Earlier trash collection to save city $4.4M Earlier trash collection will start at 6 a.m. in residential neighborhoods after the San Diego City Council voted this month to shift the current 7 a.m. collection to the earlier time to save money. There was no discussion and the change in hours was approved in a 7-0 vote as the item remained on the consent agenda with routine matters that generally are not discussed. Sanitation workers will work 10 hours a day, four days a week and get three days off. Currently, trash collectors work eight hours a day, five days a week. This change will yield savings of $4.4 million, according to city documents. Workers with the city’s Environmental Services Department were mostly in favor of the change in hours, according to Joan Raymond, who represents the workers. The change is also in keeping with getting trash to the Miramar Landfill, which closes at 4:30 p.m. each day to comply with its operating permit. The landfill lease prohibits landfill operations after dark. The city’s Natural Resources & Culture Committee voted 4-0 on April 14 to approve the change and recommend it to the full City Council. The change falls in the Noise Abatement and Control section of the Municipal Code. The change only affects city workers and the city-provided green and blue recycling containers that are picked up mechanically on the street. This vote will not affect private waste haulers and does not involve dumpsters that are typically used in apartment complexes or condominiums. — Neal Putnam Murderer confesses to avoid retrial Gerald Dean Metcalf avoided a retrial of a murder that happened 39 years ago and agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the 1971 death of Gerald Jackson, 27, of Pacific Beach. The retrial was to have started May 21, but he pleaded guilty earlier and requested immediate sentencing from San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill. Metcalf, now 62, was sentenced to five years to life in prison, which was the maximum term in 1971 for second-degree murder. Metcalf was given credit for already serving 526 days in jail since his 2008 arrest from his home in a small Texas town. Metcalf has already been transferred to R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility, and prison officials will have to determine when he can be paroled. They must follow the laws in place in 1971. Gill fined him more than $1,000 and denied probation. Metcalf was 24 years old when he met Jackson in downtown San Diego. Jackson was gay and took Metcalf to his Hornblend Street apartment on Dec. 29, 1971. Jackson had been stabbed 55 times and his nude body was found on his bedroom floor by two friends who were concerned when Jackson never arrived at work. A jury heard the case in December but deadlocked 9-3 in favor of conviction of first-degree murder. Jurors said a psychiatrist who was on the jury believed defense arguments that Metcalf was too mentally ill to form malice. The psychiatrist and two other jurors voted for voluntary manslaughter, and a mistrial was declared on Dec. 22, 2009. Metcalf was arrested because DNA evidence was found on cigarette butts in Jackson’s apartment and because his own blood and fingerprints were left behind. Jackson’s vehicle was stolen, and his new stereo was pawned. In 2008, an intern from the cold-case unit ran the fingerprints and a match to Metcalf was made because Metcalf had been arrested in Texas in 1984 and his fingerprints were on file. — Neal Putnam Man pleads guilty to kidnapping PB couple Daniel Cital Jasso, 33, became the second man to receive a 13-year prison term for kidnapping a couple in Pacific Beach in a case linked to a missing batch of marijuana valued at around $70,000. The trial for three others started this week with jury selection. Jasso pleaded guilty to kidnapping Silvia Arellano and Joshua Castrillon in February last year. The couple were followed and when they got out of their car on Ingraham Street, three men with guns abducted them. The couple was put in the back seat of their own BMW. Arellano, 30, was shocked with a stun gun and one man took $100 from her. The driver resisted attempts by police to pull him over, but eventually pulled off on a center shoulder median near Hotel Circle. Police arrested three men and two others later. San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeff Fraser fined Jasso more than $2,000, and Jasso received credit of 493 days already served in jail, according to court records. On Feb. 26, Arturo Galarza, 40, was sentenced by Fraser to 13 years for kidnapping. Raymundo Quezada, 25, Gustavo Martinez, Jr., 22, and Rafael Ortiz, 23, are currently on trial and have all pleaded not guilty. They all remain behind bars on $500,000 bail. Castrillon, 36, knew some of the defendants and testified last year that he had been holding 600 pounds of marijuana as “the middle man.” However, the marijuana was stolen from a storage site and the men kidnapped him and his girlfriend to find out where it was. The girlfriend testified she knew nothing about the drug deal and broke up with Castrillon after the kidnapping. — Neal Putnam