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Encinitas council to fill vacancy with Jan. appointment Mayor Tony Kranz argued special election would leave seat open too long. 5
Padres to name Perry team COO San Diego native to be among the highest-ranking women in MLB. 15
Jury: Solana Beach VISTA NEWS woman murdered former stepfather
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ABOARD TEAM USA 4 North County skaters named to national team Story on 15
By Laura Place
RUBY LILLEY, 16, of Oceanside qualified for the women’s park foursome on the National Skateboarding Team. Photo by MRZ
Grandview bluff collapse lawsuit to begin discovery Ruling advances family’s wrongful death allegation By Jordan P. Ingram
ENCINITAS — After more than two years of delays and procedural wrangling, a Vista judge’s ruling last month has advanced a wrongful death lawsuit into the discovery phase, allowing plaintiffs to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three women killed in a
lie Davis, 65, her 35-yearold daughter Anne Davis Clave, both of Encinitas, and Davis’ 62-year-old sister Elizabeth Charles of San Francisco. The Davis family filed suit just a few weeks after a roughly 30-foot hunk of “urbanized” cliff broke loose and crashed onto the beach below, fatally crushFAMILY MEMBERS, from left, Anne Davis Clave and Julie Davis, both of Encinitas, and Eliza- ing several victims underbeth Charles, of San Francisco, died Aug. 2, 2019, at Grandview Beach. The Coast News graphic neath multi-ton sandstone rock. bluff collapse at Grandview nitas, State of California, ment Company, alleges The lawsuit argues Beach. Leucadia Seabluffe Village negligence and dangerous that years of groundwater The lawsuit, filed Community Association property conditions played TURN TO GRANDVIEW ON 7 against the City of Enci- and Seabreeze Manage- a role in the deaths of Ju-
VISTA — A jury found Jade Janks of Solana Beach guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the death of her former stepfather Thomas Merriman after a day of RANCHO deliberation. SFNEWS The verdict concludes a 10-day trial at the Superior Court North County courthouse in Vista, where jurors heard from nearly 20 witnesses and experts. Jurors went into deliberation Tuesday morning. Janks faces 25 years to life in state prison when she is sentenced, which is currently set for April 3.¬ Merriman, 64, was found dead under a pile of cardboard boxes in his driveway on Jan. 2, 2021, with the cause of death determined to be acute intoxication by zolpidem, a sleep aid also known as Ambien. The District Attorney’s Office charged Janks with murdering Merriman, the co-founder of the Butterfly Farms in Encinitas, arguing that she drugged, suffocated and strangled him on New Year’s Eve 2020 after picking him up from the hospital. In closing statements on Monday, Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del
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