Man Convicted of Murder of Off-Duty Sheriff’s Cadet

Jesse Lee Stuart, one of three men charged in the January slaying of an off-duty San Diego County Sheriff’s Department trainee, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.

Stuart, 20, was also convicted of three robberies, including one involving trainee Kelly Bazer, 28, of El Cajon, whose car keys were taken from her after she was shot in the back.

Sentencing was set for Sept. 11 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Barbara Gamer, who ordered Stuart held without bail in County Jail.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Keith Burt said Stuart faces a minimum sentence of 27 years in prison. He could receive consecutive sentences for the robbery counts, involving robbery from the manager and a customer of a Safeway store before Bazer, who was off duty, was shot.

“I’m happy with the verdict they returned,” said Bazer’s father, Thomas Hotchkiss of El Cajon.

“I’m pleased. The whole case seemed to be run professionally,” Hotchkiss said. “It’s not going to bring my daughter back. The main thing I wanted was he not be able to get out and do it again.”

Hotchkiss said defense attorney Milly Durovic’s version of the incident “wasn’t even plausible.”

Durovic suggested the gunman might have been co-defendant Prentice Byrd, 19, who was believed to have been separated from Stuart and a third man, Ronnie Davis Williams, 20, when Bazer was shot. Byrd is suspected of being the getaway car driver, who missed picking up the two Safeway store robbers.

Durovic said Stuart was actually the getaway car driver and was only there to pick up his two friends. She urged an acquittal on all counts.

Byrd and Williams face an Aug. 18 trial.

The prosecutor estimated that Stuart would have to serve 17 years before getting his first parole hearing.

Bazer was in cadet training and was the first sheriff’s deputy killed here in 100 years. She was the mother of two children.