Bail was set at $10 million Thursday for a pharmacist accused of killing a Pacific Beach man who was shot to death in front of an Ocean Beach condominium on June 22.
\nThomas Francis Burke IV, 32, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jess Matthew Robles, 35, whose family members were in the courtroom audience. They declined to comment other than to say the prosecutor was speaking for them.
\nDeputy District Attorney Kyle Sutterley initially asked for no bail, but when San Diego Superior Court Judge Fred Maguire suggested he specify an amount, Sutterley asked for $10 million. Sutterley said Burke “has significant family resources” and investigators found gold bars in his safe.
\n“It was an unprovoked attack. He\u2019s a danger to our community,” said Sutterley.
\nA representative of a state pharmacist board asked the judge to temporarily cease Burke\u2019s practice, which Maguire granted. His attorney, Tom Warwick, opposed the temporary ban and said he works at a Scripps hospital, without specifying which one.
\nAttorney Tom Warwick said the $10 million bail figure was too high, saying he had never heard of such a high bail amount before. Warwick suggested bail at $250,000.
\nWarwick told the judge, Burke was at the Ocean Beach residence when he heard loud banging on the door. He said Robles had threatened Burke before, and he grabbed a firearm before he opened the door.
\n“My client is defending himself in his home. The shots fired were out of fear for his safety,” said Warwick.
\nWarwick said Robles had dated Burke\u2019s female roommate and he had threatened Burke before. Burke\u2019s mother, from New Jersey, was in the audience with several other relatives. Warwick said Burke had previously worked as a lifeguard in New Jersey for 13 years.
\nSan Diego Police said Burke and Robles were acquaintances and he was shot at 11:09 p.m. in the 4100 block of Voltaire Street. Burke left the condominium afterwards and talked with a fellow pharmacist, said Warwick.
\nWarwick said Burke contacted police and arranged for his surrender later. Burke was arrested at 7:40 a.m. June 23 downtown at 16th and F Street. A preliminary hearing was set for Aug. 11, and a status conference was set for July 22.
\nPolice initially called a Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) to the scene after it was thought Burke was still inside the condominium. Burke remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $10 million bail.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bail was set at $10 million Thursday for a pharmacist accused of killing a Pacific Beach man who was shot to death in front of an Ocean Beach condominium on June 22. Thomas Francis Burke IV, 32, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jess Matthew Robles, 35, whose family members were in the courtroom […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"$10 million bail set for accused in Ocean Beach killing","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duplicate","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}