Vista

A 20-year-old Escondido woman was convicted Monday of voluntary manslaughter for the shooting death last November of John Philip Dell as he lay asleep in his Escondido home, where police say methamphetamine was manufactured.

The same Vista Superior Court jury also convicted Belinda Chamberlin, who used to live at the house, of attempted voluntary manslaughter for shooting another person, Eve Trippler, in the shoulder as she sat in a car outside the house.

Chamberlin now faces a maximum sentence of 18 1/2 years in state prison when she is sentenced Oct. 25 by Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Prager. Chamberlin, who was free on bail, was ordered into custody.

Prosecutor Greg Walden argued to the jury that Chamberlin, who confessed to police to the shootings, should have been convicted of first-degree murder for killing Dell. But defense attorney David Thompson argued that it was unclear--even to Chamberlin--whether she or possibly one of four men in the house at the time fired the handgun. Moreover, Thompson said, if his client did shoot, it was under force and fear from the others. He also said she might have been under the influence of drugs at the time.

Police say the house, on rural Canyon Crest Drive in Escondido, was being used by its occupants as a place to manufacture and sell methamphetamine.