Cell-Phone Call Killer Pleads Guilty

A San Diego man pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a next-door neighbor as she chatted on the telephone with her mother.
     
Richard Saldivar, 40, entered pleas Wednesday to first-degree murder and using a deadly weapon. He changed his pleas before the start of his preliminary hearing.
     
Saldivar killed Jennifer Lee Jones in an unprovoked attack in her apartment last October in the Rancho Bernardo area, authorities said. Prosecutors never released a motive for the killing. They said Saldivar barely knew Jones, who had only recently moved into the building.

Saldivar waited for Jones to get home to her Rancho Bernardo apartment, then followed her through the front door and killed her quickly, prosecutors said at a court hearing in October. At the time, Jones was on her cell phone with her mother, who told police she heard a man's voice, sounds of a struggle and a scream.
     
According to prosecutor, Saldivar lived with his wife and children, and had been given an eviction notice the day of the attack. Some neighbors who didn't want to be identified said Saldivar was a very noisy neighbor, who often played loud music with his front door wide open.
     
A family friend of Jones said the victim was who was a devout Jehovah's witness.

"Just a delightful young lady that always has a smile on her face," said Ken Chernish.

According to prosecutors, Jones was an engineer who worked for a San Diego company called Solar Turbines. Saldivar was unemployed at the time of the slaying.

Saldivar faces 26 years to life when he's sentenced in April.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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