A Crest man pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to first-degree murder of Bren Fisher, 64, who was beaten to death in his Flinn Springs home on Jan. 7, 2016.
Rory Patrick Fay, 32, will receive a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, said Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar. A special circumstance charge of murder during a residential burglary was dismissed.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein set sentencing for May 26. Fay remains in jail on $1 million bail.
A Crest man pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to first-degree murder of Bren Fisher, 64, who was beaten to death in his Flinn Springs home on Jan. 7, 2016.
Rory Patrick Fay, 32, will receive a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, said Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar. A special circumstance charge of murder during a residential burglary was dismissed.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein set sentencing for May 26. Fay remains in jail on $1 million bail.
Fisher was a friend of Fay’s family and he had known Fay for decades. He had been in the hospital for 2.5 months and was discharged about a week before he was killed.
Fay had told an ex-girlfriend he wanted to steal items from Fisher’s home. Fay was in possession of dueling pistol replicas, lighters, and other items from World War II which belonged to Fisher.
Some days before the murder, Fay was kicked out of his home in Flinn Springs due to his use of heroin, according to a detective. He went to live in Crest with someone in a mobile home on La Cresta Heights Road. Fay was arrested there two days after the murder.
Fay told detectives he went to Fisher’s home to see if he could live there, said Patterson. He admitted to beating Fisher with a bowling pin, and to cutting the water line in his home to cover up evidence. Fisher’s body was found on the floor in his home at 9974 Bridon Road.
Fay had previously worked for a water restoration company that repairs damage to homes due to flooding. The cause of death was blunt force trauma with multiple skull fractures.
Also dismissed was a charge of possession of marijuana in jail that was a separate case.
Trial set for man charged with Lakeside killing
A trial date of July 11 was set for Lance Alyn Benson, who is charged with killing Trammel Joseph Rizzuti, who was stabbed to death on April 24, 2016 on a Lakeside sidewalk.
Benson, 30, pleaded not guilty Feb. 28 when he appeared before El Cajon Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson, who set the trial date.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Carberry said Benson and Rizzuti went out drinking at a bar in El Cajon the night of the stabbing. Benson, of Lakeside, and Rizzuti, 35, of El Cajon, were acquaintances and had some type of conflict that night.
Rizzuti was stabbed eight times and was found by a newspaper carrier at 4:30 a.m. in the 10400 block of Aquilla Drive in Lakeside. Benson lived across the street from where the victim died.
Cookson heard from 10 witnesses at the preliminary hearing on Feb. 15 and ordered Benson to stand trial for murder. Additionally, she ordered Benson to stand trial for attempted murder of a jail inmate who was choked, three counts of felony assault of sheriff’s deputies, and possession of homemade shank with razors.
Benson remains in jail on $2 million bail.
Man who injured El Cajon Police Officer sentenced
Kevyn Andrew Cummings, 28, was sentenced Feb. 27 to 180 days in jail and ordered to complete drug treatment for injuring an El Cajon Police officer with his car.
Cummings must complete a 1-year inpatient drug treatment program on terms of three years probation ordered by Judge Daniel Goldstein.
If a bed opens up in the program, Cummings will be allowed to leave jail after he has served 100 days, said Deputy District Attorney Jihan Yacoub. He pleaded guilty to resisting an executive officer and possession of heroin for sale in the Dec. 22, 2016 incident in the 100 block of North Second Street.
The officer responded to an 8:06 a.m. call about a man sleeping behind the wheel of his vehicle in a parking lot. When he woke up, Cummings started the car and quickly backed out, hitting the officer with the open door.
Cummings also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a drug and resisting another officer in a Feb., 2016 incident. He was a fugitive at the time on Dec. 22.
Charges of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, transportation of heroin, and failure to appear in court were dismissed when he pleaded guilty to the other charges.
