A person who fatally stabbed an 87-year-old girl and critically wounded her 60-year-old daughter in Mira Mesa final yr was sentenced Monday to 36 years to life in state jail.
Anthony Duane Siddle, 61, pleaded responsible earlier this yr to homicide and tried homicide costs for the April 22, 2022, killing of Peggy Brandenburgh, in addition to the stabbing of Brandenburgh’s daughter, Patricia Labarge, on the victims’ residence on Pagoda Approach.
In keeping with Deputy District Legal professional Melissa Vasel, Siddle was a good friend of Brandenburgh’s son and at one level, the defendant had lived on the victims’ residence.
Brandenburgh died on the scene, whereas Labarge survived regardless of sustaining round two dozen stab wounds.
Labarge’s daughter was additionally on the residence when the assaults occurred. Vasel stated she ran to a neighbor’s residence to get assist and the neighbor was in a position to {photograph} the license plate of the automotive Siddle drove to and from the scene.
That license plate quantity was publicly disseminated by San Diego police, who stated in a press release on the time that Siddle could be headed for Mexico. The prosecutor stated Siddle was then dwelling in Mexico.
Along with the {photograph} of his license plate, a Ring digital camera within the neighborhood captured an image of Siddle leaving the Pagoda Approach residence with a knife in his again pocket, Vasel stated.
A warrant was obtained for Siddle’s arrest and he was taken into custody June 1 in Cave Junction, Oregon.
At a court docket listening to final month, Siddle was requested by a choose why he wished to plead responsible at a comparatively early stage of his case.
Siddle stated, “It’s clear. I did it. It’s apparent I did it. There’s little question about it … I may waste the court docket’s time and taxpayer cash to pull one thing out that’s lower and dry. It ought to simply be over with.”
At Monday’s sentencing listening to, Siddle didn’t make a press release in court docket however his protection lawyer, Paige Stevens, stated her shopper has wished to plead responsible since she first met him.
Stevens stated that in a letter, Siddle acknowledged he was “sorry to the victims and their household. He’s sorry for what he put them by means of.”
A motive for the stabbings has not been disclosed, however Stevens stated, “I don’t consider Mr. Siddle was himself the day that this incident occurred” and that there have been statements from witnesses indicating “that he was not in his proper thoughts on the time of the offense.”
A number of of Brandenburgh’s members of the family who spoke on the sentencing listening to described her as a giving one that would open her residence to strangers. She was a mom of seven who typically raised her youngsters on her personal whereas her husband was deployed abroad with the Navy, members of the family stated.
She and her husband based the Miramar Meals Locker at Naval Air Station Miramar, now Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and she or he ran it for twenty-four years.
Brandenburgh’s granddaughter, Stephanie Labarge, stated, “Her charity didn’t finish on the gates of Miramar, however continued at residence the place she would invite associates and others into her home and deal with them like household, together with the defendant.”
Labarge stated, “He killed one of many biggest folks I’ve ever recognized. And though that loss was extraordinarily troublesome for me, I didn’t even have time or vitality to grieve as a result of my mom was mendacity in a hospital mattress combating for her life.”
Patricia Labarge was current on the sentencing, however Vasel learn a letter on her behalf.
She described her mom as a “true angel” and “a lady who was past selfless and all the time took care of others.”
In the course of the stabbing, she was in a position to struggle Siddle off by kicking him within the chest, she wrote.
Since then, she wrote that she is unable to return to her residence because of the recollections of the assault.
“My childhood residence was my favourite place and we had so many fantastic recollections there, however now I can’t even have a look at photos of it,” she wrote.
Stevens requested San Diego Superior Courtroom Choose Rachel Cano to impose the homicide and tried homicide sentences concurrently for a complete time period of 25 years to life.
However the choose stated that “given how atrocious this crime was,” consecutive sentences have been warranted, describing it as “a brutal and mindless assault on two very fragile folks in their very own residence.”
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this text.
