After only two hours of deliberations, a jury convicted a woman May 25 of first-degree murder in the slaying of Christalina Leona Indish on the Campo Indian Reservation in 2016.
Indish, 35, was fatally stabbed in her own residence on Feb. 27, 2016, by Cindy Marie Ceballos, 31.
Ceballos faces a prison term of 26 years to life, said Deputy District Attorney Will Watkins. Ceballos and three co-defendants also lived on the Campo reservation.
After only two hours of deliberations, a jury convicted a woman May 25 of first-degree murder in the slaying of Christalina Leona Indish on the Campo Indian Reservation in 2016.
Indish, 35, was fatally stabbed in her own residence on Feb. 27, 2016, by Cindy Marie Ceballos, 31.
Ceballos faces a prison term of 26 years to life, said Deputy District Attorney Will Watkins. Ceballos and three co-defendants also lived on the Campo reservation.
Sentencing was set for July 27 by El Cajon Superior Court Judge Lantz Lewis. Cindy Ceballos remains in jail without bail.
Watkins told the seven woman, five man jury Ceballos stabbed Indish five times in the chest including once in the heart and twice in the neck. He said she displayed no remorse and went to someone’s home afterwards to change clothes, shower, and smoke marijuana.
“The best evidence of intent is what was she trying to do,” argued Watkins. “She repeatedly jammed that knife into Cindy’s chest.”
Ceballos’s attorney, Wil Sharp, argued Darrell Norman Wohlford, 39, was responsible because “he set these events in motion and it ended tragically.”
Sharp said Wohlford, who is nicknamed Grasshopper, provoked both women and “puts together fights between women.” He read some of the text messages he sent to both women. Wohlford had previously dated Indish.
“He picked his victim. Though he didn’t do the act, he’s responsible,” argued Sharp. “Things escalated out of control.”
“This case is all about heat of passion. The stabbing occurred during a fight or quarrel,” said Sharp, who suggested a manslaughter verdict. In rebuttal, Watkins told the jury Wohlford “is not capable of mind control” over people.
Also testifying were Ceballo’s neice, Natalie Ceballos, 35, and Casandra Alto, 26, as part of the plea agreement with the DA’s office. They pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact on Feb. 24.
The sentencing of Natalie Ceballos and Alto was moved up to Friday, and both women were sentenced to two years in jail.
Because both women’s jail credits with good conduct exceeded two years, they were both released May 26 from jail. Lewis ordered them to each pay $460 in restitution.
Wohlford pleaded guilty April 18 to committing an armed burglary at Indish’s residence which led to her death and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Wohlford was fined $10,000, and he will have to serve 85% of the 17-year sentence.
Man convicted in Spring Valley murder
Sean Robert Kennedy, 46, was sentenced May 23 to four years in state prison for killing Billy Wayne Taylor, 54, in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store in Spring Valley.
Kennedy, of Spring Valley, was ordered to pay $2,641.12 to the victims compensation board for funeral and burial expenses.
Sheriff’s deputies were called June 21, 2016, to a 9:35 p.m. fight in the convenience store parking lot at 2840 Bancroft Drive. Taylor was unresponsive and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared brain dead two days later.
The deputy medical examiner said Taylor suffered blunt force trauma. Both Kennedy and Taylor knew each other and deputies said he continued to assault Taylor while on the ground.
Kennedy fled, but was arrested at a local park by detectives from the Fugitive Task Force. He was given credit for spending nearly a year in jail.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in April. A murder charge was dismissed at his preliminary hearing March 9 by a judge who ordered him to stand trial on a voluntary manslaughter charge.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Lamborn set a concurrent 3-year term for Kennedy for assaulting another man in Spring Valley in 2015 with whom he had lived.
Kennedy had been placed on three years of probation and given 32 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to felony assault in Feb., 2015. His probation was revoked because of the new case, but he won’t serve any more time.
