A La Jolla man has pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner when he fired two shots through the wall of his home and into a neighbor’s unit.
Alan Deller, 64, will be sentenced Aug. 6. The district attorney’s office has agreed not to ask for prison but instead will seek a jail sentence up to one year, court records show. Deller remains free on $50,000 bond on condition he not contact two neighbors.
Deller’s attorney, Marc Geller, filed court documents that said Deller was “quite intoxicated” and “irrational” when he fired two shots into his bedroom wall on Oct. 18 around 7 a.m. in his condominium in the 3200 block of Via Marin. His neighbor, Daeyong Sim, heard the shots and found that a bullet went through a wall about two feet over his daughter’s bed. A second bullet lodged in another wall in the same room, court records say.
Daeyong, his wife and daughter had never met Deller and said they had no idea why he would fire a gun. Sim notified his daughter’s school about the incident, and San Diego Police contacted Deller at 9:33 a.m. His arrest followed.
Deller pleaded guilty June 11 before San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh. A second count of discharging a firearm was dismissed.
–Neal Putnam