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Stories by Eva Knott

Escondido police suspect cousins in robberies

Police found evidence connecting two men with at least four armed robberies that occurred recently in Escondido. One of them was due to be arraigned in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse for felony robbery …

January 8, 2014
Pfingst and murder defendant win pre-trial hearings

Former San Diego district attorney, current criminal defense lawyer Paul Pfingst will remain as counsel for a woman accused of murdering her husband, a judge ruled on January 3. In November, prosecutor Keith Watanabe alleged …

January 4, 2014
Frederick Hengl’s death in holding cell declared "natural"

Frederick Joseph Hengl, 69, accused of killing his wife and cooking parts of her on the stovetop in their Oceanside home, died in a “natural” manner, according to the county medical examiner. Hengl was found …

January 3, 2014
Serial shoplifter popped in O'side, claims to be a fed

Tom C. Vuong, 50, allegedly made a ruckus at the Walmart on the corner of College Boulevard and Highway 76 on December 15. He was arrested for his actions. According to testimony given in court …

January 1, 2014
Shots fired on the San Pasqual Reservation

Michelle Ortega said Richard Murillo showed her the gun when he met her down by the front gate of her property on the San Pasqual Indian Reservation in Valley Center. It was after 11 o’clock …

December 25, 2013
Defendants in Killgore murder case got new attorneys

Dorothy Maraglino, a 38-year-old woman from Fallbrook who is currently charged with kidnap, torture, and murder, said, “I’m prepared to represent myself” in San Diego Superior Court on December 18, 2013. Maraglino made the statement …

December 22, 2013
Fast verdict for assault in Carlsbad motel room

A jury declared Matthew Nathan Terrell guilty of assault with intent to commit rape and false imprisonment, on December 18. The attack happened in a Carlsbad motel room on June 9, 2013. The jury declared …

December 19, 2013
Encinitas plumber says he was threatened and robbed

During a court hearing on December 11, Michael Welch claimed that a houseguest, Bryan Paul Jeffries, 30, threatened and punched him and demanded money in December of 2012. The attorney for Jeffries suggested that he …

December 12, 2013
Escondido burglars sent to prison

On December 5, Antonio Gabriel Amador, 18, and Brandon Douglas Martinez, 20, were both sentenced to seven years in state prison for burglary and robbery. In their plea deals, four other felonies were dismissed for …

December 10, 2013
Deputies say they caught San Marcos burglar

After officers witnessed a young man leap from a second-story window of a San Marcos home this summer, deputy Jason Allen asked him what he was doing. “He said, ‘Uh, breaking and entering?’” The deputy …

Stepdaughter charged in Escondido murder

“This 35-year-old defendant stabbed her 54-year-old stepmother over 15 times with two separate knives,” a prosecutor said as Asiatae Robinette Bell glared at the deputy district attorney from a holding cell. Last week, on November …

November 27, 2013
“Suspicious man” at an address on Crescent Point Road in Carlsbad

Kenny Lowary is accused of stealing from the elderly and punching a police dog. Now taxpayers pay for his accommodations.

November 27, 2013
Former DA Pfingst and accused murderer Julie Harper

Deputy district attorney Keith Watanabe said that he intends to call a former DA of San Diego County, Paul Pfingst, as a witness in an upcoming murder trial. Pfingst, now a private criminal defense attorney, …

November 22, 2013
Convicted child abuser skipped before the verdict

A man declared guilty of multiple counts of child abuse is reportedly on the run, according to court records. Joseph Vincent McCarron, 58, was declared guilty last week of abusing two little girls, both under …

November 21, 2013
Larcenists' loot displayed in Valley Center

The recovery of one pile of stolen loot led to another and another, according to one San Diego County sheriff’s detective. “I’ve been trying to find all the victims,” said detective Laura Whalen on November …

November 11, 2013
Reptile Super Show in downtown San Diego

Ricardo Contreras said he arrived at 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 2, to ensure he would be first in line for the Reptile Super Show. Organizers of the two-day event opened the doors at 10 …

November 4, 2013
Man accused of shoplifting and battery at Vista grocery

“He tried biting me on my left bicep,” said Alvaro Miranda, who is a loss prevention officer for a grocery store in Vista. “Shortly after that, he said, ‘I have AIDS and I’m gonna bite …

October 22, 2013
Vista neighbor accused of arson

The petite Vietnamese lady said she saw her neighbor do it. Miss Ut Jones said she was outside gardening when “He start the fire three time," the elderly woman said with a heavy accent in …

October 21, 2013
Surfer via OKCupid wanted to meet in Carlsbad motel parking lot

Emily said she didn’t think anything was strange until she noticed that the man had a plastic zip-tie in his hands. The 21-year-old was glad for the chance to make 50 bucks an hour just …

October 16, 2013
Cathedral Glen, Angeles Glen, Pointer Glen in Escondido – all hit in burglaries

Eva Knott’s findings from the court files of 21-year-old Wyatt Taylor Johnson, who burglarized a handful of his grandmother’s neighbors and pawned their stolen possessions. He admitted to four counts of first-degree felony burglary and expects to get four years prison when he is sentenced on November 18.

September 25, 2013
Five million dollars in art and jewelry taken from Rancho Santa Fe home

A wealthy estate in Rancho Santa Fe had more than $5 million worth of art and jewelry stolen, seven weeks ago, according to a San Diego County Sheriff’s detective. “We have been and we continue …

August 7, 2013
Work. Party. Brawl.

Escondido taco-shop owner Juan Rivas got into an altercation with his employees a week before Christmas. Though he claimed not to have been an instigator, he did go to jail for slashing at employees with a utility knife/tool.

July 31, 2013
Shot in the face

Lisa Badgett was shot in the face while behind the wheel of her truck. She’d gone to Oceanside to pick up her boyfriend. The perpetrator was a neighbor who suspected his gas was being stolen by Robbie Robbins, the boyfriend, who did not survive the assault.

July 17, 2013
Shoots neighbor on Lone Jack Road in Encinitas

Did Michael Vilikin go hunting for bear in Encinitas, only to kill his neighbor, John Upton?

July 10, 2013
Del Mar cat fight

Border Patrol agents Kallie Helwig and Gerald Torello were both accused of being involved in a sex act in public at the Del Mar Fairgrounds last year that resulted in a physical altercation between Helwig and an accuser. A jury found Torello not guilty; Helwig got probation.

June 12, 2013
Some gal pal Donna Lee Darling turned out to be

Donna Lee Darling, accused of trying to kill nonagenarian Benjamin Farber, gets her day in court on June 25.

June 12, 2013
Little black book

The little black book wasn’t necessary to determine that Tyree Paschall was the killer of Cindy Conaway.

June 5, 2013
She gave her son a house in Solana Beach, a new Lexus, and $130,000

Details of the events that led up to the murder of Sherry Chu Chang

San Diego Natural History Museum shows off a new fossil

During construction of a highway ramp in San Diego’s North County last month, a paleontologist working for a local museum spotted some ancient bones in the dirt. Brad Riney, who is described as a “paleontological …

Parked her Challenger at Oceanside transit center

Kevin Waddell didn’t know that transit authorities were watching him break into that spiffy Dodge Challenger at a North County Park & Ride.

April 24, 2013
Man admits fatal crash in Pala one year ago

Michael James Inglett admitted gross vehicular manslaughter while under the influence, in San Diego’s North County Superior Court last week. It was a year ago when Inglett’s vehicle crossed the center line of Highway 76 …

April 20, 2013
Sprinter cameras catch nighttime thief at transit stop

On Friday, January 4 Jennifer parked her Dodge Challenger at a transit station in Oceanside, on El Camino Real. She was careful to park her two-door coupe directly under a surveillance camera, and then she …

Bedroom window screen in Oceanside was gone

Sherri Lynn Difrancesco, caught with meth and syringes, seems also to have been caught with containers of pilfered jewelry.

March 20, 2013
Paradise Pizza proposal leads to engagement in Carlsbad

A longtime Carlsbad resident named Paul Carreon came up with a unique way to pop the question to his true love — in green pepper slices, on top of a pizza, amid black olives and …

March 11, 2013
Not-so-neighborly gunfire on Herder Lane in Encinitas

A 44-year-old man and a teenaged boy who lived across the street from one another on Herder Lane in Encinitas vented their mutual dislike by shouting insults and trading obscenities for years. Last summer, the …

Dope deal goes bad with guy on Rosecrans

A dope deal with a stranger goes — you guessed it — wrong!

January 23, 2013
Oceanside mechanic wakes up with knife at his throat

Gerardo said he was visiting family in Mexico when he got the first bizarre phone call. “I was in shock,” he said. He thought the first two calls were a “prank.” “First he said, ‘You …

January 16, 2013
A gang challenge outside their Carlsbad home

Three people left their Carlsbad home on a cool October evening in 2011 to take the dog for a walk. They all got shot. It was completely dark when David, Erik, and Alejandra left the …

January 2, 2013
Christopher Selena accused of murder in Escondido townhouse

Hot pizza started it, maybe more than one knife ended a conflict involving an ex-boyfriend, another man, and crystal meth in Escondido

December 12, 2012
Hit-and-run driver in Rancho Santa Fe is reported by a neighbor

"He started sobbing,” said the California Highway Patrol officer. The teenager had been forced to stop his Lexus by patrol cars gathered down the street from his parents’ Carmel Valley home. Officer Steven Jio said …

Escondido rapist Jeremy Ryan Stutzman said he hated it when his victims cried

When he was 22 years old, Jeremy Ryan Stutzman attacked a young Escondido housewife in her apartment. He bound and gagged her and forced her to dress in lingerie that he provided. His sexual assault …

November 14, 2012
Vista Apartment Dweller Did Not Go Easily

It took five deputies, four bean-bag rounds, one taser, and a dog to extract a renter from an apartment in Vista, according to recent testimony in San Diego’s North County Superior Court. Toshio Suzuki, then …

October 24, 2012
Sergio Lopez fired a gun but his attorney said it was unintentional

The voice on the phone warned the woman to watch herself and not to go to sleep at night. The man asked if she had “any last words” and said, “Nobody can help you.” The …

October 17, 2012
John Clayborne Kerr tried to invade a Carlsbad home through a doggie door

One Tuesday afternoon last June, Donna heard a noise that sounded as if someone had come over her backyard fence. Her dogs heard the noise, too. “The dogs started going crazy,” she said. “I was …

September 5, 2012
San Diego photographer Larry Hoagland tries to kill wife... twice

How did Larry Hoagland manage to blow up his wife while he ran a business, raised children, and juggled a girlfriend? Oh, yeah. He didn’t. After many surgeries, she testified against him.

August 15, 2012
Don't Embarrass the Hells Angels

Eric Wayne Thorsgard was in the worst possible situation. He was taken into custody, accused of beating up somebody in the alley outside a biker bar in Oceanside. That wasn’t the worst part. Eric is …

July 25, 2012
Down, down, down for the Vario Fallbrook Locos

The year Robert Cruz Ramos turned 15, he was shot in the head, according to his sister and his public defender. He started drinking “to forget everything,” and he started smoking marijuana daily. Around that …

June 20, 2012
Dontaye brought his wild man act to San Diego

“The reason why Dontaye has not cut his hair is because he is trying to portray a persona of a wild man to the guys in jail.” Dontaye Henderson’s mother wrote these words in 2003, …

May 9, 2012
Fallbrook Flower (and Cabbage) Show

On Saturday afternoon, April 28, 12-year-old Jenna Blevens attended the Fallbrook Flower Show with her 74-year-old grandmother Eva Raines. “It’s a tradition,” said Raines, who has brought her granddaughter to the event for the past …

Canine Capers Dog Show in San Marcos

The San Marcos Lions Club hosted their fifth annual Canine Capers Talent Show at Woodland Park on April 21, and a pair of newcomers took away the coveted Most Look-Alike trophy this year. When asked …

April 21, 2012

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