Railroad spikes were plunged into the bodies of three homeless men who were killed in a series of attacks, a prosecutor told a judge on Tuesday.
\nDeputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey told San Diego Superior Court Judge Fred Maguire the actions by Jon David Guerrero, 39, involved “extreme planning in each of the occasions in which the victims were sleeping.”
\nHarvey said a railroad spike was plunged into the head and chest of Angelo DeNardo, 53, who was attacked where he was sleeping under the Interstate 5 Bridge near Mission Bay on July 3. An autopsy determined he died before his body was set on fire.
\nHarvey said railroad spikes were used in the deaths of Shawn Longley, 41, in Ocean Beach on July 4, and Dionicio Vahidy, 23, who was found downtown July 6 and died in a hospital on July 10.
\nThe prosecutor told a judge one surviving victim had a railroad spike cut into his sinus cavity and he was left blind in the Midway District. The fifth victim in Golden Hill was also attacked with a railroad spike. She said police found railroad spikes and a mallet in Guerrero\u2019s downtown apartment, along with identification from two victims.
\n“Each of them was caught unaware \u2014 each was vulnerable,” said Harvey. “With such extensive planning, sophistication, I feel he does understand the (court) proceedings.”
\nHarvey said these actions are not “from a disorganized mind,” adding “he\u2019s articulate, intelligent.”
\nHarvey opposed the request by Guerrero\u2019s attorney, Dan Tandon, to suspend criminal proceedings, and asked for the court to appoint psychiatrists to evaluate Guerrero without suspending proceedings.
\n“I\u2019m harboring a doubt Mr. Guerrero is competent to stand trial,” said Tandon. “My client is severely mentally ill. He has an extensive mental health history,” said Tandon.
\nMaguire said he had suspended criminal proceedings before for Guerrero in a robbery case and was obligated to suspend proceedings again, based on his attorney\u2019s belief he could not be arraigned. Psychiatrists will examine Guerrero in jail on Sept. 22 and report their findings to another judge on Oct. 7. If a judge finds he is mentally incompetent, he will be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment until he regains his ability to understand court proceedings.
\nMeanwhile, a memorial service for DeNardo will be held Sunday, Aug. 7 at 12:45 p.m. at the Metropolitan Community Church where he attended for two years. The services will also be a memorial for the two other slain victims, Shawn Longley, and Dionicio Vahidy.
\nMCC is located at 2633 Denver Street. Everyone is invited whether they knew any of the victims or not, said senior pastor Dan Koeshall.
\n“My heart is grieved over the senseless murders of these homeless individuals,” said Koeshall in a statement. “I believe each person is a unique reflection of God\u2019s love and presence in our midst. We want to remember and honor these lives, these victims of brutality,” said Koeshall.
\n“I know we can\u2019t fix the problem by ourselves; however, as we show compassion, each doing our part by being loving, respectful, noticing them(they aren\u2019t invisible), supporting organizations who are trained and equipped to work with this marginalized population, it will make a difference\u2014one life at a time,” said Koeshall. Special circumstance charges alleging Guerrero committed multiple murders have been filed and the DA\u2019s office is considering seeking the death penalty, though no decision has been made yet.
\nGuerrero pleaded guilty in 2010 to committing a robbery from a homeless woman whom he pushed down twice and stole her bicycle. He was sentenced to one year in jail, but he violated terms of probation.
\nHe was found mentally incompetent and sent to a mental hospital for six months in 2011. Maguire found he had regained his mental competency, and Guerrero was then placed in a residential treatment program where he spent several years. He satisfied conditions of probation which ended in 2014, according to court records.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Railroad spikes were plunged into the bodies of three homeless men who were killed in a series of attacks, a prosecutor told a judge on Tuesday. Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey told San Diego Superior Court Judge Fred Maguire the actions by Jon David Guerrero, 39, involved “extreme planning in each of the occasions in […]<\/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":"Railroad spikes used to kill homeless","_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-298674","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\/298674","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=298674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}