Woman Who Shot Son in Rancho San Diego Home Convicted of Murder

An East County woman who fatally shot her adult son in a Rancho San Diego home was convicted Monday of second-degree murder.

Josephine Ring, who turns 68 on Friday, will be sentenced July 27 by El Cajon Superior Court Judge William McGrath.

Defense attorney Jonathan Jordan said the verdict would be appealed on a number of issues, including an instruction the judge gave to the jury after it had acquitted Ring of first-degree murder.

Jordan said Ring was intoxicated when she shot her son, 48-year-old John Bonfiglio, on Dec. 19, 2010.

Ring called 911 shortly after 11 p.m., saying she had shot Bonfiglio, who died at the scene of a gunshot wound to the chest.

The defendant was detained the night of the killing, but was not immediately arrested because authorities weren't sure whether the shooting was accidental, self-defense or a criminal act.

Ring was taken into custody several weeks later at a health care facility in La Mesa, where she had been under a doctor's care since her son's death.

– City News Service