3 Men Plead Not Guilty in Slaying of Deputy Trainee

The three San Diego men accused of killing sheriff’s deputy trainee Kelly A. Bazer pleaded not guilty Thursday at their arraignment in San Diego Municipal Court.

Prentice Byrd, 19; Ronnie Davis Williams, 20, and Jessie Lee Stuart, 19, each were charged with one count of felony murder and three counts of robbery.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Keith Burt said there was a possibility that prosecutors would seek the death penalty for the defendants if further investigation of the case warranted it.

The three are accused of robbing a Spring Valley supermarket Monday evening and then shooting Bazer, a 28-year-old mother of two, as they commandeered her car for their getaway.

Municipal Judge Robert McDonald barred photographers from taking identifiable pictures of the defendants, because of defense lawyers’ and prosecutors’ concerns that potential witnesses might see the pictures and prejudge the defendants’ involvement in the case.

McDonald set bail for each defendant at $250,000. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 25.

Stuart and Williams are members of the Neighborhood Crips, one of the city’s two loosely organized black youth gangs, according to Carlos Armour, a deputy district attorney specializing in gang prosecutions.

According to Armour, prosecutors believe that Stuart and Williams robbed the supermarket and confronted Bazer nearby, and that Stuart fired the shot that killed her. Byrd, they believe, drove the pickup truck that the assailants used for their getaway after abandoning Bazer’s car, he said.