SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A mental competency hearing scheduled for Friday was postponed to Oct. 21 for a man accused of attacking five homeless men in various San Diego neighborhoods, killing three of them.
Jon David Guerrero, 39, is charged with three counts of murder and two counts of premeditated attempted murder, along with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Guerrero was arrested July 15 in Park West.
San Diego police said the victims were brutalized -- two of them set on fire -- as they slept on roadsides, in open areas and under freeway bridges.
The first attack in the series occurred July 3. About 8 a.m. that day, the burning body of Angelo De Nardo, 53, was found underneath an Interstate 5 off ramp near the 2700 block of Morena Boulevard in Bay Park. Witnesses to the scene described seeing a man running across the freeway near Claremont Drive, carrying a gas can.
The following day, Shawn Mitchell Longley, 41, was found dead at a park on Bacon Street in Ocean Beach, and 61-year-old transient Manuel Mason was severely wounded near Valley View Casino Center in the Midway district, according to police.
On the morning of July 6, Dionicio Derek Vahidy, 23, was gravely wounded in downtown San Diego by an assailant who fled after leaving a towel burning on top of him. Vahidy died in a hospital four days later.
There are no indications that the suspect knew the victims, according to police.
The most recent attack happened shortly after 4:30 a.m. on July 15, when two San Diego Harbor Police officers in a squad car in the 1800 block of C Street heard someone underneath Interstate 5 in the East Village yelling for help, police said.
The officers pulled over and found a 55-year-old homeless man suffering from "significant trauma'' to his upper body.