Security Guard News Update
An ex-convict who slashed a man with a samurai sword and shot a naval officer who was moonlighting as a security guard at a Kmart in Ramona, pleaded guilty Friday to assault, battery and second-degree murder.
Andrew Nicholas Griffith, who turns 30 on Saturday, is to be sentenced to 42 years to life in prison at an April 10 hearing before Judge Herbert Exarhos at the El Cajon Courthouse.
Before pleading guilty, Griffith had to withdraw his previously entered plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, said Deputy District Attorney Gordon Davis
Two court-appointed doctors said Griffith had mental problems, but that he was not insane, the prosecutor said.
In a hearing Friday, Griffith admitted slashing Steven Michael Lowe on the forearm with a 3-foot-long sword at a riverbank encampment in Ramona on June 16, 2007.
He also pleaded guilty to killing 34-year-old Petty Officer 1st Class David C. Busby on July 21, 2007, and assaulting another Kmart loss prevention officer, Fred Tilli, with a semiautomatic firearm.
Busby and Tilli had caught Griffith shoplifting when he shot Busby — a married father of a 17-month-old son — three times.
Prosecutors said Griffith was convicted in 2004 of possession of an assault weapon in San Bernardino County.by 10news.com
