On Aug. 11, San Diego County prosecutors announced they’re seeking the death penalty for Leticia Diane McCormack, the Spring Valley mother accused of the 2022 torture and murder of her 11-year-old adopted daughter, Arabella McCormack. (D.A. Summer Stephan said they’re seeking life without parole for her parents, who are co-defendants in the case). The last time the San Diego County District Attorney’s office sought the death penalty was in March, 2020 for John Earnest, the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooter. To avoid execution, he pleaded guilty in exchange for life in prison without parole.

Today’s your lucky day — here’s 3 more true crime San Diego news stories:

Rare Mira Mesa Murder Solved

Another case S-REPORTER has been following is the first murder in Mira Mesa in almost four years. On Aug. 7, police responding to 911 calls found 78-year-old Tere Silentwater-Teresi in her garage dead from a gunshot; her husband, 61-year-old Todd Teresi, had also taken a bullet and would later die in the hospital. After conducting an investigation, which included viewing neighbors’ surveillance videos, SDPD detectives have concluded it was a case of murder-suicide initiated by the husband.

Downtown San Diego TikTok double-murderer asks for leniency

Another local story we featured in SIRENS that went national was the case of the TikTok star Ali Nasser Abulaban (JinnKid on social media) who on Oct. 21, 2021 murdered his estranged wife Ana Abulaban, 28, and her friend, Rayburn Barron, 29, in their downtown condo. (They lived on the 35^th floor of the Spire luxury apartment complex.). Convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, Nasser-Abulaban was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole, plus another 50 years…but now he’s appealing. His defense attorneys made their arguments to a panel of three justices at the California Court of Appeal in San Diego. They argued that the crime lacked the finding of premeditation that first-degree murder requires; essentially, Nasser Abulaban couldn’t deliberate or premeditate because he was too high on coke and not in a good headspace.

“I was in the worst physical and mental state of my life,” he told the justices. “I was sick, suffering from an untreated severe mental illness that, combined with the crippling drug addiction, put me in a state of a drug induced psychosis. My response in that moment was an unintended, impulsive reaction against my better judgment.” Abulaban is, of course, back in prison while the justices make their decision, which will happen, according to the law, by November.

Campland at the Bay killer convicted and sentenced

Closing the loop on a San Diego news story I covered for S-REPORTER in 2023: Michael Lawrence Callahan was convicted of murdering Ryan Abbott at the Campland at the Bay RV resort in north Mission Bay. (The conviction happened last year but I just learned about it). Per the S-REPORTER article, “Callahan and Abbott were in the resort’s hot tub chatting up some women when Callahan got angry, apparently due to feeling slighted or rejected by someone. That’s when he left and came back with his gun and shot Abbott, who died later in a hospital.” Jurors acquitted Callahan, 40, of first-degree murder, but found him guilty of second-degree murder, plus an extra charge for using a gun in the homicide. San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Rodriguez sentenced Callahan to 25 years to life in state prison, 15 years to life for the murder count plus another 10 years for use of a gun.

The judge called the incident a “senseless killing,” though she believed Callahan didn’t intend to kill Abbott, just intimidate him. As Judge Rodriguez pointed out, Callahan was responsible for making the fateful decision “to bring a gun to a minor altercation.”

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