OJAI : Victim Was Cleaning Up His Life, Jury Told

The girlfriend of a Simi Valley man slain along with his dog at the Middle Lions Campground told a jury Wednesday that the victim was up for a promotion at his job and had plans to marry.

A day earlier, defense attorneys claimed that 24-year-old Andy Lee Anderson and his alleged killer smoked marijuana together shortly before Anderson was killed in the mountains above Ojai on March 4.

Lori Quinn acknowledged that her boyfriend once had a wild streak that included smoking marijuana. But she said he had cut down on his pot smoking and was becoming more responsible.

“He wanted to make changes,” she said. “ . . . He really tried to clean up his act.”

Twenty-year-old Timothy Chrestman of Port Hueneme is charged with shooting Anderson and his dog in order to steal the man’s truck. A defense attorney contends that Anderson was killed by two unidentified gang members and that Chrestman only smoked marijuana and fished with the victim prior to his death.

As an illustration that Anderson had changed his life, prosecution witnesses testified that he was up for a promotion at his job at Blue Cross of California. “Andy was very conscientious,” said Sandy Hogsett, his supervisor.

Quinn said she and Anderson had dated for three years and, as soon as they saved money and she finished college, they planned to be married.

Also Wednesday, the victim’s mother, Carolyn Anderson, described the last time she saw her son.