PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 24, NO. 1
JAN. 1, 2010
Second teen girl accused of torture
THISWEEK le b a u Val pons cou ages on P –B9 B8
By Randy Kalp
ESCONDIDO — A second teenage girl accused in the vicious home invasion attack on a 14-year-old girl was arraigned Dec. 24 on a multitude of charges, including attempted murder, a prosecutor said. Like her co-defendant — 14-year-old Jovana Gudino — Karina Amador is charged with attempted murder, torture, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, residential burglary and dissuading a witness relating to the May 3 attack on the teenager in her Escondido home on Goldenrod Street. Amador faces an additional count of misdemeanor battery relating to an incident
STANDOUTS
After more than 50 years in Carlsbad, a couple was honored by the city as its Citizens B1 of the Year
GIVING
Local police officers wouldn’t let the poor economy steal Christmas from two A3 area families
INSIDE
TWO SECTIONS, 36 PAGES
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PIER FUN
TURN TO TORTURE ON A12
Above, 11-year old Oceanside resident Carlo Devera braves the chilly temps as he fishes off the Oceanside Pier on Dec. 27. Right, 5-year-old Trabuco Canyon resident Sammi Woods doesn’t let the cold water interfere with her dip in the ocean.
Prosecutor: Gang attack was mistake By Randy Kalp
Photos by Daniel Knighton
Christmas Eve shoes put smiles on children’s faces By Wehtahnah Tucker
VISTA — Hopeless is not a word that Cheryl Reese uses any longer. After battling chemical dependency, poverty and homelessness, the mother of three stood proudly as her children chose shoes during the Payless Gives Shoes 4 Kids Gift Coupon Distribution on Dec. 24. North County Solutions for Change invited approximately 100 children and their families to the nearby shoe store for the holiday surprise. Beginning just before 9 a.m., children ranging in ages from newborn to 19 years old lined up for their turn to pick out shoes and accessories. Reese has had her share of hard times. She came to the nonprofit defeated and desperate. “There’s a lot of growth and change when you get to Solutions,” she said. After becoming clean and sober with the help of the organization, Reese said her life has changed. “It’s given me a new
chance,” she said as she watched her middle son Sean, 17, pick out shoes to wear to his part-time job. Today, Reese’s family is together, her sons are thriving — one is a freshman at UCLA — and her self-esteem is growing. “Staying together as a family is the most important thing,” she said. “Being appreciative of the small things makes the sun shine brighter.” The organization that made the giveaway possible is founded on the principle that family homelessness can be solved. Executive Director Chris Megison, who founded the organization in 1999 with his wife Tammy, said the families that enter the organization’s “university” are given the tools to succeed in life rather than a temporary fix. “There is a difference between containing homelessness and solving it,” he said. HAPPY FEET Nicky Castaneda, 13, helps his little brother, Brian, 2, get While seasonal shelters are fitted for the right pair of shoes during the Payless Gives Shoes 4 Kids Gift valuable they don’t get to the Coupon Distribution on Dec. 24 in Vista as part of the North County Solutions for Change program. Photo by Wehtahnah Tucker
TURN TO SHOES ON A19
SOLANA BEACH — After having dinner at Fidel’s Little Mexico in Solana Beach, a couple came out to find the windows of their pickup truck busted up in what was an alleged misdirected retaliatory attack by an Encinitas gang, police said. Prosecutors allege six young men, one of whom is a documented gang member, surrounded a Ford Ranger on Dec. 6 and shattered its windshield and side windows with rocks and a tire iron because they wrongly believed the vehicle belonged to a rival Solana Beach gang member. Five men were charged in the crime. Prior to the Dec. 22 preliminary hearing, two defendants — Gervin Chavez, 19, and Arturo Cuevas, 21 — pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor vandalism charge. Following testimony at the hearing, Judge Aaron Katz found enough evidence to order Armando Palacios, 21, and Jesus Novoa Jr., 23, to stand trial on a felony vandalism charge, and Gerardo Palacios, 19, on a misdemeanor vandalism charge. Armando Palacios, who’s not a documented gang member, also has a gang allegation — which means the TURN TO ATTACK ON A12