Spring Valley

Three Southeast San Diego men were ordered Monday to stand trial in the Jan. 13 slaying of Kelly Bazer, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department trainee.

Municipal Court Judge Robert Stahl scheduled an April 14 arraignment in Superior Court for Jesse Stuart, 19; Ronnie Williams, 20, and Prentice Byrd, 19. Each is being held in County Jail on $250,000 bail. They will face charges of murder, robbery and auto theft.

Bazer, 28, of El Cajon, had started training at the sheriff’s academy 10 days before she was killed by two men apparently fleeing from a holdup of a Spring Valley supermarket.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Keith Burt said he will have to review the evidence and testimony before deciding whether to file a special circumstance allegation against Stuart. The prosecution must prove intent to kill under such an allegation. If convicted under that charge, Stuart would face either the death sentence or life in prison with no chance for parole.

One witness, a police informant, testified that he overheard Stuart tell another inmate that he shot Bazer and would do so again if given the chance. But the Imperial Beach man to whom Stuart allegedly made the comment denied Monday being in the same room with the informant at the time and failed to identify Stuart or either of the other defendants.

Luis Ernesto Trillo, 26, said he couldn’t have come in contact with Stuart because he was housed in a separate unit of the jail since he is on medication for epilepsy.

Burt agreed that the alleged admission by Stuart is critical to the prosecution’s special circumstance allegation and said the question of whether the men were in the same jail holding room at the same time “is something we’re going to have to look at.”

During the five-day preliminary hearing, other witnesses testified that two men held up the Safeway at 933 Sweetwater Rd. Witnesses said the men ran into the residential area behind the shopping center, where they encountered Bazer.