Death Penalty Asked in Killing of Reporter

The San Diego County district attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty for the man accused in the killing of a newspaper reporter and the attempted rape of his wife in May.

“If convicted of murder and the jury finds special circumstances,” David Allan Weeding “will face the death penalty or life in prison without parole,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Whelan said Wednesday after Weeding was arraigned in El Cajon Superior Court on charges of murder, attempted rape and residential burglary while armed with a knife.

Weeding, 39, is scheduled to go to trial March 1 in the stabbing of Steve Petix, an education writer and special projects coordinator at the Californian--an East County newspaper--and with the attempted rape of Petix’s wife, Vickie.

Petix was stabbed after arriving at the couple’s second-floor apartment in El Cajon for lunch to find a man struggling with his wife. She escaped and called police, and Petix collapsed on the floor and died without regaining consciousness. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Increased Penalties

Weeding, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, is being held at County Jail downtown in lieu of $1 million bail. He was ordered held for arraignment after an Aug. 4 preliminary hearing in El Cajon Municipal Court, in which Vickie Petix identified him as the man who attempted to rape her and stabbed her husband to death.

“We filed special circumstances because of the facts of the offense and (Weeding’s) background,” Whelan said. “He has two prior convictions of rape, although he says that he is not the individual who was convicted,” Whelan added.

Deborah Carson, Weeding’s court-appointed attorney, refused comment.

Weeding was arrested by El Cajon police in the parking lot of a Santee bar three days after the killing.

Sgt. Ed Forbes of the El Cajon Police Department said papers left at the scene of the slaying provided the first clues. Police found a clipboard and white pad that Vickie Petix said the assailant was carrying when he went to her apartment and identified himself as a maintenance worker there to check on reports of structural leaks in the building.

Whelan said he expects the defense to file for a change of venue to move the trial out of El Cajon, but he wants Weeding tried there. “They’ll try to file change of venue, and I’ll oppose it,” he said. “The trial is set for El Cajon and hopefully it will stay.”