Testimony began on Nov. 4 in the preliminary hearing of a man suspected of killing three homeless men and one woman in Ocean Beach, Mission Bay, and elsewhere in 2016. This hearing for Jon David Guerrero, now 42, had been postponed for years because Guerrero was in a state mental hospital after a judge found him mentally competent. Another judge found him competent in May.
The hearing before San Diego Superior Court Judge Kenneth So may last two weeks and So will decide if he should go to trial on some or all of the charges.
Juan Cisneros, a District Attorney investigator, testified about the death of Shawn Longley, 41, who was found dead July 4, 2016, near the Robb Athletic Field tennis courts in Ocean Beach.
Photos of the scene showed Longley partially in a sleeping bag on a bloody sidewalk. Cisneros said there were “no signs of life” after a railroad spike was driven into his head.
“It appeared the assault occurred while the victim was sleeping,” said Cisneros.
Cisneros said the first victim, Angelo DeNardo, 53, was found under the Interstate 5 bridge near Mission Bay on July 3, 2016. Railroad spikes had impaled both his head and chest, he said, and the body had been set on fire.
The third victim, Dionicio Vahidy, 23, died four days after he was mortally wounded downtown. Guerrero is also charged with killing Molly Simons, 83, in North Park, on July 13, 2016.
Simon’s death broke the pattern of attacks on homeless men as she was struck with an object while she was walking around 5 a.m. to a bus stop. She was going to a local YMCA where she volunteered.
Cisneros said several victims’ identification was found in Guerrero’s wallet when he was arrested.
Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey said in court that Manuel Mason, a 61-year-old man who survived the attacks but was blinded by a railroad spike, died in July 2019.
Mason was attacked in the Midway District area near Greenwood Street. One of the charges against Guerrero is attempted murder of Mason. Harvey declined to say if Mason died as a result of his injuries in the attack.
Two other victims who survived their attacks also testified Monday.
So is the same judge who found Guerrero mentally competent. Guerrero has pleaded not guilty.
