Youth, 17, Parents Held in Slaying of El Cajon Man, 54

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies have arrested a 17-year-old youth and his parents in connection with the shooting death of a 54-year-old El Cajon man Sept. 27.

The Granite Hills High School student, whose identity was not released because of his age, was arrested Saturday and booked into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of murder.

His parents, Thomas and Sharla Williams, of the 600 block of Silverbrook Drive in El Cajon, were arrested on charges of being accessories to a felony, but no details of their alleged involvement in the crime were released. Thomas Williams, 39, was booked into County Jail downtown. His wife, 38, was booked into the Las Colinas County Jail.

The arrests stem from the shooting death of 54-year-old Carlton Augustus Smith of El Cajon, whose body was found near the 11-mile marker on Japatul Road in Alpine on Sept. 27 by sheriff’s deputies answering a report of an abandoned bicycle.

A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said Sunday that Smith was shot several times in a disagreement over the payment of some money.

Acting on information supplied by witnesses, deputies identified a vehicle seen at the location of the shooting and later identified its driver, the spokeswoman said. While searching the youth’s home Saturday, they found a pistol and some ammunition and took his parents into custody.