D.A.’s Office Declines to Tell Details in Torture Slaying Case

Prosecutors did not reveal any additional details Thursday about a case involving three people charged with brutally torturing and murdering a Lakeside mother in a remote mobile home nearly four years ago.

All three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges brought forward last week by the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Pettine has refused to answer questions about the mysterious killing, but he did say Thursday that his office is considering the filing of special-circumstance allegations, which would make the death penalty a possibility.

Pettine has said that Irene Melanie May, a 23-year-old mother from Lakeside was tortured, beaten and killed in a mobile home on June 26, 1988, in the East County community of Live Oak Springs.

The California Penal Code specifically lists torturing a murder victim as a circumstance that could lead to the death penalty.

However, the death penalty could also be invoked if prosecutors can prove May was killed with poison or, if “the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.”

Although Pettine would not say how, task force investigators have determined that May was tortured with electric wires and then injected with battery acid. Authorities also allege that the defendants beat May with a metal bar and kitchen skillet before stabbing her with a screwdriver and a knife.

Mark Lee Thompkins, 29, of San Diego; Sheryl Ann Baker, 28, of El Cajon, and Kerry Lyn Dalton, 39, of Lakeside, were arrested one week ago and charged with murder.

The three defendants, all serving state prison terms when they were arrested, will be held without bail until their preliminary hearing on July 13.

Pettine refused Thursday to provide details of the investigation.

He declined to say whether May’s body had been recovered or how investigators had determined she had been tortured. He also would not comment on the victim’s relationship with the defendants.

Task force investigators are searching for a fourth suspect.