A man who fatally stabbed an 87-year-old woman and seriously injured 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, murder of Peggy Brandenburgh, as well as stabbing of Brandenburgh’s daughter at the victims’ home on Pagoda Way.
A motive for the stabbings has not been released. Assistant District Attorney Melissa Vasel said Siddle was a friend of Brandenburgh’s son and that, at one point, the defendant had lived in the victims’ home.
The prosecutor said the daughter of the surviving victim was in the house when the stabbings occurred. She ran to a neighbor’s house to get help and the neighbor was able to take a photo of the license plate of the car Siddle was driving to and from the scene.
That license plate number was released publicly by San Diego police, who said in a statement at the time that Siddle may be headed to Mexico. The prosecutor said that Siddle was living in Mexico at the time.
In addition to the photograph of his license plate, a Ring camera in the neighborhood captured an image of Siddle walking home from Pagoda Way with a knife in his back pocket, Vasel said.
An arrest warrant was obtained for Siddle and he was taken into custody June 1 in Cave Junction, Oregon.
On Tuesday, Siddle pleaded guilty to all charges over the objections of his defense attorney, Karen Stevens, who said she had sought a “different and appropriate resolution to this case” but acknowledged that her client had been “uncompromising for This whole process that he had been wanting to beg and take responsibility for the event.
Before pleading guilty, Siddle was asked by San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Groch why he wanted to plead guilty relatively early in his case.
Siddle said: “Of course. I did it. It’s obvious that I did. No question about it… You could be wasting court time and taxpayer money to bring out something that’s cut and dried. It should just end.”
Siddle faces up to 34 years to life in state prison at sentencing, which is currently set for June 26.
–City news service
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