A man who fatally stabbed an 87-year-old woman and seriously wounded her 60-year-old daughter in Mira Mesa pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and attempted murder charges.
Anthony Duane Siddle, 61, admitted Tuesday to April 22, 2022, killing of Peggy Brandenburgh, as well as the stabbing of Brandenburgh’s daughter at the victims’ home on Pagoda Way.
A motive for the stabbings has not been disclosed. Deputy District Attorney Melissa Vasel said Siddle was a friend of Brandenburgh’s son and at one point, the defendant had lived at the victims’ home.
The prosecutor said the surviving victim’s daughter was at the home when the stabbings occurred. She ran to a neighbor’s home to get help and the neighbor was able to snap a picture of the license plate of the car Siddle drove to and from the scene.
That license plate number was publicly disseminated by San Diego police, who said in a statement at the time that Siddle might be headed for Mexico. The prosecutor said Siddle was living in Mexico at the time.
In addition to the photograph of his license plate, a Ring camera in the neighborhood captured a picture of Siddle leaving the Pagoda Way home with a knife in his back pocket, Vasel said.
A warrant was obtained for Siddle’s arrest and he was taken into custody June 1 in Cave Junction, Oregon.
On Tuesday, Siddle pleaded guilty to all charges over the objection of his defense attorney, Karen Stevens, who said she had sought a “different, appropriate resolution to this case,” but recognized her client had been “adamant throughout these proceedings that he has been wanting to plead and take responsibility for the event.”
Prior to taking the plea, San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Groch asked Siddle why he wanted to plead guilty at a relatively early stage of his case.
Siddle said, “It’s clear. I did it. It’s obvious I did it. There’s no doubt about it … I could waste the court’s time and taxpayer money to drag something out that is cut and dry. It should just be over with.”
Siddle faces up to 34 years to life in state prison at sentencing, which is currently set for June 26.
–City News Service