CRIME • Three San Diego police officers were slain while on duty
prison without parole.
2013: Sixteen-year-old cheerleader Hannah Anderson went missing in Lakeside, and the search for her triggered the first statewide Amber Alert on cellphones. Her mother, Christina Anderson, and younger brother Ethan were found dead in the Boulevard home of family friend James Dimaggio, 40. Authorities suspected he killed the mother and son, set the home on fire and kidnapped Hannah. The weeklong search for the teen girl ended at a remote campsite in central Idaho, where an FBI agent shot and killed Dimaggio.
2016: Jon David Guerrero, now 42, was arrested in July following a brutal crime and killing spree during which authorities say he drove railroad spikes into some of his victims and set two people on fire. Most of those targeted were homeless. Guerrero has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder. The case is still pending.
2016: San Diego authorities announced that Tieray Jones, the stepfather of 2year-old Jahi Turner, had been arrested on suspicion of killing the child about 14 years after the tot disappeared. Three years after Jones’ arrest, a jury deadlocked, and the trial judge dismissed the murder case.
2017: A 49-year-old man with a beer in one hand and a gun in the other suddenly opened fire on a birthday pool party in University City on April 30, killing one and wounding seven others. Peter Selis sat in a poolside chair at the La Jolla Crossroads apartment complex and — without warning — opened fire with a .45-caliber Sig Sauer. Police said he also called his newly ex-girlfriend made her listen as he repeatedly pulled the trigger. The attack killed 35-year-old Monique Clark, the mother of three daughters. Selis was fatally shot by police.
2018: In June, Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was arrested, accused of raping homeless women and other sex crimes targeting middle-aged or older women in Encinitas. After conviction on one count of rape, and two misdemeanor crimes including indecent exposure, he later pleaded guilty to other sex crimes. Once a first-round NFL draft pick and the highest paid tight-end in the league, Winslow II faces 12 to 18 years when he is sentenced in February.
2019: A gunman attacked Chabad of Poway, killing worshipper Lori Gilbertkaye, 60, and wounding three others including the synagogue’s founding rabbi and a child. Suspected gunman and Cal State San Marcos student John T. Earnest, then 19, of Rancho Peñasquitos, was arrested shortly after the shooting. Moments before the ambush, someone claiming to be Earnest posted an antisemitic manifesto online, which also took credit for setting a fire outside an Escondido mosque. Earnest has pleaded not guilty in state court to charges of murder, three counts of attempted murder and hate crime allegations. He has also been charged in federal court.
Headlines over the last decade included the onduty shooting deaths of three San Diego police officers:
Officer Christopher Wilson, a 17-year veteran, was shot to death four days before Halloween in 2010, during a gun battle that erupted while helping probation officers and U.S. marshals detain a fugitive at a Skyline apartment. The suspected shooter, wanted for assault with a deadly weapon, had not been the targeted fugitive that day. But he and a woman with him killed themselves. Another man who was taken from the apartment before shots were fired, was sentenced to more than 90 years in prison, in part for not telling police that other people, guns and drugs were inside the apartment.
Officer Jeremy Henwood, 36, was on patrol on Aug. 6, 2011, when he was fatally shot by a motorist who pulled up alongside his patrol car, raised a gun and opened fire. Motorist Dejon White, who moments earlier had shot a stranger in the face in El Cajon, was shot and killed by police a short time later after refusing to surrender. Less than five minutes before the ambush, video surveillance had caught Henwood buying cookies for a young boy at a City Heights Mcdonald’s.
Officer Jonathan “JD” de Guzman, 43, died and Officer Wade Irwin was wounded on July 28, 2016 in the Southcrest neighborhood of San Diego. The officers, assigned to the gang suppression team, stopped their patrol car to talk to two men. One walked away, the other opened fire, shooting Irwin in the throat. The gunman then shot De Guzman, who was still sitting in the driver’s seat. Irwin returned fire, wounding the gunman.
De Guzman died at a hospital. The alleged gunman, Jesse Gomez, was found in a nearby ravine, unconscious, with a gunshot wound to his abdomen and a gun lying nearby. The 58-year-old faces trial in April.
Political names and criminal investigations also collided in the region over the last decade. Notable among them:
In summer 2013, less than a year after he was elected to lead San Diego, accusations of sexual harassment dogged then-mayor Bob Filner and calls for him to step down grew. In August, Filner resigned. In October, he pleaded guilty to felony false imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor battery involving three women.
In 2017, a wealthy Mexican
businessman who was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions that sparked a major political corruption scandal was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, who had no permanent status in the U.S. was arrested 2014 and accused of funneling nearly $600,000 to candidates in the 2012 race for San Diego mayor, including then-district Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and former Mayor Bob Filner. A federal jury in 2016 found Azano guilty of 35 charges of conspiracy and making illegal contributions. He was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm.
In 2018, U.S. Rep Duncan D. Hunter and his wife were accused in a sweeping federal indictment of using more than $250,000 in political contributions to pay personal expenses, from private-school tuition for their children to spending $600 in airfare for the family pet rabbit. The Alpine Republican was also accused of using the funds to pay for extramarital affairs. Earlier this year, wife Margaret pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and agreed to become a cooperating witness. Earlier this month, on Dec. 3, the congressman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convert campaign funds to personal use. Hunter has said he will resign his 50th District seat after the holidays.
Union-tribune librarian and researcher Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this report.