Spring Valley
The first witness Tuesday in the preliminary hearing for three men charged with the fatal shooting of a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department trainee identified Jesse Stuart as one of the men he saw come out of a Spring Valley grocery store after a robbery.
Stuart, 19, and two other Southeast San Diego men, Ronnie Williams, 20, and Prentice Byrd, 19, are facing murder, robbery and auto theft charges stemming from the events of Jan. 13 that led to the killing of Kelly A. Bazer, 28, of El Cajon.
Prosecutors contend that Stuart and one of the other defendants robbed the Safeway store at Sweetwater and Jamacha roads, but then discovered that their getaway car, allegedly driven by the third defendant, wasn’t there.
After allegedly unsuccessfully trying to take the car of a man parked in front of the store, the pair then ran south to Safford and St. George streets, where they encountered the apparently unarmed Bazer. She had started her training at the sheriff’s academy just 10 days earlier.
The first of several dozen witnesses expected to testify in the preliminary hearing, Ronald Rabe, 28, told Municipal Court Judge Robert Stahl Jr. that he was just outside the supermarket’s front door when he noticed two armed men about to walk out.
Rabe said he watched them for about five minutes as they left the store, tried to take the first car, then ran across the parking lot.
“They were carrying money, cradling it, and they had guns,” he said.
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