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THE COAST NEWS
JAN. 13, 2012
ODD Investigation into veterinarian’s death continues FILES
by CHUCK SHEPHERD
be injured, according to the RANCHO SANTA FE — San Diego County Sheriff’s Nearly two years after the Department, so the vehicle body of a popular veterinarian was considered abandoned was found in a driveway at and towed away. But the next morning 6792 Paseo Delicias, authorities are still working on unrav- authorities were called out eling the mystery behind his again when a homeowner at Paseo Delicias located a demise. San Diego County Crime deceased man on the driveway of the homeownStoppers is seeking er’s house. information relating to The man was the homicide of Dr. identified as Robert Stonebreaker, R o b e r t 53, who owned the Stonebreaker. Animal & Bird His body was Hospital of Del Mar more than 100 and also founded yards away from Freeflight, a nonprofit where the Porsche organization for reshad been found. cued birds that ROBERT Lt. Dennis includes an exotic bird STONEBREAKER Brugos, who has park the public can since retired from the sheriff’s visit. Crime Stoppers is offer- homicide unit, said in previous ing a reward of up to $1,000 for news reports that the blunt information leading to an force trauma found to Robert Stonebreaker was inconsistent arrest in the case. On Jan. 16, 2010, with a fall. The county’s medical California Highway Patrol officers responded to a report examiner’s office ruled his about a vehicle in a ditch when death a homicide and not the they found an unoccupied result of a traffic collision, 2008 Porsche Carrera in a according to the sheriff’s department. small ravine. The case is the most They didn’t find evidence on the car that led them to recent of several “cold case” believe any occupants could files handled by the sheriff’s
By Shelli DeRobertis
Obsessions (1) Don Aslett, 76, recently opened the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho, as the culmination of a lifelong devotion to tidying up. Highlights are several hundred pre-electric vacuum cleaners plus interactive exhibits to encourage kids to clean their rooms. Aslett told London’s Daily Mail in December that people who don’t understand his dedication must never have experienced the satisfaction of making a toilet bowl sparkle. (2) Also starting early in life, Dustin Kruse, 4, is so knowledgeable about toilet models and plumbing mechanics that the Kohler Co. presented him with an advanced-model “dual flush” commode for Christmas. Dustin, a fan of the Kohler showroom, has been known to explain toilet technology to other showroom visitors.
Government in Action! Predator drones are an important weapon against terrorists in Afghanistan, Yemen and other countries, but in June, an unarmed predator was employed stateside to help catch cattle rustlers. The Department of Homeland Security owns eight predators for surveillance and occasionally assists local law enforcement. The cattle rustlers had been arrested, then jumped bail and holed up on their vast ranch near Lakota, N.D., but the predator spotted their exact location on the property, leading to a raid that ended without bloodshed. Government Inaction: India’s legendarily plodding government bureaucracy had long stymied a snake charmer named Hakkul (a villager in Uttar Pradesh state), who had sought a snake-conservation permit, which had been authorized at one level but delayed locally. In November, finally exasperated, Hakkul walked into the land revenue office in the town of Harraiya with several sacks of snakes (including cobras) and turned them loose, sending clerks and visitors climbing furniture or fleeing. Recent news accounts report that “almost all” of the snakes had been rounded up. A December news release from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned of the dangers of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria infections on a sheep ranch, but apparently only among workers who used an old-style (19th century) method of castrating the animals. CDC strongly urged that workers stop biting off the sheep’s genitals and instead use modern tools. From U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn’s periodic list of the most “unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects” that the federal government currently funds (announced in December): $75,000 to promote awareness of the role Michigan TURN TO ODD FILES ON A23
department, but Sgt. Dave Martinez said the medical examiner and the sheriff’s departments are still working on it. “I know that the case agent is now reviewing the case with key parts of the investigation,” he said, and added that included reviewing the case with the medical examiner. When Martinez was questioned about whether the Dr.’s wife Pamela Stonebreaker was a suspect in the veterinarian’s death, he said, “We can’t rule out anyone at this moment.” Stonebreaker’s business and Freeflight have continued under the direction of his wife. Pamela Stonebreaker’s attorneys filed documents in federal court on July 18, 2011, which denied she was involved with her husband’s death. Those documents give detailed accounts of Pamela’s whereabouts and actions on both the day of her husband’s disappearance/accident and the following day. Her phone records show that after her husband failed to come home for dinner, phone calls seeking his whereabouts were made that night and the next morning.
The morning that Stonebreaker’s body was found, Pamela was out of town at a volleyball tournament with her daughter and several others, and had left her home at 5 a.m. “Later that same day, while I was still at the volleyball tournament, I received a phone call from an investigator for the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office.The investigator told me that Bob was dead and that the cause of death was a head injury. This telephone call was when I learned for the first time that Bob had died,” part of her written statement said. In a previous interview with The Coast News, Pamela said: “Some days I am so tearyeyed and confused because there are no answers or no reasons why … I just cannot believe after 26 years working every day with my husband that I am in this position.” Nathan Arrington, Pamela’s attorney, said during a telephone interview in early January 2012 that “a neutral guardian has now filed a document indicating there was no evidence Pam was involved.” On Nov. 23, 2011, Judge Patricia Yim Cowett filed with
the court a document that states that as her position of guardian ad litem over the three Stonebreaker children, she does not agree that the children have any right to claim the insurance money because she is unaware of evidence sufficient to justify that; and that she does not oppose Pamela’s motion for the money to be deposited to her. Arrington requested that the court documents be used to answer any questions, and they show that Pamela has been trying to collect nearly $3 million in life insurance funds from three separate companies regarding her husband’s death, but has been denied any money despite the motion for the disbursement of funds in a lawsuit against the companies, according to court documents. According to a section of the law, a beneficiary of a life insurance policy must be ruled out as a suspect because a person who kills the policyholder is not entitled to receive any benefits. Anyone with any information relating to the homicide may call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
Trial under way for man accused of killing his wife By Shelli DeRobertis
VISTA — The man accused of fatally shooting his wife last New Year’s Day at their Oceanside home while their children were inside will learn his fate at his murder trial that began Jan. 9. The trial for Dontaye Henderson, 29, is expected to last two weeks as the prosecutor reveals a violent past history of the suspect, who was on parole at the time of the murder for spousal rape of a previous wife. Tamara Henderson, 25, was shot in the chest on Jan. 1, 2011, at 2360 Paseo De Laura during the morning hours while she prepared her children for church services. “I’m so sad,” Elsie Billops, the victim’s mother, said. “So sad. I will always miss my daughter, and I can’t change anything. I can just raise the kids and try to help them become great adults.” Billups has been raising the Tamara Henderson’s two children, ages 2 and 6, since the holiday tragedy occurred. She said this past New Year’s Day that the family just stayed home. Billups and several family members sat in the front row of the courtroom as trial motions and the witness list was presented to Superior Court Judge Robert J. Kearney. The defendant, who had married Tamara, an Army
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reservist, in 2009 and had an infant son with her, was also present in the room as he sat next to his attorney. Dontaye Henderson doodled on lined paper as the defense objected to a motion by the prosecutor to allow autopsy photos of the victim, calling them “gruesome.” After prosecuting attorney Keith Watanabe discussed the necessity for showing each photo of the deceased victim, such as the one that shows the actual bullet wound in the center of her chest,Kearney agreed that all of them but one could be presented. A total of 15 pictures will be shown to the jury. Dontaye Henderson was arrested at a bus station in St. Louis, Mo., just days after his wife’s murder, and flown back to San Diego County to face charges including murder and kidnapping. Since 2003, Dontaye Henderson had been in and out of prison for a spousal rape conviction of a former wife and then for parole violations. On the day of Tamara Henderson’s murder, he was wearing a GPS ankle bracelet as a condition of his parole, which also stipulated he could
not possess a gun, and police later found the cut-off tracker in a trash can at a nearby hotel. The gun that was allegedly used in the murder was also recovered. Authorities claim that afterward, Dontaye Henderson kidnapped a co-worker and her toddler child and forced the coworker to drive him out of town. A Jan. 1, 2011, text message later retrieved from a phone Dontaye Henderson used shows that within just a few hours of his wife’s death, a text was sent by him to a former girlfriend he dated eight years ago, that said, “I’ve left my wife for good. I’m flying out to see you.” Those same court documents also reveal that on Dec. 28, 2010, that same former girlfriend had sent nude photos of herself to Dontaye Henderson. In June 2011, a judged ruled Dontaye Henderson was competent to stand trial. In August 2011, Dontaye Henderson caused a delay in his hearing after he intentionally rammed his head into a police car upon being transported to court, which caused an injury.
San Diego County Superior Judge Daniel Goldstein said that Dontaye Henderson’s conduct was likely intentional. At the rescheduled hearing, Dontaye Henderson told the judge that he didn’t want to be present in the courtroom, so Judge K. Michael Kirkman allowed him to listen from a nearby cell. At an October 2011 hearing, Dontaey Henderson was reported to have shouted odd answers at the judge and reportedly hid his face from the
television cameras after an attorney entered his not guilty by reason of insanity plea. But later that same month, Dontaye Henderson withdrew the plea and changed it to a standard not-guilty plea. But the trial has begun, and a jury will decide if he committed first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, Watanabe said. For the Billups family, the trial will mark the end to a year filled with court dates.