Vista
A North County Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered a Vista woman charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her brother to stand trial on the charge Nov. 3.
Judge Zalmon Scherer set the trial date for Evanna Marie Cavanaugh after efforts by her attorney, Charles Goldberg, and the district attorney’s office to strike a plea bargain failed.
Cavanaugh, a 47-year-old mother of four, is charged with shooting her brother, Charles Phegley, five times in the head at their mother’s Leucadia home in November. An investigation by sheriff’s homicide detectives shows that Cavanaugh fired the final shot at her moving brother while reporting the shooting to a dispatcher on the 911 emergency telephone line.
Prosecutors argue that Cavanaugh killed her brother to end their long-running disagreement over income from rental property they owned. Goldberg, however, argues that his client acted in self-defense.
Cavanaugh is a former Sunday school teacher and charter member of the Vista Crime Prevention Commission.
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