SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A trial date could be set Wednesday for two alleged gang members accused in the armed holdup of a North Park marijuana dispensary in which an alleged accomplice was shot and killed by a security guard.
Kurese Bell, 18, and Atiim Smith, 22, are scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court early Wednesday afternoon.
Bell is charged with murder, attempted murder and robbery in the holdup and fatal shooting that occurred about 12:30 p.m. April 25, 2014, in the 3800 block of Ray Street.
Smith -- the alleged getaway driver -- is charged with attempted murder and felony robbery. His fingerprints were found in a car impounded by police after the robbery, a latent print examiner testified.
Another person, 21-year-old Jonathan Vincent Collins, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a robbery charge with a gang allegation and is expected to be sentenced to 12 years in prison at a hearing April 2.
Bell -- who was 17 at the time -- was also charged in the robbery of a smoke shop on El Cajon Boulevard four days before the dispensary robbery. He was arrested in May at a Los Angeles-area motel and charged as an adult.
Detective Jana Beard testified at a preliminary hearing last month that security guard Henry Smith told her he shot the alleged robber in the dispensary holdup, identified as 18-year-old Marlon Thomas, after Thomas and another robber threatened to kill him and the store owner.
The security guard was shot in his pelvis and survived.
