ENCINITAS
An already large sinkhole on a cliff in the Cardiff area of Encinitas grew bigger after more than an inch of rain fell Friday, city officials said Saturday.
That means the work to fix it will take longer, and is now slated to run through April, the city said in a news release.
The sinkhole is on the western shoulder of Lake Drive, between Wales and Sea Village drives, in the vicinity of a 48-inch corrugated metal pipe that takes runoff from the road to the bottom of a canyon.
Officials didn’t say how much bigger the hole on Lake Drive had grown after 1.3 inches of rainfall Friday, but said crews were working over the weekend to shore it up and stabilize the bottom to prevent further erosion.
The city first learned of an erosion problem at the site on Jan. 17, according to a city staff report.
By the end of February, the sinkhole appeared. The city created a road detour and closed Lake Drive, with the repair work initially expected to take a month. Crews had to relocate all utilities at the site — gas, electric, water and cable — then began shoring up the sinkhole.
Coming work includes reconstructing the embankment and rebuilding the drainage inlet. Crews will also have to reconstruct the drainage pipe, stormwater detention basin, roadway and sidewalk, the city said.
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Police identify victim in San Ysidro stabbing as man from Mexico
SAN DIEGO
San Diego police on Saturday said they have learned the name of a man who was fatally stabbed in San Ysidro last week in an attack they said was unprovoked.
The victim was identified as 42-year-old Manuel Omar Rico Arellano of Mexico, police homicide Lt. Steve Shebloski said in a news release.
Shortly after 2:20 a.m. Wednesday, someone called 911 after finding Arellano suffering from a stab wound at a gas station on East San Ysidro Boulevard, near Interstate 805.
He was taken to a hospital, where he died less than an hour later.
According to police, detectives learned Arellano was stabbed in a vacant building on nearby Center Street near East Beyer Boulevard.
He had been with a group of people “when he was apparently stabbed by the suspect without provocation,” Shebloski said. The victim then made his way to the gas station.
Detectives identified the suspect as Hector Alcantara, 32, of San Diego, and learned he had likely entered Mexico shortly after the stabbing.
About 1:30 p.m. — less than 12 hours after the stabbing — U.S. Customs and Border Protection notified detectives that Alcantara had been detained at the San Ysidro Point of Entry pedestrian gate.
Alcantara was arrested on suspicion of murder. He remained jailed without bail Saturday.
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Two critically injured in crash along Del Dios Highway near Lake Hodges
RANCHO SANTA FE
Two people were critically injured Saturday when their vehicles collided on a road near Lake Hodges, a fire official said.
The two-vehicle crash was reported shortly after 11 a.m. on Del Dios Highway, just west of Hodges Dam, according to the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District.
Battalion Chief Greg O’Gorman said a man in one of the vehicles and a woman from the other vehicle were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Rescue crews had to extricate one of the victims.
Gorman said the road was temporarily closed while first responders were on the scene.
It was unclear what led to the collision, which was being investigated by the California Highway Patrol, O’Gorman said. The Sheriff’s Department assisted with the crash.
CITY NEWS SERVICE
San Marcos man sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for slaying
VISTA
A San Marcos man who stabbed his former schoolmate nearly four dozen times, killing him in what prosecutors said was an unprovoked ambush, was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life in prison, a prosecutor said.
Last month, Kellon Talib Razdan, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Aris Keshishian, who was walking his dog when he was attacked in his gated community not far from Discovery Lake on Aug. 16, 2021.
A Vista Superior Court jury deliberated for less than three hours before rejecting Razdan’s assertion that he stabbed Keshishian in self-defense. Keshishian, 20, was attacked and stabbed 44 times, and had fought so hard to get away that he wriggled out of his shorts and shirt in the middle of a residential street.
The prosecution said Keshishian collapsed in a driveway and a witness said Razdan “sauntered” back to his car.
“With the defendant behind bars, I hope the community feels safer and less vulnerable, and the family can start their healing process,” Deputy District Attorney Helen Kim said in an email Friday.
The two were acquainted — classmates in fourth grade, and 2019 graduates of San Marcos High School — but they did not run in the same circles.
Razdan told detectives he thought someone was controlling his Snapchat account and decided it was Keshishian. Searches of both men’s phones and social media accounts turned up no evidence of hacking or cyberbullying.
Investigators found Google searches made on Razdan’s phone in the weeks before the killing. Among them: “how to remove fingerprints,” and “death by sledgehammer,” and “city that doesn’t solve murders.”
Razdan bought the knife eight days before the attack.
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