New Charge Increases Bail of Man Accused in 3 Deaths at Drug Lab

A judge Thursday increased the bail of a Vista man charged in the deaths of three people at an illicit Van Nuys drug laboratory, in light of the man’s arrest last month on a drug charge in San Diego County.

The bail for Russell Blackwood, 23, of Vista, in northern San Diego County, was increased from $150,000 to $500,000 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David A. Horowitz. Blackwood was charged with three counts of second-degree murder last year.

He was arrested Sept. 18 in Oceanside while free on bail in the Los Angeles County case. He pleaded not guilty to possession of methamphetamine in San Diego County.

Blackwood’s parents posted $150,000 bail in the Los Angeles County case in the form of about $300,000 in property, including their home, a relative’s home and a used-car lot belonging to the employer of Blackwood’s father, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carole A. Chizever said.

If bail is posted in the form of property, it must be worth twice the amount set by the court, Chizever said.

Blackwood did not appear in court Thursday. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Larry H. Farinholt, said Blackwood was hospitalized in Escondido after an automobile accident Wednesday.

Horowitz ordered Blackwood to appear in court Nov. 13.

“He’s laughing at the system,” Chizever said of Blackwood.

Besides the murder charges, Blackwood is accused in Los Angeles County of manufacturing methamphetamine, also known as “speed,” and conspiring to manufacture the drug.

The Los Angeles County charges stem from the October, 1986, deaths of three people who were manufacturing methamphetamine in a duplex on Densmore Avenue in Van Nuys, authorities said.

Los Angeles police said Blackwood supplied the three with some of the chemicals needed to produce the drug. The chemicals overheated and emitted lethal fumes, police said.

Blackwood expected to receive a third of the profits from the eventual sale of the methamphetamine, investigators said.

Oceanside police arrested Blackwood and another man outside a motel, where Blackwood had been staying, after finding less than half an ounce of methamphetamine in Blackwood’s car, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney’s office said.

A San Diego County judge issued a warrant for Blackwood’s arrest after he failed to appear for a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Vista.

Blackwood is being prosecuted in Los Angeles County under a state law that permits second-degree-murder charges if a death occurs during the commission of an “inherently dangerous” felony.

Higher courts have not ruled on whether the crime of making methamphetamine, which police experts say involves the use of potentially toxic and explosive chemicals, should be considered inherently dangerous under state law, Chizever said.

Farinholt argued that Blackwood, who has pleaded not guilty to the Los Angeles County charges also, was not directly involved in making the drug and merely supplied chemicals misused by the three victims.

“They killed themselves,” Farinholt said.

The victims were identified as David Michael Smith, 20, of Vista; his brother, Christopher Richard Smith, 27, of Van Nuys and Lisa Ann Cross, 20, of Van Nuys.

Also charged in the methamphetamine lab deaths is Jeffrey Shankel, 27, of Vista. Shankel, still at large, also faces second-degree-murder and methamphetamine charges. Shankel helped deliver the chemicals to Van Nuys, authorities said.

In a related matter, John Miner, 18, of San Diego was sentenced in Superior Court on Thursday to a year in jail for his role in supplying some of the chemicals used at the methamphetamine lab. At Blackwood’s behest, Miner bought the chemicals with money from David Smith and made them available for Shankel to pick up, Chizever said.

Miner, who had been charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and manufacturing methamphetamine after a plea bargain last month. Miner might be called to testify in the Blackwood case, Chizever said.