Brendan O’Rourke must have liked helping customers over the phone for NTN Buzztime and planned to return to his job after his attack. He phoned his boss every day for a week to explain that …

Ruby likes the color red. On her day in court, she wore a red sweater and her hair was dyed a reddish color. Ruby (not her real name) is hiding from her former lover Robert …

A man in jail awaiting sentencing for a murder stabbed another inmate and was sentenced on March 15 to 12 more years for the new offense. Joaquin Martinez, a.k.a. “Jaws,” now 34, admitted causing great …

Most jurors deliberating the sanity of a murder defendant are voting that he did understand right from wrong at the time of the shooting, according to statements made in court on March 15 by Daniel …

A 40-year-old man who has been hiding in Mexico for ten years was arraigned in the Vista courthouse on March 12. Fernando Herrera Salas, charged with murder, was implicated in the death of a man …

A former physical education teacher for Oceanside High School admitted to a probation violation on March 6 at the Vista courthouse. Corey Lane Hogue, now 39, pleaded guilty in 2010 to having unlawful sexual contact …

Construction worker Mario Contreras broke his hand on October 8, 2010, the day a gunman arrived at Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad. “I broke it when I punched him,” testified 42-year-old Contreras at the Vista …

Two former clients of disbarred attorney Patricia Gregory had the satisfaction of seeing the admitted thief put into handcuffs in the Vista courthouse on February 24. The victims, Denise Doll and Luwain Ng, complained to …

The mother of murdered 25-year-old Tamara Henderson told the killer, “I forgive you for killing my daughter and I pray for you.... I know that hating you would only eat me up inside.” When convicted …

Dourson’s bold moves to tackle and disarm a man who put a loaded handgun in his face during an attempted robbery made national news in February 2011. But Dourson said he is disappointed with a …

A Vista woman accused of stealing thousands of books from libraries around San Diego County pleaded guilty to one count of “commercial burglary” in the Vista courthouse on February 20. An investigation reportedly started last …

A young man bicycling on Grand Avenue in Escondido was found to be carrying a “metal knuckles” weapon that had a folding four-inch blade appendage, according to testimony given by Escondido police officer Jason White …

Jennifer Lyndi Davey, 64, accused of embezzling almost $1.5 million while she worked as an office manager in Solana Beach, was arraigned in the Vista courthouse on February 3. Davey pleaded not guilty to charges …

A former Carlsbad attorney admitted that she took money from two clients’ accounts and used those funds “for personal use,” according to a plea deal read in court by the judge on January 24. Patricia …

On a mid-December morning in 2007, Deanna Fridley, a 23-year-old housewife, got up and fed her kids, got them dressed, and smoked some meth. “Midmorning sometime, yes. My cousin came over with some. We smoked …

San Diego criminal defense lawyer Allen Robert Bloom, 61, was convicted of two DUI counts by a jury in the Vista courthouse on January 19. Deputy Andrew E. Dvorak testified that he could smell vomit …

Within hours of allegedly shooting his second wife in the chest with a gun, Dontaye Henderson texted a message to a woman in Alabama whom he had previously dated: “I’ve left my wife for good. …

An Escondido man who grabbed the purse of a woman in the parking lot of an Encinitas shopping center last week was out on bail for a drug-possession arrest three weeks earlier, a prosecutor said …

Marion M. Lopez was picked up on a warrant sweep on February 23, 2011, and found herself in Las Colinas women’s detention facility in Santee. It was the 42-year-old’s third time in jail. On the …

Police said they were doing one of their regular DUI “saturation patrols” in Escondido on December 2 when they saw a man driving toward them on the wrong side of the street. When police tried …

An Oceanside man agreed to a ten-year prison term in a plea deal today, admitting to the assault of a man who died from a single punch to his head in an Oceanside bar on …

A 43-year-old Fallbrook man was brought before a judge on November 30 and charged with strangling to death his ex-girlfriend on the eve of her birthday, November 23. Michael David Robles pleaded not guilty and …

“She basically got caught up in an emotional dog rescue. That’s what this was,” said the defense attorney. “Miss Vukov, yes, took the dog.” Although Trina Vukov took the dog without permission, she had no …

After the Oceanside police officer pulled over a white Oldsmobile on August 17 because it lacked a front license plate, he saw a handgun wrapped in a black bandana resting in the baby seat in …

Forty-nine-year-old Leopaldo Lopez pleaded guilty to felony vandalism October 21 for reportedly cutting the emergency brake cable on a truck that was parked at the curb in front of a home in Fallbrook two weeks …

Two women, 19 and 20 years old, gave testimony in the Vista courthouse on October 19, describing an ordeal during which they said they were kidnapped and raped last May. The women said the 33-year-old …

There was emotional testimony from three young Latinas in the Vista courthouse on October 11 as they described a night of rape, attempted robbery, and burglary in separate incidents that occurred in Escondido last May. …

Adam Brown is guilty of first-degree murder for plunging a kitchen knife into his mother’s head as she sat on the edge of her bed in their Oceanside home three years ago. The same jury …

On January 18, 2008, Jean Gluck, 77, and Harry Gluck, 90, were found dead in their bed in the Carlsbad home they shared with their son, Dennis Brian Gluck. In the Vista courthouse on the …

Vicente Benites, originally from the Mexican state of Guerrero, shot and killed another man from Guerrero at an Escondido house party in 1989, according to prosecutor Natalie Villaflor. The cold-case murder trial started last week, …

In June, an off-duty firefighter was almost struck by a black BMW in the parking lot of the Leucadia Liquor Store, according to testimony in the Vista courthouse on September 12. The firefighter-witness watched William …

A man who caused a fatal crash on I-5 in April of 2010 is guilty of second-degree murder, according to a jury that delivered their verdict on September 8 in San Diego’s North County Superior …

At a preliminary hearing at the Vista courthouse on August 29, Christian Padilla faced charges for an incident that occurred August 14. On that night, a man taking out the garbage after 10 p.m. saw …

The preliminary hearing for former attorney Michael T. Pines was suspended on Friday, August 26, and a subpoenaed witness — San Diego County district attorney Bonnie Dumanis — did not make an appearance. Instead, superior-court …

On Wednesday, August 24, a superior court judge declined to quash a subpoena that was served on San Diego County district attorney Bonnie Dumanis.The subpoena reportedly demands her as a witness in the case against …

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it isTo have a thankless child! — Shakespeare’s King Lear Tyler Adams is accused of using the identities of his mom and dad to run up more than $3 …

It's a tough crowd. It’s such a tough crowd th at no one believed the repeated messages that the killer left on the victim’s cell phone threatening to “bust a cap” into him. Until Hector …

An Oceanside man accused of murdering his wife last January was scheduled to be in court yesterday, but he “rammed his head into a sharp metal object on a wall” to get a medical deferral …

A 48-year-old Vista man who admitted drunkenly evading pursuing officers by driving recklessly, and resisting police officers “with force,” hopes to be sentenced to nine months in county jail, according to his plea deal paperwork, …

Giovanni Abarca, 18, pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor, in exchange for dropped felony charges — including rape of an intoxicated person — according to prosecutor Kate Flaherty. Abarca …

Danny Vinci splashed gasoline on his ex-wife in a parking lot full of witnesses, on March 11, 2010. The woman had gone to an Oceanside dance studio to pick up her granddaughter, as she always …

Today, July 18, at the Vista courthouse, a 61-year-old Carlsbad man admitted to molesting a 5-year-old girl on Dog Beach in Del Mar more than a year ago. William Wright Harris was free on his …

This black lab is one lucky dog. She was one of 20 dogs taken to the Humane Society’s facility in Oceanside in the two days after the Fourth of July weekend. Her relieved owners came …

Thomas Scott Ruth, 22, allegedly told Carlsbad police officer Shaun Lawton that he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to rob a pizzeria on State Street in February. Officer Lawton gave testimony in the Vista courthouse on …

A 56-year-old schoolteacher accused of hosting a drunken teen party this month may not have to appear in court. Although Nancy Hildebrand was arrested just past midnight on June 12 on suspicion of supplying alcohol …

A soda can left in the bathroom of a burgled residence in Oceanside last January recently led to an arrest, according to detective Douglas Baxter of the Oceanside Police Department. DNA collected from the can …

The surprise witness identified the defendant right away. “He sits in front of us at the Charger games,” said Sara Anderson. She had video and photographs of him at the game on the night of …

A 28-year-old Escondido man is accused of stabbing his lover in the neck after an argument on Memorial Day morning, May 30. Alexander John Twedt was arraigned this week on a single charge of attempted …

A French citizen living in San Marcos pleaded guilty to a single felony count of child porn, with the understanding that he will not spend any time in jail. Defendant Marc Romain Mandina, 41, was …

At the Vista courthouse on May 23, Twin Oaks High School assistant principal Todd Marquet testified that 18-year-old Ernesto Gomez had been in attendance for two years before trouble arose. When Gomez got into an …