Men to stand trial for murder in 2003 case

Two men accused in the 2003 shooting death of a Somali man in City Heights must stand trial for murder, a judge ruled Friday.

Sherman Strong, 30, and Shane Pilson, 22, are charged in the Aug. 14, 2003, killing of Khadar Hasan outside a taco shop.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Judge Leo Valentine Jr. ruled that enough evidence had been presented for the defendants to face the charges at trial.

Attorneys for the accused unsuccessfully urged the judge to dismiss the charges, saying the evidence against Strong and Pilson was weak. But the judge said a jury should decide whether the defendants are guilty.

San Diego police Sgt. David Johnson testified Thursday that he was told the defendants targeted a group of Somali men around 3 a.m. because one of them stabbed Pilson’s sister.

Pilson’s sister told Johnson that she described the stabbing to her brother.

“She pointed out at least one of the people who assaulted her to Shane,” the witness testified.

Hasan, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was not the person she identified, according to the sergeant.
Johnson said the neighborhood was heavily populated with East African immigrants, including Somalis. The 26-year-old victim lived with his grandmother several blocks from where he died.

There was also testimony that the defendants may have only intended to rob the men.

The sister said Pilson, who was arrested in June in El Cajon, told her he was going to the eatery to “pull a lick,” meaning a robbery, Johnson testified. She told him her brother suggested she not return there because something bad happened.

Mildred Miller, Strong’s sister-in-law, testified that she was sent on a food run by her sisters to the taco shop and met up with the defendants on the way.

Her orders were to call her sisters when she arrived to find out what they wanted to eat, Miller said.

“When I got to the pay phone, I was looking for change,” Miller said. “I heard the shot and I ran.”

She conceded that she told police that Strong also said they planned “a lick,” that she saw the defendants with bandanas over their faces and that she saw them running after the shooting, but she testified on the witness stand that those statements were all lies.

While Miller is not charged in the case, she had an attorney in the courtroom to advise her.

She said she was a methamphetamine user who stole from area grocery stores around the time of the shooting, and was under the influence that night.

Strong was serving prison time on an unrelated case when he was returned to San Diego to face the murder charge.

The defendants will be back in court Dec. 8 for arraignment and to get a trial date.

This story was written and edited by City News Service staff.

Tags: 2003 shooting death, Judge Leo Valentine Jr., Khadar Hasan, Mildred Miller, robbery, San Diego police Sgt. David Johnson, SDNN, Shane Pilson, Sherman Strong, Somali man, taco shop

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