America’s Finest City also happens to be one of the fittest, according to the American Fitness Index by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

The newly-released index shows the 50 fittest cities across the United States and San Diego snagged the No. 3 spot, just behind St. Paul and Washington, D.C.

The ACSM’s index looks at a variety of health indicators, including a city’s smoking percentages, physical activity and eating habits. The index also takes into consideration a city’s parklands, access to dog parks, recreational facilities and policy for school physical education classes.

The report says San Diego’s “areas of excellence” include a higher percent of residents meeting aerobic and strength activity guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). San Diegans also consume more than two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day.

There are also more farmers’ markets per capita in San Diego. A higher percentage of the population bikes or walks to work and is within a 10-minute walk to the park, the index says.

Areas to improve upon include the percentage of people using public transportation to work and the number of golf courses and swimming pools per capita, according to the index.

Other U.S. cities that made the top 10 fittest on the ACSM’s American Fitness Index include, in order: San Francisco; Sacramento; Denver; Portland; Seattle; Boston; and San Jose, Calif.

Indianapolis ranked last on the list, with higher rates of chronic health issues among residents including obesity, asthma and diabetes. For the full index, click here.
 

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Tuesday that the team will not appeal the penalty handed down by the National Football League in the wake of the Deflategate controversy.

Speaking from the NFL owners' meetings in California, Kraft said he decided to accept the punishment in an effort to "end the rhetoric." He said that while he still believes the penalty handed down was "unreasonable and unprecedented," he respects Commissioner Roger Goodell.

"The entire process has taken way too long," he said. "I can try to end it, or extend it."

Kraft also acknowledged that his position on how to handle the situation has changed.

"I think maybe if I made the decision last week it would be different than it is today," Kraft said.

The NFL fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks as punishment for the deflation of footballs below the league-mandated minimum for the AFC championship game. 

Quarterback Tom Brady was also issued a four-game suspension, which he has already appealed. His appeal must be heard within 10 days of its filing on May 14.

The NFL Players Association formally requested Goodell recuse himself as an arbitrator in Brady's appeal later Tuesday afternoon and asked for a neutral party to set in.

"If the NFL believes the Ted Wells report has credibility because it is independent, then the NFL should embrace our request for an independent review," the union said in a statement.

If it is upheld, Brady would miss the first four games. The Patriots open the NFL season at home against Pittsburgh on Sept. 10, then travel to Buffalo before a home game against Jacksonville. After a bye week, their fourth game will be in Dallas.

Brady would be eligible to return for the fifth game on Oct. 18 at Indianapolis. The probe began after the Colts complained that Brady used deflated footballs in their 45-7 loss to the Patriots in the AFC title game.

Officials are searching for a serial rapist that was treated at UC San Diego Medical Center on May 11 and has been on the run since.

The United States Marshals Service San Diego Fugitive Task Force in conjunction with the National City Police Department are looking for Eddie Lavella Smith.

Officials described him as a man with black hair and brown eyes. He is 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 175 pounds.

Smith is wanted for failing to register as a sex offender. He has been convicted of crimes in California, Colorado and Georgia as well as in Germany, where he was convicted of rape. He has also been convicted of robbery, grand theft auto, criminal threats, domestic violence, narcotic sales, assault, indecent exposure and failure to register as a sex offender.

Anyone with information on him should call 877-WANTED2 or 888-580-8477 with any information that may lead to his arrest.

Details about the mysterious 2010 murder of a Fallbrook family of four will remain a secret until at least Friday, and quite possibly for months longer.

A preliminary hearing in San Bernardino, Calif., for Charles Merritt, who prosecutors say murdered his former business partnerJoseph McStay, along with Joseph’s wife, Summer McStay, and the couple’s two sons, 4-year-old Gianni McStay and 3-year-old Joseph Mateo McStay was delayed again Tuesday morning.

Merritt has acted as his own attorney in the case, a tactic he previously told Judge Michael Smith will allow him to move the case quickly to trial and prove his innocence.

But at the start of Tueday's preliminary hearing, Merritt confirmed he is in negotiations to hire an attorney.

That development, and the fact that the lead prosecutor in the case was not in court due to illness, prompted Judge Smith to delay the preliminary hearing until Friday.

But if Merritt does formally hire attorney Jimmy Mettias, it is very possible that the hearing will be delayed again, this time for months, while Mettias studies thousands of pages of evidence in the case.
Mettias confirmed that scenario to reporters after Tuesday’s very brief hearing.

He also said he and Merritt are still working out the details of an agreement in which he will represent Merritt in this possible death penalty case.

As of today, Mettias said he currently "represents [Merritt's] interests" but is not officially his attorney.

Today's much-anticipated preliminary hearing would have revealed the first details of the case against Merritt, including expected testimony from detectives and other witnesses about the evidence against Merritt.

Family members of both Merritt and his alleged victims attended the hearing but declined to talk with reporters about these latest developments.

The mysterious case of McStay family’s murders has been filled with twists, turns and delays in legal proceedings.

In early April, Merritt’s pretrial hearing was also postponed because, at that time, he was still representing himself and a judge ruled he was not ready to act as his own attorney in the courtroom in the case that could result in the death penalty.

Merritt is accused of murdering his former business partner, Joseph McStay, along with Joseph’s wife, Summer McStay, and the couple’s two sons, 4-year-old Gianni McStay and 3-year-old Joseph Mateo McStay in 2010.

The Fallbrook family was reported missing on Feb. 4, 2010.

The case of their disappearance stumped the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department: a family of four vanished from their California home, leaving eggs to rot in the kitchen, their dogs without food and freshly-made popcorn on the counter.

In November 2013, the skeletal remains of the family were uncovered in shallow graves in a very remote desert location in Victorville, Calif.

One year later, in November 2014, Merritt was arrested in connection with the mysterious murders.
He had originally chosen to serve as his own attorney because he only has six to eight months to live due to congestive heart failure and could not afford his own attorney. A judge offered a court-appointed attorney at no cost, but Merritt initially declined.

In February 2015, Merritt complained to a judge that he wasn’t receiving the documents needed for his defense. He asked for prosecution discovery documents and files on a computer that was seized by investigators, according to U-T San Diego reporter Teri Figueroa.

After Merritt’s preliminary trial, a judge will decide if there’s enough evidence to send Merritt to trial.
 

San Diego has close to 3,000 untested rape kits in police storage, the largest backlog of five cities profiled in a study released Tuesday.

The Joyful Heart Foundation uses public records requests to determine how many untested rape kits are sitting in police custody around the U.S.

The organization released data for five cities Tuesday: Charlotte, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; Portland, Oregon and San Diego.

Each of the four cities listed along with San Diego has fewer than 2,000 rape kits that have not been tested.

An exam performed on victims of sex crimes within 72 hours, a rape kit can help lead to identifying an attacker or a rapist. The kits can contain clothing, hair samples and swabs that may hold DNA evidence.

San Diego Police Lt. Scott Wahl said in a statement that the backlogs do not represent a backlog of evidence waiting for analysis. In a statement, he said: 

"At any given time, there are fewer than 20 sex crimes cases waiting for processing in our laboratory. The San Diego Police Department takes every sex crimes case very seriously.

Every reported case is immediately investigated and evaluated by a Sex Crimes Detective. In every case, a review is done of all the evidence to determine the most appropriate strategy for processing.

The 2800 cases represent 25 years of rape kits that have been collected in sexual assault cases which were not forwarded to our crime laboratory for analysis.

Reasons for this may include, the victim no longer desires an investigation, it was determined during investigative follow up that a crime did not occur, or an analysis of the kit would yield a result that does not meet the Federal guidelines for input into the DNA database.”

Few states and no federal agencies require law enforcement to track the number of untested kits.

A recent audit suggested that California legislators should set a two-year deadline for the kits to be tested.

In San Diego, the evidence dates back to the early 1990s.

An oil spill along the coast near Santa Barbara has dumped about 21,000 gallons of oil from a 2-foot pipeline onto the shore, creating a 4-mile slick in the ocean, forcing an emergency cleanup and leaving the fate of the beaches unclear ahead of the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

Coast Guard crews responded after reports of an oil slick in the ocean, also seen on the sand at Refugio State Beach, around 12 p.m. Tuesday. The slick was initially estimated to be about a half-mile long but was reported to have spread to 4 miles wide by 3:30 p.m.

Capt. Jennifer Williams of the U.S. Coast Guard said the spill will have to be constantly monitored to minimize environmental damage.

"It's a moving target. Unfortunately it's not an exact science when we're dealing with changing conditions out there," Capt. Williams said. She added that wildlife should be able to recover from the damage caused from what she classified as a "medium" spill.

Video from NewsChopper4 showed that the spill happened in a portion of the pipeline above ground on land near the beach and made its way down to the sand and into the water.

Locals were concerned about the impact the spilled oil will have on wildlife.

"We are just kind of looking at the lay of the land here, and it's just devastating," resident Josh Marsh said.

"Tomorrow we'll probably (see) more of a sign of how bad the wildlife affected will be," Morgan Miller, who went to the beach to aid affected wildlife, added.

Refugio State Beach was evacuated, and warnings were issued for nearby El Capitan State Beach, as the oil slick moved south toward the popular camping spot.

Officials declined to speculate if the beaches would be open by the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

The U.S. Coast Guard is dredging the water and attempting to pick up the oil. Wildlife specialists have been called in to comb the coastline for affected animals.

The pipeline is operated by Plains All American Pipeline, L.P.

"Earlier today, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., became aware of a crude oil release from its 24-inch Las Flores to Gaviota pipeline in Santa Barbara County. Initial reports indicate the released oil reached a culvert leading to the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the spill has impacted ocean water and the shoreline. At this time, the amount of released oil is unknown," read a statment from the company.

"Plains shut down the flow of oil in the pipeline and has initiated its emergency response plan. The culvert has been blocked so no additional oil is reaching the water. Plains is working with local officials and first responders on site to begin clean up and remediation efforts."

"Plains deeply regrets this release has occurred and is making every effort to limit its environmental impact. Our focus remains on ensuring the safety of all involved. No injuries have been reported at this time."

Representatives from the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management, Exxon Mobil - which operates a nearby facility - and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department are on scene of the spill.

The leak was stopped by mid-afternoon, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Two UC San Diego students killed in a wrong-way crash on State Route 163 had just completed their second year of medical school the day before they died, school officials said.

New details emerged on Tuesday in the tragic crash early Saturday morning that claimed the lives of Anne Li Baldock, 24, and Madison Elizabeth Cornwell, 23.

Baldock, Cornwell and three other medical students were in a Toyota Prius hit head on by a vehicle driven by 21-year-old Jason Riley King. The crash happened at about 1:30 a.m. on SR-163 in Mission Valley.

The three others were injured in the crash, officers said.

On Tuesday, Baldock and Cornwell were being remembered at UC San Diego for their potential and humanitarian efforts.

On their final day of class, Baldock and Cornwell had talked about the humanistic, uplifting and positive reasons for being a doctor, said Maria Savoia, the school’s dean for medical education.

Savoia described Cornwell as upbeat and positive. She planned to head to Malawi, Africa, to help treat malnourished children.

As for Baldock, she was one of the smartest students in class, but also humble, Savoia said.

Baldock was interested in neuroscience and was also doing neuro-surgical research before she was killed.

“These two young women would have made wonderful doctors and a great difference in the world,” Savoia said. “It’s a loss for us personally, but it’s a much bigger loss.”

The wrong-way driver, King, was believed to be intoxicated at the time of the crash, officers said.

A Marine at MCAS Miramar with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, he faces charges of DUI and vehicular manslaughter.

In a statement, a Miramar spokeswoman said the Marine Corps is taking the matter seriously.

“The Marine's actions are not in keeping with the good order and discipline demanded of a U.S. Marine, and he will be appropriately held accountable for his actions,” Capt. Melanie Salinas wrote in a statement.

King, who also suffered injuries in the crash, will be arraigned Wednesday from hospital room.

Meanwhile, a private memorial will take place also Wednesday for Baldock and Cornwell.

A legal battle was launched Tuesday reopening the controversial issue of housing for dozens of undocumented immigrant children at a facility in Escondido.

Protests and a city vote ended last year with city leaders rejecting a federal contractor's proposal to turn the old Palomar Continuing Care Center into a 96-bed facility that would house unaccompanied immigrant children while their cases go through court.

In the complaint filed against the City of Escondido, the ACLU says not allowing immigrant children to stay at the facility equates to 21st Century discrimination. The ACLU is looking to get an injunction allowing the immigration facility to operate in a properly zoned area, within Escondido, despite the city's prior vote against it.

The complaint essentially argues the City of Escondido can't discriminate against a federal contractor based on a disagreement with federal policy – that policy being the immigration policy in the United States.

Southwest Key is the federal contractor that was planning on turning the center into a shelter for undocumented immigrant children. During land use meetings on the issue last year residents came out in force to protest the proposed immigration facility.

The city voted down the proposal.

Today, in response to this new lawsuit, Escondido’s City Attorney, Jeffrey Epp, issued this statement:

"It is politically motivated. It's a shame they're wasting time and resources to file it. It was a good decision based on legitimate land use factors and thorough deliberation."

David Loy, of the ACLU, said the proposed facility presents “no threat to the community.”

“There was no crime or disease at issue. The facts show this was a net benefit to the city that would have brought $6 to $7 million in new money to the city – 90-plus new jobs at good salaries for people to spend money and live in Escondido,” said Loy.
 

Dogs will not be allowed to roam off-leash on the same grass used for kids’ softball games, city leaders decided Tuesday.

The city council meeting was packed as people on both sides of the issue showed up to voice their support and concern with turning a softball field into a part-time dog park.

Some dog owners had proposed the idea to share Silverset Park as a way to serve more residents.

“The softball teams rarely, rarely use the park anymore, that's why we're here today to put good use to an empty field for three hours a day Monday through Friday," one proponent said at the meeting.

Folks against the proposal pointed out the fact there is a dog park just a few miles away.

If the council had directed staff to move forward with a trial run it would've cost about $30,000 to implement with most of that money going towards soil tests to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.

In the end it came down to the money and the council voted 4 to 1 to reject the dog park.

A Chula Vista woman accused of faking cancer and pocketing thousands of dollars in donations has pleaded guilty, NBC 7 confirmed Wednesday. 

Meaghan Hudson faced charges of theft by deception and grand theft because investigators say she claimed to have cancer and accepted thousands of dollars in donations from strangers, family and friends for more than a year.

On April 30, Hudson pleaded guilty and received three years of probation. 

Hudson shared details of chemo treatment and even shaved her head after announcing in the summer of 2013 that she has multiple myeloma, and chances for survival were low, according to her step-mother who lives in Texas.

Hudson's parents started an online fundraiser that garnered $5,000 in support. Her family has since repaid about half of the people who donated.

One longtime friend said she helped with fundraisers and even joined a group that got tattoos to show their support for Hudson.

In April, Hudson stood outside a Southern California courthouse Monday as her attorney described his client as "very remorseful."

“This was simply not just an act of greed or anything like that,” attorney Dan Smith said. “There is a story that’s something that everybody could probably learn from.”

“I just think it was a lie that got out of hand, “ Chula Vista Police Lieutenant Fritz Reber told NBC 7 in April.

Los Angeles is in the mix as a possible home for the 2020 Super Bowl — if the city has a stadium. 

With discussions ongoing about a franchise returning to LA, the league said during NFL meetings Wednesday that if a stadium is built in LA by 2018, the city would become a candidate to host the 2020 Super Bowl.

While there's no stadium blueprint just yet, that doesn't mean there aren't plans for one. Two cities, Carson and Inglewood, are vying for an NFL stadium.

Even with a stadium, LA would be facing stiff competition.

New Orleans, Atlanta, South Florida and Tampa have indicated they will be bidding for both the 2019 and 2020 Super Bowls. The owners won't decide on who gets hosting honors until next year.

"Anticipating that (a stadium) might happen, it was necessary to tell the competing clubs, the four clubs that were selected to compete for Super Bowl 53 and 54, there's a possibility that another club could be added to the mix, if there's a relocation proposal that is voted and if that proposal provides for a stadium to be done in time," NFL Vice President Eric Grubman said.

The Chargers and Raiders announced Feb. 19 they were working on a joint proposal to build a 72,000-seat stadium in Carson if they are unable to strike deals for new facilities in their respective cities. The Carson City Council voted in April to approve plans for the $1.7 billion football stadium that could house the team.

The council's move placed Carson in direct competition with Inglewood, where the City Council voted unanimously Feb. 24 to approve an initiative allowing for construction of an 80,000-seat stadium planned by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke at the former Hollywood Park racetrack site.

Although Kroenke is behind the project, the Rams have not announced any intention of moving back to the Los Angeles area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Living in San Diego is a walk in the park.

That’s according to a new study by the Trust for Public Land, which found that America’s Finest City is among the top cities in the nation for its park system.

San Diego tied with Seattle at No. 9 in the list that ranks the cities’ quality and abundance of parks.

The study looked at the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, percentage of land dedicated to public parks and quality of facilities and investment in parks.

Minneapolis and St. Paul tied for first, and the study found that 95 to 96 percent of residents in the Twin Cities live in walking distance of a park.

In San Diego, the percentage of residents who live within a half-mile from a park is 77 percent.

The study also found that 23.5 percent of San Diego’s city limits is covered with parks and that Mission Bay Park is the most-visited municipal park.

The only other California city to make the top 10 was San Francisco, which came in at No. 4.

Read a detailed snapshot of San Diego's public park system here.

A popular North Park eatery is one step closer to opening its doors in the Embarcadero area near downtown San Diego.

The Port of San Diego has approved a lease for Carnitas’ Snack Shack, a fast-casual “porkhouse” known for its tasty eats on University Avenue.

The eatery will open its third location, a walk-up cafe-style location, at 1004 North Harbor Drive. Construction is expected to take six months. 

The location will boast a pork-centric menu, as well as a takeout window for those looking to take their treats on the go. Diners will be able to enjoy a locally-sourced beer garden nearby and adjacent jacaranda groves and seating areas. 

This eatery will be part of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan which also includes a visitor’s center, parks, walkways and public art at San Diego’s waterfront.

The original Carnitas’ Snack Shack location opened in North Park in 2011 and continues to be a very busy eatery in the restaurant-heavy Uptown community.

That location is open seven days a week from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. and boasts a menu that includes items such as the famous “SnackShack Burger” with bacon jam and aioli and the “Triple Threat Pork Sandwich” with pepperoncini relish.
 

One of three defendants accused of bribing a former Camp Pendleton Marine and unlawfully accessing personal financial information of other service members has pleaded guilty.

Nellie Noland worked for Romano’s Jewelers at one of its North County locations.

In addition to pleading guilty, she has agreed to be a cooperating witness against the two other defendants. Those defendants include Romano’s Jewelers owner, Randy Abalkhad, and manager, Carlos Torres.

In March, the three defendants were charged with 15 felony counts each, which include conspiracy and identity theft.

The complaint alleges, between 2010 and 2012, the owner of Romano’s Jewelers in Carlsbad instructed employees to obtain personal financial information from customers who were active service members and then add unauthorized charges on those customers’ store credit accounts.

The charges are in connection with a 2012 U.S. Marine Corps criminal investigation that NBC 7 Investigates obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

See that story here.

If convicted of all charges, the former employees and owner face up to 12 years and four months each behind bars.

The store in which Noland worked is located at 2525 Camino Real in the Carlsbad Plaza South Shopping Center. Romano’s Jewelers has locations across Southern California, including four others in the San Diego area including National City, Carlsbad and Horton Plaza in Downtown San Diego.

In November, NBC 7 Investigates first reported concerns by military members and their families that Romano’s is taking advantage of service members.

Click here to see the original investigation.

On Tuesday, a readiness hearing was scheduled for the defendants. The judge continued to readiness hearing for July 13th.

NBC 7 Investigates reached out to the attorneys of the defendants. William Hansley who represents Nellie Noland informed us his client changed her plea and is a cooperating witness in the case. Jeffrey Sklan who represents manager Carlos Torres wrote in an email, “The Court graciously continued the matter in light my need to conduct further investigation…Suffice it to say, there are two sides to this dispute vis a vis Mr. Torres.”

David Youssefyeh represents owner Randy Abalkhad and responded via email, saying, “As for Ms. Noland, as I said in my previous email, over three years ago she admitted to military investigators that she was helping out her lover who was a Marine on Camp Pendleton.”

The trial for a San Diego man accused of driving drunk in a crash on Interstate 805 that killed three of his passengers began Wednesday with a prosecutor discussing the defendant’s reckless attitude.

“Alcohol. Marijuana. A reckless, dangerous, and aggressive attitude. A very dangerous combination,” said Deputy District Attorney Mackenzie Harvey in her opening statement.

Harvey was referring to defendant William Cady, 26, a man facing 12 charges in connection with the deadly Jan. 10, 2014, DUI collision, including gross vehicular manslaughter and first-degree murder.

Harvey is pursuing a conviction on the first-degree murder counts, as she said Cady drank alcohol and smoked marijuana on the night of the accident fully knowing he was going to get behind the wheel of his Cadillac Escalade loaded with five of his friends.

“[He] turned that Escalade into a weapon and that night turned deadly,” Harvey continued.

The DUI rollover happened along Interstate 805 at State Route 52 near Clairemont after a night of drinking and bar-hopping amongst the six friends.

Harvey said the group of men allegedly consumed a large amount of alcohol, so much so that a waitress at one of their stops told them they shouldn’t be driving. The men were also kicked out of a second bar for “being too rowdy” that night, according to the prosecutor.

The six men left that second bar in Cady’s Escalade, with Cady driving. As they traveled on I-805, Harvey said Cady sped up and allegedly refused to slow down, despite requests from his friends to take the speed down a notch.

“He accelerated, he laughed and he said, ‘I will drive this car any way that I want,’” Harvey said in her opening statement.

Minutes later, at around 11:15 p.m., Cady lost control of his vehicle and crashed as he tried to merge from I-805 onto SR-52 at a high speed.

The Escalade veered off the road and careened up an embankment, where the car then plowed into a cement pillar and rolled over multiple times, ultimately coming to a halt in traffic lanes.

Harvey said the vehicle was traveling between 87 and 97 mph when it hurled through the air.

From there, California Highway Patrol said a chain reaction-style collision followed, with a silver Acura crashing into the SUV. Moments later, another vehicle slammed into the Acura, then traveled down the embankment across both directions of traffic on eastbound SR-52, eventually landing on the south side of the road. A third vehicle was also involved in the subsequent chain reaction collisions.

Four of the passengers were ejected from Cady’s vehicle. Four of the men were not wearing their seatbelts.

Two of those men – San Diego residents Taylor Bernardski, 29, and Shon Gilliam, 23 – died at the scene. Another occupant, Jeffrey Becker, 35, who was wearing his seatbelt, was also pronounced dead at the site of the DUI crash.

“Taylor Bernardski and Shon Gilliam were ejected out of that Cadillac Escalade early on when that vehicle began to flip. The two of them struck this cement pillar that holds up the I-805,” Harvey said. “They struck that pillar with such force, such velocity, that their bodies were destroyed internally. They’re actually imprinted – their shoes, their bodies, their heads – on this cement pillar.”

Cady was seriously injured and taken to a local hospital. According to Harvey, when officials arrived at the scene of the crash, Cady was still inside his car, strapped to the driver’s seat.

Cady was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Harvey said that when investigators went to the hospital to speak with Cady, they could smell the strong, cinnamon odor of Fireball Whisky still lingering on his breath.

The other two passengers ejected from Cady’s vehicle sustained serious injuries and were also transported to local hospitals. Two occupants inside the other cars involved in the chain reaction collisions suffered minor injuries.

Harvey said this deadly crash was not Cady’s first offense having to do with alcohol. She said he was convicted in a 2007 misdemeanor case “involving violence after he consumed alcohol.”

After that conviction, the prosecutor said a judge told Cady he “can’t afford to have alcohol” in his life, and Cady claimed he understood this.

“The defendant had been warned,” said Harvey. “It couldn’t have been more clear coming from a judge to this defendant.”

Harvey also said Cady crashed his car into a guardrail in June 2012 in a speeding incident with friends.

Though the prosecutor is asking for murder convictions in Cady’s trial, his defense attorney is fighting for convictions on the gross vehicular manslaughter charges.

He admits Cady was negligent and was speeding at the time of the deadly crash.

“Mr. Cady sits here today knowing that his negligence killed three of his friends, severely injured two others and himself,” Cady’s attorney said in his opening statement. “He’s responsible for gross vehicular manslaughter. Not murder. There is a difference.”

The defense attorney said Cady was driving fast but lost control when he tried to overcorrect on the freeway as he tried to turn onto SR-52.

“He did not appreciate the risk he was taking going into that turn. When he tried to correct his car, he lost control,” explained the attorney.

The defense said four of the passengers weren’t wearing their seatbelts, but Cady and one passenger did have their seatbelts on.

The two surviving passengers are slated to testify in Cady’s trial, as well as witnesses who came upon the wreckage after Cady's Escalade flipped.

Camilly Berardi, a bartender who served Cady and his friends at The Skybox bar in Clairemont on the night of the crash, took the stand Wednesday describing how she had asked the "rambunctious" group to leave. She said she even offered to connect them with an Uber driver that could've given them a safe ride home.

"I offered them ride services," she said. "I didn't want them hitting and killing my friends."

Berardi said the men were "visibly" intoxicated and acting "a little bit rowdy." Berardi said the men were drinking rum and coke cocktails, beers and shots of Fireball Whisky at the bar.

Witnesses Brandon Barnett and Charles Mokhtarzadeh also testified. A car in which they were riding that night was involved in the chain reaction crash after Cady's vehicle rolled.

Barnett said one of Cady's surviving passengers borrowed his cellphone to call family members and kept telling Barnett he had gone through the windshield of the Escalade.

Mokhtarzadeh said when he approached the Escalade to check on any survivors he could see Cady, conscious, and moaning in the driver's seat.

A California Highway Patrol officer was also called to the stand Wednesday, leading to very tense, emotionally-charged moments in the courtroom.

That officer described, in detail, the carnage of the accident and how one of the victims died while in his arms.

“I could see a body in the roadway,” the officer recalled. “I did not get a pulse. I looked at the person’s face. It was flushed. [There was] nothing I could do.”

“He said, ‘Don’t leave me. I don’t want to die,’” the officer said. “His arms moved less and his chest took a breath for the last time.”

Graphic photos of the victims were shown at this time. Amid the vivid testimony, the victims’ family members wept in the courtroom and some of them had to remove themselves from the gallery.

The CHP officer recalled seeing Cady and a surviving passenger having a hard time breathing and said the wreckage was a truly horrific sight.

“I could hear a gurgling and thrashing sound of blood,” he added.

Shortly before four people were found slain in a multimillion-dollar house in Northwest D.C. last week, someone delivered $40,000 in cash to the home, sources close to the investigation told News4.

Police believe three family members -- including a 10-year-old boy -- and a housekeeper were murdered Thursday, the day the cash arrived at the home.

The family had likely been kept bound and threatened overnight, sources tell News4. The cash had been withdrawn from an account at the company where one of the victims was CEO, the sources said.

Sometime after the cash arrived, the home was set on fire, leading to the discovery of the bodies.

The news of a cash delivery is the latest revelation in a case that seems almost unimaginable in its brutality and in its location. It happened in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW in Woodley Park, a neighborhood of security systems and landscaped lawns just blocks from the vice president's home and near the National Cathedral. 

Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47; their son, Philip; and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were found dead after the home was set on fire. Three of the victims had been beaten and stabbed to death, and some of the bodies smelled of gasoline, police said.

Philip's body was so badly burned that investigators aren't sure if he was injured before the fire was set, sources close to the investigation said. Philip's body was found in his room; three other bodies were found on the floor in one room.

The family Porsche was found burning in a church parking lot in suburban Maryland. The most-publicized clue so far: the grainy image of a person leaving the scene of the car fire, wearing black clothing.

Message from the Housekeeper

Savopoulos was the CEO of American Iron Works, which helped build the Verizon Center and CityCenterDC. Savopoulos and his wife, Amy, were well known in the neighborhood, often hosting parties for neighbors and friends, according to The Washington Post; the family had attended St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the neighborhood. Philip was a fourth-grader at St. Albans, the private school near St. Sophia and the National Cathedral; two daughters, Abigail and Katerina, were away at private boarding schools.

Neighbors who have been in the home said the family had an extensive and valuable art collection, which was on display a couple of years ago during the Christmas house tour put on by St. Albans.

The timeline of events that investigators are working from seems to match information from a longtime housekeeper for the Savopoulos family, who said she was a good friend of Veralicia "Vera" Figueroa. 

Nelly, who didn't want her full name used for security reasons, owns her own cleaning company and worked for the family for more than two decades. Nelly allowed Figueroa to work with her at the Savopoulos family's home.

On that Wednesday, Figueroa texted Nelly to say she wanted to work at the home, and planned to finish by 3 p.m., Nelly told News4.

That evening, Nelly missed a call from Savvas Savopoulos, saying Figueroa was spending the night at the family's home. She heard the call on voice mail the next morning.

An Eerie Encounter

Nelly said Figueroa's husband went to the home Thursday morning to look for her and had an eerie encounter. No one answered the door when he knocked on it, but he told Nelly he had the feeling someone was standing just inside the closed door.

He went around the back of the house to knock again. As he did, Nelly said, Savopoulos called his cell phone. Savopoulos said Figueroa was OK and had spend the night, according to Nelly.

The fire at the home was reported about four hours later.

Nelly said Figueroa was hard-working and loved life. She'd come to the United States from El Salvador to earn money before planning to retire next year.

A GoFundMe page was created to help with her funeral costs.

Throughout the week, ATF agents and D.C. police have continued to gather evidence at the Woodley Park home. Meanwhile, in New Carrollton, authorities used a bloodhound to try to track down the person who torched a 2008 blue Porsche 911 stolen from the home on the day of the fire.

The Porsche was burned in the parking lot of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church. That's where surveillance video of a person of interest in the case was captured on a camera at a nearby banquet hall.

The person is difficult to see in the video. The person is dressed in dark clothing, including a hoodie with the hood pulled up.

• WATCH the police video here

Meanwhile, neighbors and friends are mourning the family -- and left dreading the idea of what they endured in the hours they may have been held captive in their own home.

"This was a beautiful family, a wonderful family with children," said Coco Palomeque, a friend of Amy's. She described Amy as "beautiful, vibrant, full of life and full of energy --ready to jump into any project to help others, to help her community."

"The community where they lived really loves them, and we are here to support them if they need us," she said.

Staff members Pat Collins, Meagan Fitzgerald, Mark Segraves were among those who contributed to this report.

You won’t board an airplane unless you clear security. But at airports across the country, tens of thousands of workers have IDs allowing them airport access - often without any physical screening. Those IDs help workers access even the most secure areas.

It’s a problem first reported by our station in Dallas.

From March 2013 to March 2015, NBC 7 Investigates found 276 ID badges from Lindbergh Field employees or contractors were reported missing. NBC 7 investigates found more than 20 of those ID badges were missing for six days or more before they were reported. In one case 8-months went by.

Last May, one company said three of its former employees failed to turn in their badges after being given a deadline to do so. In September 2014, one man accused his roommates of possibly stealing his badge.

“It's very, very serious. Without question,” said Larry Wansley who used to head security for American Airlines. Although he adds that a stolen ID would not necessarily mean an unauthorized person could access a secure area. “Just because one aspect of it has been compromised, there are a whole lot of other backups that come into play.”

Experts say the odds of someone gaining access with a stolen badge are low. IDs are deactivated when they are reported missing or stolen.

But others believe missing badges make airports vulnerable.

"That is a big number. And there is just no excuse for it,” said Senator John Thune, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.

He said the number of missing badges is a problem in San Diego and other US airports.

“Who knows what could happen in that amount of time?” he added.

Thune and three other Senators sent a letter to the TSA asking the agency to provide “The percentage of ID badges unaccounted for in each of the last five years at each airport.”

“We got to make sure that at least going forward the TSA is going about this in a way that that ensures that those are accounted for. Put a process in place,” Thune said.

The TSA told NBC their Acting Administrator will respond directly to the Senators. But a representative did send NBC the following, in part:

• TSA is currently working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to establish a system that airports can use to conduct recurrent (continuous) criminal history checks. Recurrent checking will alert airport operators to criminal activity by employees who may not have disclosed such activity following their initial criminal history review. In the interim, TSA will take the immediate step of requiring fingerprint-based Criminal History Records Checks every two years for all airport employee SIDA badge holders. (An amendment to an existing security directive was issued in late April).

• Once TSA has completed the check, the information is provided to the individual’s prospective employer with access either granted or denied based on the results of the Security Threat Assessment.

• TSA also continuously checks all SIDA badge holders against the terrorist screening database in case there are any changes to an individual’s status.

The San Diego Airport Authority declined NBC 7 Investigates request for an on-camera interview, but did send this written statement:

“The Airport Authority takes all possible steps to ensure airport security, including daily audits of contractors and tenants to match current employment status with all active airport badge holders. The Airport Authority requires tenants and contractors to provide accurate data regarding the current status of their employees and will work with the information provided to further minimize potential security risks. The more than 7,000 Secure Identification Display Area (SIDA) and Sterile Area active badge holders are trained to abide by both the federal mandate to report their badge lost or stolen to the airport operator within 24 hours as well as all Airport Authority codes and policies as a privilege of being issued a badge.”

NBC 7 Investigates is working for you. If you have more information about this or other story tips, contact us: (619) 578-0393, NBC7Investigates@nbcuni.com. To receive the latest NBC 7 Investigates stories, subscribe to our newsletter.

A former Marine has been convicted of raping and attacking six young women in San Diego over a five-year period, including at least one instance where he attacked a stranger while dressed in military fatigues.

A San Diego County jury on Monday convicted former Camp Pendleton Marine Staff Sgt. Ted Amparan, 41, of multiple counts of forcible rape, rape by foreign object, assault and kidnapping. The charges relate to attacks that happened while he was an active duty Marine between 2007 and 2012.

Amparan faces 83 years to life in prison and will be sentenced July 7.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Amparan targeted prostitutes on El Cajon Boulevard, taking them to secluded areas of Camino Del Rio South to sexually assault them.

The women were between 16 and 23 years old and, though petite, fought back against Amparan, prosecutors said.

One of the women wasn’t a prostitute, but became lost while trying to find a friend on El Cajon Boulevard. Dressed in his military fatigues, Amparan stopped his car and offered her a ride, prosecutors said.

“When she realized that she was about to be raped and possibly killed, she fought back,” a San Diego County District Attorney’s Office news release said.

The women went so far as to scale a 6-foot fence and cross two lanes of Interstate 8 to get away from Amparan, prosecutors said.

Some of the women testified at trial that Amparan had told them that nobody would believe them and their cases wouldn’t be investigated.

Attempts to reach Amparan's defense attorney on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

San Diego was slated to host the Rolling Stones for the opening night of their first tour in years, and while that show is still a go at Petco Park on Sunday, the band announced an extra date on Wednesday.

The iconic rock & roll band announced Wednesday that they would be playing a club show that night in Los Angeles. While the L.A. Weekly reported that the show would be at the Fonda Theatre, that has not been confirmed by the band. However, Shakey Graves, who was slated to play the Fonda on Wednesday, announced via a press release that his show was moved to the Belasco.

The announcement on the Stones’ website stated that the band would be playing every song from their revered 1971 album, “Sticky Fingers,” which peaked at the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

Rumor has it that those who scored the tickets -- which sold out in minutes -- shelled out all of $5 apiece (plus a $5 service charge). For context, that’s roughly $1,995 less than some tickets for the Petco Park stadium show are going for.
 

An east San Diego man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing spent grain — a byproduct of the craft brewing process — from a popular Santee brewery to feed his barnyard animals, officials said.

According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the Twisted Manzanita Ales brewery had reported the theft of spent grain from the facility on at least four separate occasions to officials. The stolen brewing byproduct, commonly sold as animal feed, was valued at about $2,150, and the brewers had planned to donate it to local farmers.

"Getting our farmers frustrated because they were relying on that for their livestock," said Jeff Trevaskis, the Twisted Manzanita Ales owner.

To tap into the case, detectives conducted a surveillance of the brewery property early Tuesday morning. At around 5:30 a.m., detectives spotted William Aston, 32, drive up in a pickup truck near where the spent grain was kept and load about 450 pounds of it into the bed of his truck.

Deputies approached Aston before he could drive away. They discovered that Aston — a felon — had an active arrest warrant for an unrelated traffic case. When deputies searched his truck, they found firearm ammunition, too.

Trevaskis said the suspect did not have to go through all this trouble to get the spent grain.

"If somebody wants something and is down on their luck, come and ask me," he told NBC 7 Wednesday. "I'll feel free to give you a couple buckets of grain."

Aston was down on his luck. He lives with his mother, Debbie, who had to quit her job because of complications from a cancer surgery.

But the two have barnyard animals to feed, including pigs, chicken and cows.

"I think he was just trying to help," said Debbie. "You know, take care of everything so I'm not selling everything off."

The sheriff’s department said Aston was arrested for the theft of the spent grain, the arrest warrant and for being a felon in possession of ammunition.

She told NBC 7 Aston did not carry a gun, and the ammunition found in the truck was used on their property to scare off coyotes and rattlesnakes that attacked the livestock.

Because of a past conviction for transporting undocumented immigrants, he could face more serious charges and prison time.

The spend grain was returned to the brewery. The investigation is ongoing.

Aston was booked into San Diego Central Jail and is scheduled to make a court appearance on Thursday.