No Charges Yet Filed in Traffic Shooting Death

Bail was set at $500,000, but no charges were filed Monday against Howard Barton Jr., arrested on suspicion of shooting Marco Anthony Sanchez to death after a traffic altercation.

At the arraignment, defense attorney Clyde Munsell presented the deed to a Pacific Beach property worth $1 million to cover bail. It was not clear who owned the property. Barton was released Monday night.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Chappell asked Municipal Judge William H. Woodward to continue the case to March 19 because the circumstances are “still under investigation.”

Barton, 46, waived his right to a speedy arraignment, and Woodward granted the continuation.

“The defense counsel and myself discussed the state of the case and felt that the police needed to continue their investigation before a decision (on charges) could be made,” Chappell said. “It was a mutual thing. The facts simply aren’t all in, and, until they are, we can’t make an intelligent decision.”

Barton wore a neck brace to the proceeding, but it is not known why. Barton’s attorney declined to speak to a reporter and did not return a telephone call. County Jail records indicate that Barton has received no medical attention since he was taken into custody Thursday.

Chappell later told reporters that Barton, a La Jolla resident, is not considered “a flight risk. And, given the facts as we know them in this case, he is not a general risk to the public.”

At the time of the incident, which began about 10 a.m. Thursday at Grand Avenue and Ingraham Street in Pacific Beach, police said that Sanchez exchanged words with Barton’s daughter, Andrea, during a traffic dispute.

After Sanchez parked his car in the 1000 block of Garnet Avenue, Andrea Barton went to her father’s real estate office in the 4900 block of Cass Avenue and told him about the altercation. The Bartons drove to Garnet Avenue, where the father argued with Sanchez. Barton reportedly shot Sanchez in his car after the 24-year-old man threatened him with a knife, police said.

Sanchez was shot once in the mid-back, on the right side, and the bullet traveled to his neck, where it was recovered, Chappell said. Barton had a concealed-weapon permit, Chappell added.

Present in the courtroom were Sanchez’s mother, sisters, in-laws and wife, Gloria Sanchez. Sitting on a bench in the courthouse hallway, Gloria Sanchez cried as she thought about her husband, whom she married in June.