2 Athletes to Stand Trial in Armed Robberies

Two former high school athletes were ordered Wednesday to stand trial for committing three armed robberies in Escondido and Vista before a high-speed chase that left a companion dead from an apparent suicide.

Jonathan Arrington and Hubert Phillips, both 19, were ordered to appear Sept. 26 in Superior Court after a preliminary hearing by San Diego Municipal Judge Charles Patrick.

They are accused of holding up a Vista cab driver, the night auditor at an Escondido motel and a baker in a doughnut shop, all within 30 minutes at about 3 a.m. Aug. 28.

Two years ago, Phillips was a star senior fullback at Southwest High School. Arrington also played football and had attended Tuskegee University in Alabama.

Cab driver Judee Davis identified Phillips in court as the gunman who robbed her of $83 while she was sitting in her cab outside a Vista restaurant.

Davis called sheriff’s deputies from the restaurant, supplying a partial license plate number.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Debra Miller said she saw a white Honda with the same partial license letters in Escondido minutes later and began a chase that ended in Imperial Beach.

Other deputies responded and officers found the stolen car abandoned near Southwest High School. In the back seat was the body of 17-year-old Cahill Muhammad, who had died from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide.

Fred Bray, the night auditor at a Best Western Motel in Escondido, said a man wearing a black mask held him up at gunpoint and took $195.

Bray testified that he gave the gunman bills and rolls of quarters, and that, when he turned to hand him some rolls of dimes, the gunman had left. Bray said a camera recorded the robbery.

Donut Star baker Rey Ouk testified that a gunman jumped over his counter and demanded money. He said he gave the man $65, adding that he thought the gunman was the same one who had robbed him previously of $200.

Sheriff’s Deputy Alan Cutsinger said that Arrington denied being involved after his arrest, but later conceded he was the driver in the holdups.

Arrington refused to identify any accomplices, said the deputy but did say that the teen-ager found dead in the car feared going to prison if arrested and had planned to commit suicide first.

Deputy Russell Moore said a police dog found Arrington hiding in some bushes near the high school. He said Arrington told deputies to kill him, saying he was not going to “snitch” on any of his friends, Moore said.

Both men remain in County Jail on $100,000 bail.