the teenager testified.

"I could smell the oil," the victim said. "I saw a cup with oil in it."

Minutes later, Jackson knocked on the bedroom door again, accused the alleged victim of stealing her marijuana, then threw the hot oil toward the teenager, she said.

The 15-year-old girl said she turned her head to avoid the oil, but was burned on her hip, chest and under her left breast,

"I turned to the right so it wouldn't get my face," the teenager testified in the hearing before Judge John Thompson.

The girl testified she and Jackson had fought three weeks earlier after she accused the defendant of taking her sweatshirt.

On cross-examination, the victim denied accusations that she tried to commit suicide the day before the attack because she had broken up with her boyfriend.

Before the fistfight, the victim said she had not fought with the defendant since her youth.

When the hot oil attack occurred, Jackson was out of custody on bail after pleading guilty to abducting her 5-month-old son from a McDonald's during a meeting with a foster mother, the prosecutor said.

Jackson also has a 2001 robbery "strike" conviction as a juvenile, Santana said.

The defendant, who was arraigned Monday, is due back in court Jan. 11 for a readiness conference. Her trial is scheduled to start Jan. 25.