San Diego
A hospitalized Southeast San Diego man has pleaded innocent in the 1985 drive-by killing of a teen-ager. Another man was originally charged in the slaying.
Bail for Edward McCray, 59, was set at $500,000 by Municipal Judge Patricia Cowett, who conducted the arraignment Friday at San Diego Physicians & Surgeons Hospital.
The defendant, who is listed in stable condition, was taken there for treatment of emphysema after five district attorney’s investigators arrested him Thursday at his residence.
Cowett also scheduled an Oct. 21 preliminary hearing for McCray, who is accused of murder in the Dec. 21, 1985, slaying of Robert Alan Smith, 17, of Southeast San Diego.
The youth was shot twice in the stomach while standing outside near his home, apparently because of a cocaine deal gone sour, Deputy Dist. Atty. William Collins said.
A Long Beach man, Dennis Thornton, was charged in connection with Smith’s slaying five weeks after it happened, but continued investigation prompted the district attorney’s office to drop the charges against him. Thornton now is serving a federal prison sentence for an unrelated narcotics conviction, Collins said.
The investigation was hampered by the reluctance of eyewitnesses to talk about the incident until recently, he said.
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