Jacumba

A Texas man pleaded guilty Monday to mail fraud in a scheme in which others arranged for six heavily insured horses to plunge to their deaths off a cliff in a staged accident off Interstate 8 near Jacumba.

David (Rocky) Beene, 48, of Junction, Tex., agreed with a prosecutor’s description of his role in the case. Beene had been promised $2,500 from the insurance money for helping others stage the accident.

The incident took place May 16, 1983, near the Inkopah exit on Interstate 8, where the horses died after a 200-foot fall from a cliff in a trailer.

Beene is the fourth person to plead guilty since the March, 1988, indictment of six persons.

Beene’s son, Brent Beene, 25, of Vandevort, Ark., was also indicted, but on Monday entered into a “deferred prosecution” agreement with the government in which his charges will be held in abeyance for two years. According to Assistant U. S. Atty. Bill Hayes, the charges will be dismissed against Brent Beene on May 13, 1991, if he has no new cases lodged against him.

The son admitted in a court document to being a “lookout” during the incident.

David Beene will be sentenced July 17 and could receive five years in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine from U. S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving.

The other three members of the conspiracy will all be sentenced June 5. They are the driver, Leonard Autterson, 48, of Lakeside; horse trader Bobby Griffin, 46, of Lufkin, Tex., and the owner of the dead horses, Raymond Paul, 53, of Keyes, Calif.

Autterson has already served 10 months in jail on a one-year term on a separate conviction of animal cruelty that was prosecuted in state court.

The sixth defendant, Martin Bailey, 43, of Santee had all charges against him dismissed.

The horses were insured for a total of $83,000.