An Oct. 17 preliminary hearing has been set for Gustavo Flores, 38, who is accused of killing a man who banged on a front door of a Lemon Grove home before he died.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the June 21 incident in which Juan Martinez, 47, of Lemon Grove, was found lying on the ground and unresponsive in the 7600 block of Lemon Avenue.
Fire department personnel responded and tried to revive Martinez, but he was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m. before he could get to a hospital. People inside the home called 911.
An Oct. 17 preliminary hearing has been set for Gustavo Flores, 38, who is accused of killing a man who banged on a front door of a Lemon Grove home before he died.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the June 21 incident in which Juan Martinez, 47, of Lemon Grove, was found lying on the ground and unresponsive in the 7600 block of Lemon Avenue.
Fire department personnel responded and tried to revive Martinez, but he was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m. before he could get to a hospital. People inside the home called 911.
Flores is charged with murder and using a knife in an earlier confrontation with him. Flores surrendered to sheriff’s deputies in Lemon Grove on June 28.
An El Cajon Superior Court judge set bail at $2 million and Flores remains in jail. He has pleaded not guilty.
One of nation’s largest seizures of fentanyl leads to sentancing
A Lemon Grove man has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.
Jonathan “Rapido” Ibarra, 46, was the owner of “Johnny on the Spot” landscaping business which started in 2010 and had 130 customers in the area, according to court records.
Ibarra pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl, a powerful opioid, with intent to distribute. U.S. District Court Judge William Hayes fined him $20,000 on July 30.
A drug courier for Ibarra, Anna Baker, 31, of Lemon Grove, has been sentenced to 50 months in prison and fined $1,000.
Baker pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute and she surrendered to a federal prison in June. She taught horse riding lessons at an equestrian stable in Lemon Grove for children and disabled adults.
Baker’s attorney, James Pokorny, wrote in court documents that Baker “suffered an awful lapse of judgement when she agreed to act as (a) driver” for Ibarra.
Baker ran unsuccessfully for City Council in Lemon Grove in 2014. She will be released from a Victorville prison on Jan. 21, 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The third person charged with Ibarra and Baker was Hector Fernando Garcia, 46, of San Diego, who has been sentenced to 120 months in prison. Garcia pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said the combined seizure of 44.14 kilograms of fentanyl from Baker’s rented car and a Lemon Grove house represented one of the nation’s largest seizure of fentanyl.
The drug’s extreme potency is 50 times stronger than heroin, and that deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin and counterfeit pills with the drug are “epidemic in the United States,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
On Aug. 14, Nebraska became the first state to ever use fentanyl in a combination of drugs to execute a convicted killer. Carey Dean Moore, 60, had been on death row for decades for the murders of two taxi drivers that were committed when he was 21 years old, according to wire service reports.
Drunk driver determined mentally incompetent
A judge has determined that a drunk driver charged with murder in the death of a pregnant woman in East County is mentally incompetent to stand trial.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Margo Woods committed Andrew Dorian Milonis, 45, of Ramona, to a state psychiatric hospital for treatment. When Milonis regains his mental competency, he will be returned to El Cajon Superior Court for trial.
Milonis is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Jessica Foderingham, 29, and her unborn child, on May 14, 2017. She was eight months pregnant.
Milonis was driving a sports utility vehicle on San Vicente Road when he allegedly rear-ended the vehicle driving by Foderingham which then struck a tree. He is also charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Criminal proceedings are now suspended, and he is in jail without bail while awaiting transport to Patton State Hospital.
According to testimony in his preliminary hearing, patrons at a bar said Milonis talked about how he was “the chosen one” and alien abductions. The bartender quit serving him alcohol after noticing his behavior.
