A transient who stabbed another man to death near the Ocean Beach Pier was sentenced on Feb. 6 to 12 years in state prison after receiving a tongue lashing from the victim’s brother.
Probation was denied for Robert Daniel Garcia, 46, by San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeff Fraser. The judge ordered Garcia to pay more than $7,200 for the funeral costs of stabbing victim Robert Schoeller, 45, of Ocean Beach.
Schoeller was killed July 20 around 11 p.m. after the pair argued over beer and name-calling.
“Robert Garcia, you murdered my brother. You’re lucky to get off with a lenient sentence,” said the victim’s brother, Kenneth Schoeller.
“I loved my brother. I didn’t always agree with his (lifestyle), but you took that away from him,” he said. “You murdered him by stabbing him 15 times in the chest. In my opinion, you got away with murder. I hope you’re haunted … every day,” said Schoeller.
Garcia replied: “Robert was a very good friend of mine. I apologize for what happened.”
Garcia pleaded guilty Dec. 19 to voluntary manslaughter, and a murder charge was dismissed. Fraser imposed 11 years for manslaughter and added one year consecutively for using a knife during the crime. Garcia was fined $1,000 and given credit for 231 days he has spent in jail since the incident and for good behavior.
In a court document, Garcia wrote that he “killed another person after a sudden quarrel after a provocation which made me act rashly and under the influence of intense emotion which pressured my reasoning.”
His attorney, Robert Ford, said the slaying occurred from “an argument over beer.” Ford claimed Schoeller was more aggressive than his client, who was taunted with a derogatory word for a woman and told by Schoeller to leave “my beach.”
According to testimony at the Sept. 5 preliminary hearing, both men had been drinking and others heard them fighting. Witnesses said they were taunting each other and Garcia pulled a knife and told the victim to step away from him.
After the stabbing, a state Fish and Game Department warden arrested Garcia near the parking lot at the OB Pier. Two Fish and Game wardens were in the area to check for fishermen catching undersize lobsters, said Deputy District Attorney Dan Link.
One warden tried CPR on Schoeller but could not find a pulse. Schoeller was pronounced dead at the scene.