Spring Valley

A witness to the fatal shooting of San Diego County Sheriff’s Department trainee Kelly Bazer testified Wednesday that her two attackers were just a few feet behind her when one of them shot her in the back.

But Michael Foxhaven of Spring Valley told Municipal Court Judge Robert Stahl that he was too far away to see either man’s face.

Foxhaven’s testimony came on the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether three Southeast San Diego men--Jesse Stuart, 19; Ronnie Williams, 20, and Prentice Byrd, 19--will stand trial for robbery, auto theft and murder.

Foxhaven said he was in the backyard of his St. George Street home on Jan. 13 when he heard Bazer’s car drive up, the radio playing loudly. He said he looked through his chain-link fence into the street and saw two men chasing Bazer, who apparently had just gotten out of her Ford Mustang.

“One guy came from behind the car and chased her into the street, and the other guy came from the front of the car and cut her off,” Foxhaven said. “She had to come straight across the street toward my house. Then I saw one of them shoot her in the back. They couldn’t have been more than four or five feet from her.”

Foxhaven said he never saw a gun, but heard the shot and saw a flash.

“She got up onto the sidewalk and fell down,” Foxhaven said.

Foxhaven said he ran through his house, calling to his wife to call police, and started out his front yard to help the fallen Bazer when he realized that her assailants still were in the car and might shoot at him. He retreated into his garage until he heard the car leave a few seconds later, then ran to put a blanket over Bazer until paramedics arrived. Bazer’s brother-in-law, whom she frequently visited, lives across the street from Foxhaven.

The three defendants are being held without bail.