SAN DIEGO : Sailor Pleads Guilty in Stabbing Death
A Navy man pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the stabbing of a man whose body was found under leaves in Balboa Park.
David Allen Kring, 23, admitted killing Michael Wayne Hamilton, 48, of El Cajon. Hamilton’s body was discovered under the Cabrillo Bridge on Dec. 8.
Kring, who was stationed at Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, will receive a mandatory prison term of 25 years to life when he is sentenced Sept. 11.
A second defendant, Todd Everett Fluette, 19, goes to trial Monday. Fluette faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted, because he is charged with the special circumstance of committing the murder while lying in wait.
Kring, a hospital corpsman, admitted his role in the slaying after Superior Court Judge Herbert J. Exarhos granted a motion to hold separate trials for each defendant.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Gordon Paul Davis agreed to drop the special-circumstance allegation against Kring because Fluette is suspected of stabbing Hamilton.
Prosecutors said Kring and Fluette were fascinated by literature about serial killers and that they bragged about the killing.
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