San Diego
If two sailors are convicted of killing a school counselor in Balboa Park, they will face life in prison without parole, according to the San Diego County district attorney’s office.
Special circumstances allegations of lying in wait for a murder victim were filed Tuesday against David Kring, 23, and Todd Fluette, 18, who are charged with the Dec. 8 slaying of Michael Hamilton, 48, of El Cajon.
Hamilton was a counselor at Jerabek Elementary School in Scripps Ranch. He was stabbed to death and his body was partly covered with leaves in a remote area of Balboa Park.
Both Navy men pleaded innocent Tuesday and San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic A. Link scheduled a June 8 trial.
In the audience was the victim’s widow, Barbara Hamilton, who testified Feb. 4 that her husband had had previous homosexual liaisons in Balboa Park. She testified that her husband was trying to stop that part of his life. The couple had three children.
A classmate of the two Navy corpsmen, who were studying at the Naval School of Health Science in Balboa Park, testified that they boasted of the slaying afterward.
Both men remain in County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail.
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