San Diego

Billy Ray Waldon, who is accused of killing three San Diegans during a December crime spree, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for those slayings plus 19 other charges.

After a three-week preliminary hearing, Municipal Court Judge William Mudd bound Waldon, 34, over to Superior Court for trial on charges that include four “special circumstances allegations” that could result in the death sentence if he is convicted.

Waldon, who police said apparently tried to escape from jail Sunday night, is accused of killing Dawn Ellerman, 43, and her 13-year-old daughter, Erin, in their Del Mar Heights home on Dec. 7, and then setting the house on fire to conceal the crime.

Waldon also is accused of killing Charles Gordon Wells, a 59-year-old retired carpenter, while fleeing from police Dec. 20 after allegedly stealing a woman’s purse and car. While trying to evade police, prosecutors say, Waldon fatally shot Wells and wounded another man, John Copeland, during a confrontation in the garage behind Wells’ University Heights home.

In addition to the murder charges, Waldon faces multiple counts of rape, robbery, receiving stolen property, arson, auto theft and burglary. Waldon also is wanted by police in Tulsa, Okla., in connection with a killing there.

The special circumstances allegations charge that Waldon killed multiple victims and committed murder to escape arrest, during a burglary and while fleeing from a robbery.

Waldon escaped a nationwide manhunt in December but was arrested in San Diego under another name on an auto theft charge in June. A detective later recognized Waldon, who had been placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, in County Jail before he was about to be released. Waldon, who is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 20, is being held in County Jail without bail.

Meanwhile, police revealed Wednesday that Waldon apparently tried to escape Sunday night by carving into his cell’s wall with a piece of pipe and a bolt.

About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, a sheriff’s deputy, during a routine check, heard pounding noises coming from Waldon’s single cell, and found him carving into the wall, according to Sgt. D.P. Shackley of the jail investigations unit. Using metal pieces from a bed and stool in his cell as tools, Waldon had carved about an inch deep into the five-foot-thick wall before he was discovered, police said.