BUCKMAN SPRINGS : Witness Says Porter Choked Her, Friend

A woman testified Thursday that she and a friend were choked to unconsciousness by Ronald Elliot Porter, an Escondido man investigated by the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force.

Porter, 45, is charged with two counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and three counts of rape with a foreign object. The bodies of the two murder victims, 43-year-old Sandra Cwik and 26-year-old Carol Jane Gushrowski, were found near Buckman Springs.

On the first day of the hearing, Donna Abbott, 23, of Arizona said Porter choked her and a friend after he picked them up along Interstate 8 while they were hitchhiking. Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Dusek said the second victim in that attack has since died of unrelated causes.

At the time of his arrest, Porter had just been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for assaulting a prostitute in East County. Porter is being held without bail at County Jail downtown.