San Diego County Crime Log: Multiple Incidents

San Diego County’s latest crime roundup spans a captured escapee, two Vista drug cases and a fresh reward push in a 2016 Oceanside killing. (patch.com) (cbs8.com) The escaped inmate was Rudy Beltran, 50, who walked away Tuesday, April 21, from the Male Community Reentry Program center in the 2700 block of Boston Avenue in Barrio Logan. Authorities said he removed a required GPS device and was caught about 8 p.m., roughly seven hours later. (cbs8.com) Beltran had been sentenced in San Diego County in September 2009 to 28 years in prison for carjacking, with sentence enhancements tied to prior felony convictions. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said 99% of people who escape or walk away from its adult institutions and community placements are eventually apprehended. (cbs8.com) Vista accounted for the week’s biggest drug seizures. In one April 16 sheriff’s case, deputies said a search tied to suspected narcotics sales turned up about 2.14 pounds of cocaine, four firearms, high-capacity magazines, ammunition, drug-sales materials and more than $27,000 in cash. (sdsheriff.gov) The sheriff’s office identified the arrested business owner as Christian Magana, born April 19, 1992, and said he was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on felony narcotics-sales charges. A separate Vista narcotics case announced the same day said two people were arrested after warrants served on April 10 uncovered drugs and another $14,268 in cash at locations in San Diego and Chula Vista. (sdsheriff.gov 1) (sdsheriff.gov 2) The cold-case thread in the roundup points back to Brandon Keiser, 35, who was fatally shot in Oceanside on March 22, 2016, after returning home from buying a pizza. Patch reported this week that the reward for information in the case was raised to $25,000. (patch.com 1) (patch.com 2) Earlier reporting on the case said witnesses heard an argument and then gunshots before Keiser was found mortally wounded on South Freeman Street. The larger reward suggests investigators are still trying to generate new leads 10 years after the shooting. (patch.com) (patch.com) One other item in the same weekly window ended safely: the sheriff’s office said 55-year-old Cindy Ortiz, who had walked away from a healthcare facility in Encinitas on April 17, was later found safe by the California Highway Patrol at 7:44 p.m. that day. Sheriff’s Search and Rescue had been activated during the search. (sdsheriff.gov) (sdsheriff.gov) Taken together, the week’s log shows three distinct public-safety tracks in San Diego County: custody enforcement, narcotics policing and unresolved homicide investigations that remain open years later. The next movement in this roundup is likely to come from court filings in the Vista arrests and any new tips in the Keiser case. (patch.com) (sdsheriff.gov)