A man and a 17-year-old boy accused of breaking into a Lake Murray home and beating an 80-year-old man over the head with metal tool pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple charges, including robbery, burglary, elder abuse and false imprisonment of an elder.
Joshua Jett, 23, and Adam Donaldson, 17, were each ordered held on $250,000 bail.
Even though Donaldson is a juvenile, he was charged in adult court, said Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood, head of the Elder Abuse prosecution team for the San Diego District Attorney's Office.
A passer-by made an emergency call shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday from a pay phone in La Mesa to report seeing two men using a crowbar to break into a home in the 8400 block of Harwell Drive in eastern San Diego minutes earlier, SDPD public-affairs Lt. Andra Brown said.
An officer arrived in the neighborhood and saw two men running from the home, Brown said. The patrolman, who had a service dog with him, caught up with the suspects a short distance away and took them into custody with help from a man who lives in the area.
At about the same time, the burglary victim contacted police to report having been robbed and beaten with a tire iron or similar metal tool by a pair of intruders in his home. Medics took him to a hospital for treatment of head injuries of undetermined severity.
"It is a lesson," Greenwood said. "We have to be so on our toes every day, and to be aware of who's around us, and try to take precautions to keep our (seniors) safer."
Both Jett and Donaldson face up to nine years in prison if convicted. Jett also is charged with making criminal threats and trying to dissuade a witness from filing a police report.
A readiness conference was scheduled for Dec. 11 and a preliminary hearing for Dec. 13.
–City News Service
