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Unfortunately, there will always be people out there who are willing to sacrifice the life of someone else in order to obtain money; especially life insurance rewards. Toni Henthorn, a 50-year-old woman at the time, married to Harold Henthorn, 56, went on a vacation for their twelfth wedding anniversary to a scenic place called Deer Mountain, located in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Toni was excited and wanted to get as close to nature as possible for her photography, so the two went off the trail slightly and closer to the ledge in order to get the shot she was aiming for. The suddenly, Toni fell off of the ledge and tumbled face first down the side of the mountain; it took Harold fifteen minutes to find her body and remarkably she was still breathing. By the time the paramedics arrived, however, she was dead. The shocker? Toni was sitting on life insurance policies worth four and a half million dollars and the inheritor of all of her bank accounts was Harold. According to the coroner, homicide cannot be ruled out, which lead to the indictment of Harold Henthorn over two years after the incident occurred on September 29, 2012. He was taken into possession and charged with first degree murder for the death of his wife, Toni Henthorn. Eerily enough, Harold was married before he met Toni and his ex-wife died in what he called a “car accident”; the car crushing her to death during a tire change mishap. According to Toni’s relatives, Harold had always seemed like a shady, money obsessed guy who turned Toni into a shell of her former self in order to be with him.

Sources:
“Woman Killed In National Park Had 4.5 Million Life Insurance” – UT San Diego

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Most people know to avoid the authorities if they are doing something illegal, but not this guy! Twenty-three year old Israel Guadalupe Garcia was taken into custody after he impaled his Toyota pick-up truck into the side of a San Diego County Sheriff’s patrol car. Garcia was originally pulled over for running a red light, but as deputies approached the truck to question him, he put the truck in reverse; crashing it into the patrol car behind him. After crashing into the patrol car, Garcia led the police on a short chase, ultimately resulting in him losing control of the truck and hitting a tree next to a home in Alvarado Terrace. Authorities were able to take him into custody and said he showed signs of driving under the influence of alcohol. Once in custody, the police checked Garcia’s criminal history to reveal his license was suspended along with numerous other arrests on his record. Luckily, no one was injured during the incident.

Sources:

“DUI Suspect Rams Sheriff’s Cruiser, Speeds Off, Crashes” – Times of San Diego

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A bicyclist was critically injured after they were struck by a drunken driver who swerved into the bicycle lane. The driver, 39-year-old Billy Bilke Jr. from Moreno Valley, was driving his Ford F-150 pickup truck and attempting to multitask while apparently under the influence of alcohol. According to authorities, he was not only completely wasted but was talking on his cell phone and eating at the same time. Eating what, you might ask? Deep fried mushrooms. The triple threat was a recipe for disaster as he outwardly claims he didn’t see the cyclist at all before he practically ran him/her over with his truck. The incident happened around 4p.m. Tuesday afternoon on Jefferson Avenue in Murrieta. Luckily, the cyclist survived the impact but was rushed to a nearby hospital and has been hospitalized with major head trauma. Billy Bilke will be paying for his mistakes in the future as he was arrested and booked into jail on felony DUI resulting in bodily injury.

Sources:
“DUI Suspect Who Hit Cyclist Was Eating, Talking On Phone” – UT San Diego

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San Diego State University’s police set up a DUI checkpoint/trap on Halloween night to educate the public, increase awareness of danger and encourage designated drivers who haven’t had anything to drink. The checkpoint was on College Avenue and ran throughout the night of the 31st. In total, about 1,700 vehicles drove through the checkpoint; 830 were screened and 26 sent for thorough inspection. Eight vehicles were impounded along with six drivers arrested for DUI and three other drivers arrested for license violations. In order to make the checkpoint possible, University police had to work as a team with the San Diego police department to keep everything going smoothly.

Sources:
“Drivers Arrested At SDSU DUI Checkpoint” – The Daily Aztec

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Last year, two children were discovered face down and floating in a pool behind a home in La Mesa. The mother of the children, Tassie Behrens, claimed she put the children to sleep on the living room couch the night before and then joined her boyfriend in the master bedroom to sleep. According to detectives, Behrens said the oldest of the two children came into the bedroom about 8a.m. the next morning looking for his younger sister, implying she was no longer in the living room where the mother had left them. Behrens apparently ignored this and went back to sleep, only to get up an hour later and find them both drowned in the backyard pool. The children, one two years old and the other only eighteen months old, should have never been left alone and especially not where they would be able to so easily access the pool. Behrens, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child endangerment and was sentenced to four years in prison. The drowned children, however, were not all detectives found when they entered the house. The search of the property revealed a drug manufacturing business was underway as police found pipes, bongs, drug residue, exposed wires, butane cans and other dangerous things all within the children’s grasp. Behren’s boyfriend, 45-year-old Larry Dangelo, was the one renting the house and plead guilty to one count of manufacturing honey oil and another charge related to a different location. He was sentenced to eight years and eight months in custody and is required to serve half of his sentence in county jail and the other half under mandatory probation supervision.

Sources:
“Man In Drowning Case Sentenced On Drug Charges” – UT San Diego

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Police are setting up multiple checkpoints this Halloween weekend with the intention of educating the public and increase awareness on the impact driving under the influence contains. The checkpoints are also put in place to show the dangers of drunk driving, riding with someone who is drunk and encouraging designated drivers. The weekend is especially popular around Halloween because of Muir College’s pumpkin drop. The school has been participating in this event for over 40 years. The pumpkin, averaging around 400lbs, is full of candy and students run around and pick up all of the pieces when it hits the ground. Each year, how far the pumpkin’s splat goes is recorded; the record is 100ft. During these celebrations, it is not uncommon for hundreds of students to show up and participate.

Sources:

‘;’.DUI Checks, Halloween Pumpkin Drop” –

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The man arrested on Friday said he was 34-year-old Marcelo Marquez of Salt Lake City when he was taken into custody, but his fingerprints matched biometric records of Monroy-Bracamonte in a federal database, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. He was first removed from the country in 1997 after a conviction for possession of drugs for sale in Arizona, then arrested and repatriated to Mexico again in 2001. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones told The Sacramento Bee on Sunday that he may have lived under multiple identities and that he may have had troubles with the law under another name.

“We’re not convinced we have a full picture of his identity,” Jones told the newspaper. “Immigration has come up with one identity. We are not entirely convinced that is his only identity.”

Mauro Marquez, his father-in-law, told the Los Angeles Times that he always knew him as Luis Monroy and said his son-in-law worked as a house painter. He said the couple married about 14 years ago in Arizona and moved to Utah a couple of years later.

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Lindsey Taylor Osborne, 27, was arrested for having a blood alcohol level more than four times the legal limit while driving – 0.33. Not only was she driving under the influence, she caused an accident with a couple in a sedan and fled the scene. It hasn’t been stated if she has an attorney or not, but she needs one! The couple in the sedan chased down Osborne, going to the extent of honking their horn, flashing their bright lights and following them for several miles. When that strategy didn’t work, they wrote down Osborne’s license plate number and handed it over to the police. Police found Osborne at her house just a half of an hour later.

Sources:
“Woman Arrested On DUI Following Couple’s Chase” – UT San Diego

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Sunday was an eventful day in East County as authorities rake in the arrests from a routine probation sweep. The probation sweep involved traffic stops and trolley patrols in Lakeside, Santee and East County in an effort to cover as much ground as possible. Overall, the process was successful and left around forty people facing drug charges for various crimes ranging from possession of mere paraphernalia or actual drugs. In some cases, the drugs in possession by the individuals were meant for widespread sale and more than $1,000 worth of methamphetamine was seized during the entire course of the probation check. The probation check ran from a window between 6am and 6pm on Saturday and was nicknamed “Operation Summer’s End,” appropriately so as the fall season is now in full swing. The offenders arrested were booked into jail, charged with their appropriate crime based on what was found in their possession. According to authorities, the probation check was a combing-through of probationers previously or currently involved in crimes to help those on a “conditional release” avoid falling back into their previous crime committing lifestyles.

Sources:
“Probation Sweep Leaves 40 Facing Drug Charges” – Times Of San Diego

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A strong debate has come to the surface over the driving capabilities of elderly people and if there should be any restrictions put in place to re-check driving skills every couple of years. Currently, there are no re-evaluations or re-tests required for drivers as they age; the initial driving test is the only obstacle to get and maintain a license. As people get older, their sharpness in vision, depth perception and cognitive abilities deteriorate over time, causing safety hazards and unnecessary tragedies. Earlier this week, a perfect example of a preventable tragedy due to an elderly driver occurred when 45-year-old Melissa Ratcliff was unloading her car on a busy street in La Jolla and was struck by another vehicle; she was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the car was 91 years old and impaled their vehicle into Ratcliff while backing out of a parking spot and crossing to the other side of the street. Ratcliff was the vice president for the San Diego chamber of commerce and had a number of impressive past careers under her belt, including working in the white house. As the country becomes more aware of the importance of practicing maximum safety while behind the wheel, stronger license requirements are bound to be put into place to hopefully prevent tragedies such as this one from happening again.

Sources:
“Woman Killed In La Jolla Identified As San Diego Chamber Vice President” – CBS 7 San Diego

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