Escondido Man Arrested in Slaying, Assault

An Escondido man allegedly assaulted two men with a knife for no apparent reason Wednesday night, killing one and wounding another, a Sheriff’s Department investigator said.

Late Thursday, Larry Wayne Smith, a 39-year-old mechanic, was being booked into County Jail downtown on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, a spokeswoman at the jail said.

The incident began about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when Smith, his wife, Sharon, and a house guest, John Lane, were in the kitchen of the Smith home in the 600 block of North Avenue in Escondido.

Apparently without provocation, Smith allegedly stabbed Lane in the abdomen with what officials suspect was a kitchen knife, said Homicide Sgt. Manny Castillo of the Sheriff’s Department.

As Smith’s wife and Lane ran next door to a neighbor’s house looking for help, Smith left his house and entered a another neighbor’s house, Castillo said, where a scuffle broke out in the kitchen.

Earl Hamilton, 35, who lived alone in the house, was stabbed in the chest and then wandered outside, where he collapsed in a neighbor’s front yard. He died at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido.

Lane underwent emergency surgery at Palomar, but a spokeswoman refused to release any information on his condition.