Probationer Admits Conspiring With Mom

Officers were checking on him the night Officer Wilson was shot and killed

A probationer, who authorities were checking on when San Diego police officer Christopher Wilson, 50, was shot and killed last fall, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with his mother to try to collect unemployment benefits while in jail.

Officer Wilson, a 17-year veteran, was shot when San Diego police officers and U.S. Marshals were checking Alex Ray Charfauros, 26 on Oct. 27.

Charfauros and his mother, Gwendolyn Charfauros, 57, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony count of conspiracy to commit unemployment fraud on the day their preliminary hearing was to go forward.

Charfauros was in jail after admitting a probation violation for a DUI offense when he called his mother and told her to fill out forms so he could collect unemployment, the prosecutor said. He also told his mother to keep half the money.

While officers were at a Skyline apartment complex looking for Charfauros, they discovered Holim Lee, 30, who was wanted on an assault with a deadly weapon warrant. He had barricaded himself inside a bedroom with his girlfriend, Lucky Xayasene, 27.

Officer Wilson and several other San Diego police officers were briefed about Lee and told he could be inside the apartment armed with a gun.

Law enforcement sources say a police sergeant at the scene gave the go ahead to send the officers in with a K-9 unit to try and subdue Lee. When the officers couldn't open the door to Lee's room, one officer kicked it in.

That's when gunfire erupted from the bedroom.

Sources say Officer Wilson was standing in the hallway when a bullet that went through a wall struck him.

Charfauros, who did not fire the fatal shot, later admitted violating his probation for a 2008 DUI causing injury. 

He faces two years and eight months in prison.

Gwendolyn Charfauros will be placed on three years probation and be ordered to repay $408.

Sentencing is set for April 13 for both defendants.

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