Killer of El Cajon Reporter Is Convicted

David Allan Weeding was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of an East County newspaper reporter who came home for lunch to find his wife being attacked by an intruder with a knife.

Weeding, 40, an auto radiator repairman from Santee, showed no emotion as a San Diego Superior Court jury returned its verdict of murder in the May 20, 1988, death of Steve Petix, 31, a reporter for the Daily Californian.

The jury, which deliberated less than a day, also convicted Weeding of trying to rape Petix’s wife, Vickie, and of burglary. In winning a conviction on the attempted-rape charge, prosecutors proved the murder was committed with “special circumstances,” meaning Weeding could face the death penalty.

Judge Wayne L. Peterson told jurors to return to court Wednesday to begin hearing the sentencing phase of the case. The judge ordered Weeding held in San Diego County Jail without bail.

Vickie Petix cried as the verdict was announced, but left the courtroom immediately afterward without answering reporters’ questions. Steve Petix’s brother, Mark, 34, of Temecula, a reporter for a Riverside newspaper, said the jury did “the right thing.”

“I’m relieved, and as happy as I could be under the circumstances,” Petix said. “It’s more than a relief to know the person who did this will never be able to do this to anybody else, ever again.”

Weeding’s brother, Larry, 37, of El Cajon, said the verdict was hard to take. “I feel my brother is innocent and he got railroaded,” he said.

Defense attorney Robert Bourne had said in his closing argument Tuesday that Weeding’s younger brother, Hans, actually committed the crime.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Whelan said the verdict was overwhelmingly supported by the evidence. “Obviously, I’m happy,” he said. Whelan declined to reveal whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Petix was stabbed after arriving home for lunch to find a man struggling with his wife.

Vickie Petix had testified that a man in a blue uniform representing himself as a workman for the El Cajon apartment complex came to her door, saying he wanted to check for plumbing leaks.

She let the man in, but he put a knife to her throat, she testified. After all her clothing was removed, she said, her husband walked in.

The intruder “went after” Steve Petix while she ran, naked and screaming, to the apartment manager’s unit and called police, she said. Jurors heard a tape recording of Vickie Petix’s frantic phone call for help.

Petix was stabbed five times in the fight with the intruder, collapsed on the apartment floor and died without regaining consciousness.

El Cajon police arrested Weeding three days later in the parking lot of a Santee bar. Vickie Petix said at the trial that she was “positive” Weeding was the attacker.