PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 24, NO. 33
AUG. 27, 2010
THISWEEK
Council approves Lowe’s in Carlsbad
LAST CALL
Some residents were unhappy when council approved letting a downtown Oceanside bar and grill stay open B4 until 2 a.m.
SEEKING SUPPORT
By Alyx Sariol
Marianne McDonald, founder of the Scripps McDonald Center, says the center could be closing soon and she is asking for the community’s help A10
SNORES IN THE OUTDOORS
Families packed up their gear and headed to Aviara Park for Carlsbad’s annual Snores and S’mores B1 event
INSIDE
SUMMER BEACH FUN
TWO SECTIONS, 52 PAGES
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Above, Seattle residents Avery Ang (right) and his dad, Pablo Ang, relax under an umbrella as temperatures on the beach topped the 80-degree mark at Oceanside Beach on Aug. 24. Left, Laura Hansford spends her vacation body boarding before returning home to school in Grants Pass, Ore. Photos by Daniel Knighton
Ex-Marine sentenced to death By Wehtahnah Tucker
VISTA — Almost five years after the brutal murder of Carolyn Rebecca Neville, her killer was sentenced to death Aug. 19 in a Vista courtroom. A North County man received the harshest punishment allowable for the 2005 murder of a Vista woman who interrupted a robbery in her home. Derlyn Ray Threats, 29, has maintained he was not the one who murdered Neville at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2005. Threats, his supporters and his attorneys argued the real killer was one of Threats’ friends. Threats did not testify in his two-month-long murder trial. But neither jury nor judge was convinced that
Threats was not solely responsible for the crime. Palpable tension rose as Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman called the “unmerciful and repeated assaults” on Carolyn Rebecca Neville “the most aggravated, callous torture of a victim this court has ever seen.” The 24-year-old mother was stabbed more than 70 times with one of the final blows coming from garden shears the killer took from her garage. She had just returned home from a visit to her son’s kindergarten class. Last fall, a North County jury of eight men and four women recommended the death penalty after finding Threats guilty of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary.
It’s not the first time Threats has been convicted of a crime. In 2003, while he was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, then-Sgt. Threats was convicted in a military court of stealing a gun and bullets from an armory. He served time in the base brig before leaving the military. In 1996, as a teenager, Threats took part in an armed robbery of a fast food restaurant in Vista. Carolyn Rebecca Neville was a college student and a waitress at Shadowridge Country Club. The deadly attack came more than a year after her wedding to husband Stephen Neville, who was at work when his wife was murdered in their Vista home.
Stephen Neville addressed the court during the sentencing hearing. He said he believed Threats deserved the death penalty. He focused directly on Threats who turned away closing his eyes as Neville spoke. “You have made me into a hard, calloused and unsympathetic individual,” Stephen Neville said. “And I will not rest comfortably until I see you take your last breath on this earth.” Threats did not speak at the sentencing, nor did he show any reaction to Kirkman’s pronouncement that he “shall be put to death within the walls of a California state prison.”
CARLSBAD — Despite objection from the community, City Council members unanimously approved construction of a proposed Lowe’s home improvement store within Carlsbad’s city limits at their Aug. 24 meeting. The proposed project, called Palomar Commons, is slated for the southwest corner of Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real. In addition to the Lowe’s — the first in Carlsbad — the facility will also house a gas station, a bank and other retail shop facilities. Although the site is located at one of the city’s busiest intersections, Sudberry Development Inc. has included traffic monitoring cameras and additional lanes to alleviate traffic near the site in the project proposal. An amendment to the General Plan’s land designations was also approved in conjunction with the Palomar Commons project. The new designation, General Commercial, allows for consideration of new projects that do not meet existing land use requirements. Council’s approval of the project came after nearly two hours of public comment from those who oppose and support construction of Palomar Commons at the site of the former Olympic Resort and Spa, which closed in 2008. Supporters cited a number of reasons why they were happy to welcome a Lowe’s store into their community. Whether devoted HGTV followers or masters of the “Honey Do” list, many were excited to shorten their trek when tackling projects around the house. Mayoral candidate Walt Meier noted that he looks forward to the additional revenue the project will bring to the community. Neighboring TURN TO LOWE’S ON A26
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