San Diego

A Clairemont man accused of shooting his mother-in-law to death in the doughnut shop she managed was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in his retrial.

Randy Geering, 37, was found guilty after a San Diego Superior Court jury deliberated about 1 1/2 days.

Geering could be sentenced to a maximum of 27 years to life, said Deputy District Atty. Gregg McClain.

In the previous trial Nov. 15, jurors were deadlocked, 11 to 1, for conviction in the Jan. 29, 1989, slaying of Audrey Erbe, 59, in the Balboa Avenue doughnut shop. She had been shot in the head.

Geering maintained that the shooting of Erbe was an accident, but his estranged wife testified that he charged into the shop angrily and that she heard him argue with her mother before the shot was fired.

Diane Geering said she was hiding in the store’s bathroom when she heard the angry exchange and the shot.

In the last trial, jurors did convict him of burglarizing his estranged wife’s home after the shooting and exhibiting a weapon in a threatening manner.

Geering was sentenced Dec. 20 to seven years in state prison and fined $300 for those offenses.

Judge J. Perry Langford set an April 27 sentencing date on the murder conviction.