A 22-year-old man accused of beating a 72-year-old passenger on a city bus and stabbing his father to death a day later in a City Heights apartment is mentally competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Monday.
Criminal proceedings were reinstated against Ismael Beltran, who is accused of killing 43-year-old Francisco Beltran.
Deputy District Attorney Meredith Claterbos alleged the defendant attacked George Myrick on a Metropolitan Transit System bus on Oct. 10, punching the sleeping victim about 15 times while holding a pen in his hand.
The next day, neighbors in the 3600 block of 42nd Street heard shouting and Francisco Beltran yelling “No son, no!” in Spanish, then saw an individual they believed to be his son leaving the apartment, she said.
The elder Beltran, who had been stabbed 20 times, was later found bleeding in the residence and died at a hospital, the prosecutor said.
Claterbos said investigators found a knife — believed to be the murder weapon — on top of a refrigerator in the apartment, and a bloody shoe print was located in the kitchen.
Ismael Beltran was taken by his mother to an Otay Mesa-area police station on Oct. 12, where he was arrested.
A print from the defendant’s bloody shoe matched the shoe print found in the victim’s apartment, Claterbos said, but a motive for the killing was not known.
At the defendant’s arraignment, defense attorney Jane Kinsey said her client has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
–City News Service
