SAN DIEGO : Trial Ordered in Clairemont Killing
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A San Diego man Friday was ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering a woman whose decomposed body was found in a Clairemont canyon.
Vernon Cleo Walton, 41, will be held in lieu of $1-million bail while he waits for his arraignment June 4 in Superior Court.
Walton is accused of killing 50-year-old Margaret Rodriguez, who lived out of her truck in the Clairemont area. Her body was discovered Feb. 4 in a canyon directly behind the Edell Street house where Walton had lived.
According to evidence presented at Friday’s preliminary hearing, the pair were together in the Moonglo bar the night before Thanksgiving. This is the last time Rodriguez was seen alive.
Walton was arrested in April on suspicion of murder but was not charged then. Investigators rearrested Walton after a chemical test indicated the presence of a blood trail from Walton’s former bedroom to the door leading to the back yard.
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