Jon David Guerrero, 39, made his first court appearance Tuesday after being charged with killing three homeless men and injuring two others and the prosecutor announced the death penalty may be sought if he’s convicted.
Guerrero’s attorney Dan Tandon, asked the arraignment be delayed until Aug. 2, and San Diego Superior Court Judge Fred Maguire granted it. Guerrero remains in jail without bail.
Guerrero was arrested Friday by San Diego Police only an hour after the attack on a fifth homeless man occurred in Golden Hill by a man on a bicycle. Guerrero lived in downtown San Diego.
Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey filed special circumstance charges that allege Guerrero committed multiple murders. She said the DA’s office has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty or a life term in prison without parole if he’s convicted.
Guerrero was arrested after a police sketch was widely released that was based on a clerk’s observation of a man in a green hat buying a gas can from a service station. Surveillance camera footage of the man in the store was aired on local television newscasts.
Court records show Guerrero was convicted of robbery of a homeless woman, 54, when he knocked her down twice and stole her bicycle in April, 2009. He spent a year in jail on terms of three year’s probation, but when he faced a probation revocation hearing, a judge found him mentally incompetent.
A 2009 court document said Guerrero heard “good and bad voices” and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He improved with medication.
Guerrero was sent to a state mental hospital for approximately seven months and was later deemed to be mentally competent. He was placed in a residential treatment program and completed a shoplifting deterrence program in 2013, records say.
On July 7, Anthony Alexander Padgett, 36, of Chula Vista, was arrested as the prime suspect, but authorities released him July 11 saying they could not connect him to any of the crimes. Padgett was arrested in part because he was convicted of mayhem in 2010 upon another homeless man and was sentenced to four years in prison.
The first victim was Angelo De Nardo, 53, who was killed before his body was set on fire underneath an Interstate 5 bridge near Mission Bay on July 3. The second victim, 61, was found in the Midway District, and he survived.
The third victim, Shawn Mitchell Longley, 41, was found dead near tennis courts at Robb Field in Ocean Beach on July 4. Dionicio Vahidy, 23, was found critically injured July 6 downtown, and he died on Sunday in a hospital.
Attorneys said they couldn’t talk about the facts of the case since Guerrero was not arraigned and a motive remains unknown.