After plea agreements and sentencings were settled for co-defendants in the “Bird Rock Bandit” murder case, the trial for Seth Cravens began yesterday with a graphic depiction of the scuffle that killed a La Jolla professional surfer.

Jennifer Grosso, the girlfriend of surfer Emery Kauanui Jr., wept in court during her testimony yesterday. Kauanui died in May 2007 after an altercation outside his mother’s La Jolla condominium. “I heard his skull crack when it hit the pavement,” Grosso remembered. Defendant Seth Cravens and defense attorney Mary Ellen Attridge listened to court proceedings yesterday. Cravens, 22, is charged with murder as well as other felony counts.

Wiping away tears, the girlfriend of Kauanui described the horror of watching him fall after Cravens punched him once in the face.

“I heard his skull crack when it hit the pavement,” Jenny Grosso testified in San Diego Superior Court. “It sounded like something just pinged off the sidewalk, and then immediately there was a pool of blood coming from the back of his head. I thought he was dead right there.”

Kauanui, 24, lived for four more days in a hospital after a fight outside his mother’s La Jolla condominium at about 1:30 a.m. on May 24, 2007.

Cravens was arrested in connection with what Deputy District Attorney Sophia Roach said were a series of violent actions over many years in La Jolla.

The Kauanui case drew international attention after prosecutors said Cravens and four other La Jolla High School graduates involved in the fight were members of the gang, the Bird Rock Bandits. Prosecutors said the group was at the center of many alcohol-driven fights in the area. Previous court hearings were packed. But Cravens’ trial began yesterday with only a handful of spectators, including his parents.

Because of the attention, “This case became not a prosecution but a runaway train,” Cravens’ attorney, Mary Ellen Attridge, said yesterday.

Cravens’ four co-defendants accepted guilty plea deals in June to lesser charges. Two of the four – Henri “Hank” Hendricks and Matthew Yanke – will be called to testify in Cravens’ defense, Attridge said outside the courtroom.

Grosso recounted that Kauanui had been losing a fight with one of Cravens’ friends when Cravens “just walked up to Emery and gave him one extremely hard punch.” The punch knocked Kauanui to the ground “like the lights went out,” Grosso said.

Attridge told the jury that Cravens punched Kauanui in self-defense.

“What happened to Emery Kauanui was a tragedy . . . but it was not a murder,” Attridge said. She said Cravens struck Kauanui when Kauanui got “5 inches away from Seth Cravens’ face” in a threatening posture.

Yanke, 22, Eric House, 21, and Orlando Osuna, 23, all pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter as a result of the fight that led to Kauanui’s death. Yanke and House were sentenced to 210 days in jail. Osuna was sentenced to 349 days. Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

A man who was fatally injured during a motorcycle accident in Tecate Sunday afternoon has been identified by authorities as Vanty Khao, 27, a Cambodian resident of San Diego.

Khao was fatally injured during after a crash on state Route 94, west of state Route 188, according to the county medical examiner. He was treated on the scene by emergency crews and then taken by ambulance to a nearby cafe to wait for a helicopter. He was then pronounced dead at the scene.

Khao had been driving west on Route 94 on his 2003 Honda motorcycle, with a group of other motorcyclists, when he lost control of the bike for unknown reasons and collided with a guard rail. The force of the crash threw Khao onto the road and he was hit by another motorcycle. Medical crews attempted to revive Khao, but he was pronounced dead on the scene.

The state’s highest court rejected a lawsuit filed by San Diego and two other counties challenging California’s medical marijuana law on Thursday, but will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a county counsel.

San Diego, Merced and San Bernardino counties sued the state in February 2006. The suit claimed federal laws forbidding marijuana use and possession supercedes a state measure approved by voters in 1996 that allows dispensaries to sell the drug to people who can provide a doctor’s prescription.

The counties’ first attempt was rejected in 2006 by the San Diego Superior Court and then again by the District Court of Appeals in July. Now the California Supreme Court chose not to review the decision.

According to Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton, San Diego County will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in the next 90 days.

According to his lawyers and officials, former baseball star Jose Canseco was detained by immigration officials at a San Diego border crossing as he tried to bring a fertility drug from Mexico.

Instead of being arrested, Canseco was issued a notice to appear in federal court “relative to a smuggling violation,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack explained.

“It’s a discretion we have, to issue a notice to appear rather than make an arrest when a smaller volume of items are being smuggled,” Mack said.

Mack said no charges have been filed against Canseco, who was given the notice to appear and released Thursday night. She declined to elaborate further on the allegation.

His LA attorney told the press that Canseco, a former major league All-Star, was held for nearly 10 hours at the San Ysidro border crossing. It has been reported that immigration agents said they searched Canseco’s car and found human chorionic gonadotropin, which is illegal to possess without a prescription.

Emerson declined to say if Canseco was in fact in possession of the drug, which is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for use in men. The drug helps restore testosterone production that is lost in steroid users.

Emerson went on to say that officials released Canseco after he agreed to allow ICE agents to search his Los Angeles-area home. ICE agents searched the home in the attorney’s presence yesterday as Canseco was returning from San Diego.

“They found nothing. They took nothing,” Emerson said.

Modern-day fingerprint analysis technology and a San Diego police intern helped solve a 37-year-old murder. Gerald Metcalf, 60, was arrested yesterday in Texas on suspicion of killing Gerald Jackson, 27, in Pacific Beach.

According to San Diego police, Jackson, a U.S. Postal Service carrier and part-time doorman at the Barbary Coast was found dead by his friends in his apartment after he hadn’t turned up to work for a number of days.

Officers determined Jackson had been stabbed to death sometime after Dec. 28 and his house had been tossed. According to homicide officer Lt. Terry McManus, Jackson’s Ford Torino was found days later in Mexicali, Mexico, and some of his property had been pawned by someone assuming his identification.

The case went unsolved until this past January. An intern assigned to the homicide unit’s cold case team examined the evidence, and investigators, using current fingerprint analysis technology, matched a print from the crime scene to Metcalf. McManus said the case was reopened with assistance from the San Diego and Henderson County, Texas, District Attorney’s Offices.

Texas Department of Public Safety officers arrested Metcalf before noon and he is currently being held in Henderson County Jail awaiting extradition to San Diego, McManus said.

Former San Diego Chargers defensive lineman Chris Mims, 38 was found deceased in his apartment Wednesday, according to a Los Angeles police report. Police said there didn’t appear to be any evidence of foul play in the death.

Mims recorded 42 sacks in 104 career games over seven seasons with San Diego and one with the Washington Redskins. He was a member of San Diego’s only Super Bowl team in 1995 against the San Francisco 49′ers.

The six-foot-five, 290-pound lineman retired after failing to be signed on with a team in 2000.

He is the second former Charger to die in just over three months. Former safety Terrence Kiel, 27, also passed away in a car accident in July.

According to base officials on Wednesday morning, the Juliet fire that raged across Camp Pendleton and consumed almost 4,000 acres is now 75 percent contained. The Juliet and Shockey fires burned within yards of homes in the North and East counties overnight, but air and ground initiatives saved structures.

“Had we not had the Superscooper and other assets, we would have lost a lot of homes of Marines and sailors,” said Col. James Seaton, base commander at Camp Pendleton. There is no estimate as to when the blaze will be 100 percent contained, but firefighters are making strong progress and weather conditions are accommodating, said Staff Sgt. Jesse Lora, a spokesman for the Marine base north of Oceanside.

Some residents who live in the San Luis Rey housing area, near where the fire burned, are still not able to go back into their homes this morning, but they may be able to return later in the day, Lora said.

Approximately 679 firefighters are contesting the blaze and three helicopters are still flying overhead dropping water. One firefighter suffered minor injuries say Cal Fire officials. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90s on the base, with relative humidity at 15 percent and winds at only 5 mph, Cal Fire officials confirmed Wednesday.

The red-flag warning issued by the National Weather Service is still in effect and has been extended until 10 p.m Wednesday night.

Temperatures around San Diego County are expected to remain high throughout the week, with highs in the inland valley predicted to be in the 90s and mid-80s along the coast. Cooler marine air should bring temperatures back to normal over the weekend.

Authorities report that a major interstate that cuts through Camp Pendleton has reopened after smoke from a wildfire on the Marine base forced the closure of the main traffic artery between Orange and San Diego counties.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Interstate 5 was reopened after a new, minor brush fire started Tuesday on the base. They report that the interstate was closed for less than two hours because of heavy smoke.

Marine Cpl. Priscilla Vitale says it is yet unsure how the 5-acre fire started, but says the fire has been contained. It is the third fire to start on the base in two days.

Placed high on a prominent corner of Pearl Street and La Jolla Boulevard, Steven R. Liss advertises himself as an attorney who handles divorces and adoptions.

But former clients said their cases were mishandled by Liss.

When asked, “What did he do with your case?” one of Liss’ alleged victims responded, “Nothing!”

“I think his licensing needs to be taken away,” said another of his alleged victim.

In 1998, an investigation revealed a couple that claimed Liss took their money and then botched their adoption of a baby girl. The couple had to return the child after six weeks.

In checking his history, it was discovered that Liss’ official record is mediocre. His license to practice law was suspended but stayed. Liss is still permitted to handle client cases while he is on a 2 year probation.

The labor board which handles employee complaints reports that Liss has an additional 16 cases filed against him.

Erica Ambuelh hired Liss for her divorce, paying him $5,000 that she was loaned from her mother.

According to Ambuelh, Liss never filed paperwork and also lied to her.

“He didn’t show up in court, didn’t tell me about it. There was a default judgment, I never got child support or alimony, it was a horrendous experience,” said Ambuelh. She only found out about her divorce when her ex-husband told her.

Ambuelh’s complaint to the state bar led to Liss’ probation because he “intentionally, recklessly or repeatedly failed to perform legal services with competence.”  Liss has never paid her back.

“He seemed like he was up for the job,” said Anne Munday Vuzzo. Vuzzo said Liss still owes her money. She said she paid him a $12,500 retainer for her divorce but decided to fire him after a few weeks because he had not done any of the work he had promised.

Vuzzo wanted her money back and in three weeks, Liss left voicemail after voicemail, each one with another excuse.”I’m out of the office, out of town actually”, “I do have limited email access”, etc.

Liss eventually paid half of the money back but in the process he bounced a check. According to Vuzzo, Liss still owes her $5,000.

“He put me in a big hole, financially, I know I’ll never recover from it,” said Brenda Lacy.

Lacy is another unsatisfied customer of Liss. She said she paid him a $6,000 retainer.

“He asked for another $400 for a filing and he needed it right then. Within 30 minutes he had it in his hands, but nothing was filed,” said Lacy. After Liss missed 3 of her court dates, Lacy dropped him. However, she had to picket outside of his La Jolla office and shame him into giving the money back.

“He should absolutely be disbarred, without question; he should not be practicing any type of law, anywhere,” said Lacy.

“I think bad attorneys number in the thousands, not in the hundreds,” said Bob Fellmeth. Fellmeth, a professor of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego, is not familiar with Liss but he is familiar with the law regarding retainers paid to attorneys. He said the retainer should go into a trust account and not into somebody’s pocket.”That could be criminal embezzlement and can result in disbarment of the attorney,” said Fellmeth.

The California State Bar, Fellmeth said, is supposed to vigilantly police attorneys but it often isn’t stringent enough. Vuzzo said she hopes with Liss that will change now that she has also filed a complaint.

“I hope this complaint protects other people from having to go through what I’ve gone through,” Vuzzo said.

Some of you, as I do, occasionally take the 45 min flight or 4-5 hour drive to the wonderful city of Las Vegas. A place I can’t wait to get to and after about one night usually can’t wait to leave. Its too close and too much fun to ignore thats for sure.  Some folks definitely get very excited to make some bad decisions in vegas. Well if those decisions involve a run in with the law out there, here is a piece of advice for you. Contact Cristina Hinds at the law offices of Mueller, Hinds & Associates right away if something happens to you or a friend. A Las Vegas criminal defense attorney, Cristina can help you if you have been charged with a DUI, traffic violation, bad checks and many other crimes. She offers a free consultation and will let you know right away if and how she can help you. Good luck to you and be safe out there.