A man will be sentenced Oct. 7 after pleading guilty to adulteration of beverage products after purchasing beer at stores in El Cajon and elsewhere and then returning them with cleaning solutions.
The bizarre scheme of Eduardo Dejesus Cossio III, 32, involved him purchasing beer at the Target store at 2911 Jamacha Road and Walmart stores in Chula Vista and elsewhere and then returning bottles filled with cleaning solution.
A man will be sentenced Oct. 7 after pleading guilty to adulteration of beverage products after purchasing beer at stores in El Cajon and elsewhere and then returning them with cleaning solutions.
The bizarre scheme of Eduardo Dejesus Cossio III, 32, involved him purchasing beer at the Target store at 2911 Jamacha Road and Walmart stores in Chula Vista and elsewhere and then returning bottles filled with cleaning solution.
He would apparently drink the beer and place cleaning solutions and soap in the bottles and return them for refunds. He would glue the caps back on the bottles.
Court records say other customers bought the tainted beer and then discover the beer had been tampered with. They returned it to the store. Target stores looked at their security tapes and records and discovered it was Cossio repeatedly returning beer to get refunds in 2014 and 2015.
Target employees identified Cossio as he wore a distinctive pair of earrings, beard, and hairstyle in store security tapes.
He filled out the refund records with his correct name, date of birth, and driver’s license number.
San Diego Police officers discovered glue sticks, glue guns, cleaning solutions, and dye bottles at his home.
Charges involving 29 similar counts were dismissed after he pleaded guilty to three counts. He remains free on $10,000 bond. Cossio faces a sentence of one year in jail in San Diego Superior Court and has agreed to pay restitution. The maximum sentence is four years and four months in prison.
Arsonist sentenced in Lakeside brush fires
An arsonist who set five brush fires in Lakeside and elsewhere was sentenced Sept. 30 to nine years and four months in state prison.
Jonathan Benjamin Cohen, 45, a Poway mechanic, was given credit for 450 days spent in jail by El Cajon Superior Court Judge Evan Kirvin.
Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar asked for a maximum sentence of 11 years and four months while defense attorney David Thompson sought a term of five years and four months.
Cohen said nothing during the sentencing and did not testify at his trial. A jury convicted him of all counts in Aug. Aguilar argued that Cohen had “an abnormal interest in fire.”
Cohen was linked to the fires because of video and still camera footage that recorded his cars’ license plates passing the area of where the fires were set. There was no physical evidence that tied him to the fires.
The fires occurred in 2014 and 2015 after Cohen gambled at the Barona Resort & Casino and another casino in Valley Center, said Aguilar. He was convicted of setting one fire off state Route 67 in Lakeside in June 2015, and others were in more remote locations along Lake Wohlford Road.
Evidence of other fires on Wildcat Canyon Road in Lakeside in 2006 and elsewhere was admitted to show a pattern. CalFire agents logged 3,024 investigative hours from 2006-2015 that included security camera footage.
El Cajon man to stand trial for murder and child endangerment
An El Cajon man was ordered Sept. 27 to stand trial for murder and child endangerment in the shooting death of his wife.
A Nov. 14 trial date was set for Hauati Faanunu, 42, who pleaded not guilty to the Jan. 1 death of his wife, Mary Faanunu, 34, who was shot in the head.
Hauati Faanunu called 911 at 12:34 a.m. and said he had shot his wife. Sheriff’s deputies responded and found the body in the home in the 8200 block of Melrose Lane. Hauati Faanunu turned himself into El Cajon Police.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson ordered him to stand trial that includes five counts of misdemeanor child endangerment. Faanunu remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $2 million bail.
