San Dieguito Student Arrested For Threatening Trial Witness

A star football player at San Dieguito High School, already facing charges in two alleged beatings, was arrested on campus Thursday for allegedly threatening a prosecution witness on several occasions.

The district attorney’s office will now seek to have the 17-year-old senior tried as an adult in Superior Court.

Further, district attorney’s spokeswoman Linda Miller said investigators are probing whether charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice should be brought against several defendants and witnesses in beating cases involving San Dieguito High athletes.

The investigation centers on whether there was a plan to concoct perjured testimony, she said.

The district attorney’s office alleges that the 17-year-old, a linebacker on the Mustangs’ football team, threatened a witness on several occasions with violence if he did not change his story in court.

Detention Hearing

After his arrest, the youth was taken to Juvenile Hall, pending a detention hearing in Juvenile Court this morning. A brawny 5-foot-10, 195-pounder, the youth is the son of a bricklayer and lives with his family in La Costa.

In all, nine former or current San Dieguito High athletes have been charged in four gang-like attacks.

One has been convicted in North County Municipal Court and sentenced to 15 days in jail. Three have pleaded guilty in Juvenile Court and are awaiting sentencing.

Two have had charges dropped, and three others, including the youth arrested Thursday, are scheduled for trial.

Thursday’s arrest was not the first time that allegations of fear and intimidation involving witnesses have been raised in the North County beating cases.

Last week, North County Municipal Judge Michael B. Harris, in sentencing 18-year-old Erik Heipt for misdemeanor battery, noted that several witnesses during the trial showed fear while testifying. During Heipt’s trial, prosecutors said that a witness received an anonymous threatening phone call at work.

Witness intimidation is a felony, with a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.

With the new charge, the district attorney’s office is also seeking to have the entire case against the 17-year-old transferred to Superior Court, which could escalate the penalty if he is convicted.

He is charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon and felony battery in connection with an alleged attack on a Leucadia family on June 25 and on a Palomar College student on April 27.

The law gives five criteria for deciding whether a juvenile can be tried as an adult: the degree of criminal sophistication shown, the chance for rehabilitation, the defendant’s previous criminal history, the seriousness of the crime, and previous attempts by the Juvenile Court to rehabilitate the defendant.

At today’s hearing, a date will be set for opposing attorneys to argue whether the defendant should be tried as an adult.