The San Diego man accused in the slayings of three victims that began with a shooting on Christmas Eve 2013 outside Mission Valley mall will undergo a mental competency trial next month.

On Tuesday, a judge set a Dec. 14 date for a competency trial for Carlo Mercado, 30. The bench trial comes after evaluators from Patton State Hospital – a psychiatric facility in Southern California where Mercado had been receiving treatment – found him competent to stand trial.

Mercado’s attorney said the defense is still waiting to receive evaluation documents from Mercado’s doctors. All medical and mental health records for Mercado will be given to a judge prior to the start of the competency trial.

At his latest courtroom status conference, Mercado was quiet and expressionless, sitting at a desk alongside his attorney. He looked straight ahead as the legal teams from both sides spoke with the judge. At times, he looked down at the desk in front of him.

Mercado is accused of killing brothers Salvatore and Gianni Belvedere, as well as Gianni’s fiancée, Ilona Flint, nearly two years ago.

On Dec. 24, 2013, Flint and Salvatore “Sal” Belvedere, both 22 years old, were found critically shot inside their car parked outside a Macy’s department store at Westfield Mission Valley mall in San Diego’s Mission Valley area.

Flint, who called 911 to report the shooting and their location, died at the scene. Sal was hospitalized and died a few days later.

Flint’s fiancé and Sal’s brother, Gianni Belvedere, went missing around the same time of the Christmas Eve killings.

On Jan. 17, 2014, police found Gianni’s badly decomposed body stuffed into the trunk of his own car parked at a shopping center in Riverside, California, more than 100 miles away from San Diego. He, too, had been shot to death.

For six months, police reported no breaks in the baffling triple homicide case.

On June 20, 2014, the San Diego Police Department confirmed officers had arrested Mercado as the suspect in the three slayings. Mercado pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.

At a pretrial in early September 2014, DNA evidence emerged linking Mercado to Gianni’s car and the bloody Riverside crime scene, while ballistics evidence linked a gun registered in Mercado’s name to the deadly shootings of Flint, Sal and Gianni. Prosecutors also presented evidence found on Mercado's phone and computers.

Also in early September 2014, search warrants obtained by NBC 7 revealed the exhaustive investigation into the triple homicide case, but no clear motive for the killings.

In December 2014 the families of the three victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Westfield, LLC, accusing the Mission Valley mall of negligence in the deaths of Flint and the Belvedere brothers, claiming the mall failed to provide sufficient lighting and monitoring security cameras in the area to keep patrons safe. That lawsuit also listed Mercado as a defendant, accusing him of malice and oppression in the killings.

Exactly one year ago to date – on Nov. 3, 2014 – a San Diego judge ruled Mercado was not competent to stand trial in the triple killings, and ordered he be treated at Patton State Hospital for three years until he was found competent to assist in his own defense.

That ruling came after reports submitted by two psychiatrists and one psychologist diagnosed Mercado as schizophrenic, psychotic and suffering from catatonic depression, the suspect’s attorney said at the time.

In September 2015, Mercado was returned to San Diego Central Jail after evaluators from Patton State Hospital found him competent to stand trial. The defense then requested a competency trial for Mercado.

Now, at the trial slated for next month, the San Diego County District Attorney’s office says Mercado’s defense team has the burden of proving Mercado is mentally incompetent and that “as a result of mental disorder or developmental disability, the defendant is unable to understand the nature of the criminal proceedings or to assist counsel in the conduct of a defense in a rational manner.”

They're not always perfectly tuned. You won't find them in most music stores, and they look nothing like what their manufacturers originally intended. They're often called street pianos, and you're about to see a lot more of them around San Diego.

The imperfections are exactly what Bernard "Bobby" Buna loves about the brightly yellow-painted piano sitting on concrete outside a building in National City.
"It calls me all the time. I don't feel right if I don't get to play it at least once a day." he says. "It brings me up."

And there are days he needs a little boost. Buna lives on the streets in National City.

"Sometimes you get to that point where you don't want to move on, don't want to go on. This (piano) is my savior."

The piano he plays is available for anyone to play, anytime. For more than two years it's been sitting outside the building that used to be the National City Library, but now houses a nonprofit by the name of ARTS (A Reason to Survive).

"I absolutely love when people come play," says Sean Conway the music director for ARTS, "It's a huge asset." Conway says he's working with National City to find other places to put more pianos.

"Free pianos are really easy to find on Craigslist." he says. Moving them is the trick.

The idea of putting pianos outside in public places is not new, but it is gaining momentum around the world. One of the more well known examples started in London back in 2008. An exhibit was commissioned and titled "Play me, I'm Yours." which were the words printed or painted on every piano. The exhibition is still going today with more than 1,400 pianos placed in more than 49 cities around the world.

The San Diego symphony is getting ready to launch its own version during a month-long piano festival starting in January. As part of the "Upright and Grand" event, 10 pianos have been given to artists and community groups around the county to paint, or transform in some way.

The pianos will then be set in public places around the county with the majority of them downtown. After the exhibit ends, organizers say the ten pianos will be donated to various community groups. ARTS is one of the groups working on one of the those pianos.

As for that yellow piano Bobby Buna plays every day, he says it's more than an instrument for making music. He says it gives him a reason to keep going.

"I found my passion," he says. "I just bring this piano to life, you know."

A woman was arrested Tuesday after she allegedly stole snack items from a 7-Eleven store in San Diego and then hit an employee with her car as she fled the scene, police confirmed.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) said the suspect stole food and beverage items – including a sandwich, juice and Corn Nuts – from a 7-Eleven on College Avenue and Streamview Drive in Rolando just after 9 a.m.

Police said several employees from the convenience store confronted the woman in the parking lot. One of those employees was hit by the suspect’s car as the woman sped away from the area. The employee was taken to a local hospital with head injuries.

At around 9:20 a.m., SDPD officers spotted the suspect driving recklessly about two miles away from the 7-Eleven. Officers pulled her over on College Avenue and arrested her. In a lineup, police said one of the 7-Eleven employees identified the woman as the suspect who had stolen from the store.

The woman faces a robbery charge, plus assault with a deadly weapon for hitting one of the employees with her vehicle.
 

Luke Saunders had a simple dream: to get tasty, healthy food on the go.

A salesman who traveled across the country in his car for often long periods of time, Saunders grew tired of the high-calorie fast food that was ubiquitous nearly everywhere he traveled, NBC News reported.

When he looked for healthier options, he says he was left to choose between often staid salads and low quality frozen vegetables that he found in small town grocery stores and cheap takeout restaurants.

Until, on one business trip, he had a sort of unusual epiphany. What if consumers could purchase salads in vending machines?

A San Diego citizens group has filed a lawsuit challenging the California Coastal Commission’s decision to allow the burial of atomic waste from the failed San Onofre nuclear generating plant.

Besides the Coastal Commission, the lawsuit names the nuclear plant's operator, Southern California Edison, and so-called John Doe defendants to be added to the litigation at a later time.

Attorneys for the group, the Citizens Action Coalition, are expected to seek a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction to stop the project until the case goes to trial.

"Could you choose any worse place than this?” the coalition’s organizer Ray Lutz asked rhetorically at a downtown news conference Tuesday afternoon.

“The answer is no," he said. "This is probably the worst place on earth you could choose to put a nuclear waste dump … and the fact that they say this is their best option is incomprehensible. Incomprehensible!"

Lutz said the decision follows a regrettable chain of events starting with SoCal Edison’s installation of faulty steam generators that caused the nuclear plant to be taken offline and shut down in 2013.

That’s resulted in a multibillion dollar loss that state utility regulators have mostly heaped on ratepayers.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating the debacle and how it came about in dealings between SoCal Edison and the state’s Public Utilities Commission

Yet to be resolved is the hazardous issue of spent nuclear fuel rods that coastal commissioners have cleared for burial "on-site."

"It's below the water table; it's at a risk of tsunamis,” said attorney Maria Severson, who’s representing Citizens Action. “It's right behind a seawall within 100 feet of the shore. And they admit there's no technology to determine whether there would even be leaks. It's completely irresponsible. And it is like going to Vegas with our lives."

The lawsuit says SoCal Edison failed to consider remote alternative sites, such as in Arizona and San Bernardino County, and that the Coastal Commission "unjustifiably" relied on the utility's claims.

"They should have made accommodations in their plans for how to store the waste that their business produced, like every other business has,” said Mike Aguirre, Severson’s law partner. “But they didn't. And now they're asking the people of San Diego to carry that burden. And we're saying no."

A spokeswoman for SoCal Edison told NBC 7 that the company has no comment on the lawsuit.

So far, there’s been no response to the lawsuit from the Coastal Commission's media contact.
 

Investigators probing what caused a passenger plane to crash Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have turned their attention to who was on board — and who would have had access to the doomed jetliner before takeoff, NBC News reported. 

An airport source told NBC News that Egyptian security at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport has been focusing on who gained entry to the departure hall, was part of the catering and cleaning services, and had permission to be in the departure lounge.

The Metrojet-operated Airbus A321, which was headed for St. Petersburg, was carrying 224 people on board, mostly Russian vacationers visiting the Red Sea resort. No one survived.

One year before the 2016 general election, Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson are tied in a hypothetical matchup, but Clinton leads three other major Republican candidates, according to numbers from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday.

Clinton leads Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio among registered voters, but not Ben Carson, who is now leading a crowded GOP field in the NBC/WSJ poll. That potential race is a dead heat, tied at 47 percent, NBC News reports.

Carson outperforms the rest of his party among independents, leading Clinton in that category by 13 points (47 percent to 34 percent) in the poll.

The NBC/WSJ poll also tested Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders against Trump and Rubio, and Sanders outperforms Clinton by just a point or two.

Thunderstorms rolled into San Diego Tuesday, bringing with them lightning, hail and flooding.

The storm moved into the coastline south of Solana Beach and down across the county.

At about 8:30 p.m., flooding began in Lemon Grove near Federal Boulevar and Mallard Street. According to Heartland Fire officials, vehicles coming off eastbound State Route 94 at Federal were getting stuck in more than a foot of water.

The California Highway Patrol has shut down the offramp. People from four vehicles were rescued as fast-moving water pooled. The owner of Giant Pizza King on Federal Boulevard saw his business flood in just minutes.

The deluge in North Park forced a dozen tenants out of their North Park apartments on 32nd Street. 

Water came down so hard and fast on the property next door that it broke the neighor's retaining wall, sending rain and wastewater flooding into four of the lower-level apartment units.

Residents in six of the upper-level units were also told to leave because SDG&E shut off electricity to the building.

In Balboa Park, owners of two vehicles stuck in water say they saw a flash flood come through the golf course.

Rain mixed with hail was spotted throughout the city, and lightning stretched across the sky in many locations.

NBC 7's Dagmar Midcap says you should expect showers on and off through the rest of the night. High elevations near Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna may even see a bit of snow.

"Very spotty shower activity," Midcap said. "I mean, you might be under clear skies, you might be under those light shower activity regions, or you might be under a downpour." 

Fewer Americans are keeping the faith compared to previous years, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by Pew Research Center, looked at church attendance, prayer and belief in God.

Those who had an absolute certainty of the existence of a higher power dropped to 63 percent in 2014 from 71 percent in 2007.

The trend is higher among young people — particularly millennials — who are less likely to attend religious services. Only 39 percent are likely to pray daily.

Both the 2014 and 2007 studies surveyed more than 35,000 adults.

A South Bay group facing increase recycled water rates are calling for changes to the billing system.

Though the rates have stayed the same for more than a decade, 50,000 customers are now facing a 4.4 percent hike, which translates to about $4 more a month for the average household.

According to the Otay Water District's General Manager Mark Watton, under the new proposal, their wholesale costs will more than double for the water they purchase from the city of San Diego. The city operates a recycled water system with two treatment plants: The North City and South Bay reclamation plants.

Brent Eidson, the deputy director of Public Utilities for San Diego, said there has always been a unitary rate for customers, which means no matter where they live, they pay the same amount.

But opponents, including a group called the Fair Water Rates Coalition, say there should be a zone rate.

Because residents in the South Bay get their recycled water from the Otay Water District's water recycling facility, the group believes they shouldn't have to pay for services at the North City facility.

“We understand that recycled water rates need to come up and raise to cover current costs,” said Watton. “We don’t think it’s fair and equitable to raise rates to cover the cost in North City. If we have rates assigned to cover the cost of the facility the city owns that we use, that’s fair."

They say San Diego's rate hike will overcharge the Otay Water District, allowing the city to undercharge itself and subsidize rates for covered by the North City plant.

Eidson said the city needs to recover its costs by charging the same rate to everyone for recycled water.

“Yes there's a North City plant,” he said. “Yes there’s a South Bay plant, but they're interconnected and there's legal reasons why they are interconnected. So it’s one system and there’s a reason why it’s one rate.”

The San Diego City Council will vote on the proposed increase on Nov. 17.

The San Diego Gulls improve to 5-0 at home and 7-1 overall with a 3-2 overtime win over the San Antonio Rampage.

Nick Ritchie opened the scoring with a goal in the 1st period. He then closed the contest with the game-winning tally in overtime to give the Gulls the 3-2 victory.

Ritchie leads the team in points scored with 8. Sandwiched around Ritchie’s two goals was a 2nd period score by Shea Theodore.

The Rampage rebounded in the 3rd to erase a 2-0 deficit and force the extra period.

Gulls goalie John Gibson was solid in the first two periods making a ton of key saves. The penalty kill unit was strong around him, killing off multiple man-advantages for San Antonio.

The Gulls face the LA Kings’ AHL affiliate – the Ontario Reign – on the road Thursday evening.

After a Saturday contest in San Jose, the Gulls return home to the Valley View Casino Center for a Wednesday contest against Bakersfield.

Bolts fans, this is worth a toast: Chargers legend LaDainian Tomlinson has inspired a new craft beer, set to be released for a limited time only next week at Oggi’s Sports | Brewhouse | Pizza.

On Nov. 9, Oggi’s will release its limited edition #21 Grapefruit SIPA (Session India Pale Ale), a brew that pays tribute to Tomlinson – better known to fans as “LT” – just in time for the Nov. 22 ceremony at Qualcomm Stadium in which LT’s No. 21 jersey will be retired.

The light beer (4.8% ABV) boasts bittersweet grapefruit flavors and dank, piney hops. It will be sold exclusively at Oggi’s Sports | Brewhouse | Pizza and Oggi’s Express locations including Oggi’s in Mission Valley, Santee, Vista, Del Mar, Point Loma, Encinitas, Eastlake and Carmel Mountain Ranch. Oggi’s says $1 of every #21 Grapefruit SIPA pint sold will be donated to LT’s Touching Lives Foundation.

Tomlinson says he’s honored to have a brew named after him.

“[Oggi’s has] been so supportive of me throughout my career and have never wavered in their support for my charity, for which I am forever thankful,” the retired NFL star said in a press release.

Estelle Ferrera, VP of Oggi’s Sports | Brewhouse | Pizza, says the special beer is a way to thank LT for everything he has done for the Chargers and San Diego community.

“Each sip of this refreshingly light beer will be just as memorable as LT’s career!” Ferrera said.

According to the Chargers website, LT will be inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame at the Chargers vs. Chiefs game at Qualcomm Stadium on Nov. 22. The special halftime ceremony will make LT only the fourth player ever to have his number retired by the Bolts organization, joining legends Lance Alworth (No. 19), Dan Fouts (No. 14) and Junior Seau (No. 55).

Tomlinson, now 36 years old, played the majority of his 11-year NFL career as a star running back for the San Diego Chargers, earning many accolades for his talents on the gridiron before retiring from the NFL in 2011.

The U.S. Forest Service of Cleveland National Forest announced Tuesday it will begin conducting prescribed burns in certain regions near San Diego County in an effort to curb wildfire hazards.

Forest Service officials said the Descanso District in Alpine planned to kick off prescribed burning on Mount Laguna at 9 a.m., saying the activity may result in some drifting smoke visible from the Pine Valley and Julian areas. Fire officials said the burn would span about two to three acres along Sunrise Highway.

However, due to high winds, officials postponed the burning until Wednesday, weather permitting.

In the end, the prescribed burn season – which runs through May 2016 – is expected to cover between 500 and 700 acres. Mount Laguna and Lake Morena will be included in the burn areas, as well as possibly Pine Valley and Horsethief Trail, depending on weather and fuel moisture conditions.

The Forest Service says the purpose of prescribed burning is to “eliminate fire hazards such as masticated chaparral, timber litter, and dried vegetation, which can ignite rapidly during the summer months or in times of high heat.”

The activity is also designed to help slow the spread of wildfires.
 

A citizen took it upon himself to arrest a suspected carjacker trying to escape from an El Cajon dealership, police say.

At about 12:30 p.m. Monday, Reginald Brown got into a vehicle at a BMW dealership on Lemon Avenue.

An employee climbed into the passenger side to get the suspect out, but Brown refused, according to El Cajon police. Instead, he revved up the car and started to drive it from the dealership – with the employee still inside.

But after Brown hit two parked cars, he decided to take off on foot.

Jack Leary, a former police officer and Vietnam veteran, said he knew something was wrong when he saw the employees with shovels in their hands chasing Brown. He watched as the suspect fled into an alley and came his way.

"He comes flying out of this yard, comes over about two-and-a-half-foot fence and runs up to my car and asks 'Can you get me out of here?' And I said, 'Oh yeah,'" Leary told NBC 7. Leary was driving a vehicle wrapped in police and military appreciation messages.

Brown threw the door open and got in. Leary instructed him to put on his seat belt.

"And as soon as he put his seat belt on, I reached over and latched onto his left forearm and said, 'You’re under arrest,'" Leary said.

The former officer told Brown to stay perfectly still while he called police.

When officers arrived, they found Leary standing outside his vehicle with Brown still inside, refusing to come out.

"K-9 officer came and said, 'Step out or I'm going to release the dog.' And the guy did not move, and [the officer] let the dog loose, and he saw the light of day then and decided to get out of the car."

Brown  was taken to the hospital for a minor dog bite injury, according to El Cajon officers. He will be booked into jail on charges of carjacking and resisting arrest. The dealership employee and Leary were not hurt in the incident.

Leary said his instincts just kicked in when he saw Brown trying to get away. According to the retired cop, the suspect was more concerned with escaping than he was shooting or stabbing him.

But would he recommend others make a similar citizen's arrest? 

"No I wouldn’t," Leary said. "If you're not properly trained, then you don’t know how to handle situations. You don’t know what to look for; there are so many things that go into it." 

While many Americans may be focused on the 2016 presidential race - still 371 days away - there are plenty of other heated elections and issues that were voted on Tuesday, NBC News reported.

Kentucky voters elected Republican Matt Bevin as its governor, giving the GOP “near total control of statehouses in the South,” according to NBC News.

Bevin, who defeated Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway, ran a campaign largely on the promise of cutting back on Medicaid expansion, according to the Associated Press.

"Nobody's losing anything," Bevin told NBC News in an interview Monday.

Democrats in Virginia also failed to take control of the Senate. Republicans have kept a 21-19 lead.

Meanwhile, voters in Houston defeated the most-watched ballot, rejecting nondiscrimination protections to gay and transgender residents. The ordinance was passed by Houston’s City Council last year.

National gay rights groups have been fighting for equal protection measures, while some have been worried that the ordinance would allow men to use women’s public restrooms, the Associated Press reported.

Voters in Ohio knocked out the proposal to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use, with roughly 65 percent opposed to the measure.

Two Michigan Tea Party leaders, Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, lost their bids to win back their seats. The two were forced from office over an affair and their subsequent cover-up scheme.

An emotional Gamrat told reporters that regardless of what voters heard or believed, "I worked really hard for them when I was there" in Lansing. "It was a tremendous honor to serve. ... My infidelity was wrong, but I don't think it warranted and merited the maligning of my character that I had on me and my family day after day in the news."

Voters in San Francisco will decide whether short-term rentals should be regulated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen's potentially history-making season is over.

Allen is headed to the Injured Reserve with a lacerated kidney and will not play again in 2015. The good news is he's expected to make a full recovery and be ready to go for the 2016 season, the last one under his rookie contract.

The third-year wideout suffered the injury on Sunday in Baltimore. Allen made a fantastic leaping catch in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown, but landed awkwardly with a defender falling on top of him.

Allen was on a pace to challenge the NFL's single-season receptions record. He'll finish the year with 67 catches for 725 yards and four touchdowns in just eight games.

Allen bounced back from a sub-par sophomore season by rededicating himself and showing great maturity over the offseason. He put in more work than he ever had before and was playing at an All-Pro level.

So who will the Bolts promote to Allen's leading wideout position? Dontrelle Inman is the logical choice to move in to the starting lineup with Malcom Floyd and Stevie Johnson.

Allen will be joined on IR by running back Branden Oliver and outside linebacker Tourek Williams. Oliver suffered a toe injury in the loss to the Ravens. Williams broke his foot in the preseason opener against the Cowboys and had not been able to practice until last week.

The Bolts added wide receiver Javontee Herndon, cornerback Greg Ducre and center J.D. Walton to the active roster.

 Friends and family of a local surfer found dead at a popular North County surf spot laid flowers and notes at the step leading to the beach Tuesday, in shock at the loss of a dear friend.

The makeshift memorial at Swami's State Beach in Encinitas sits next to a memorial for fellow surfer Kenneth "Kenny" A. Mann, a 61-year-old Encinitas resident. His body was found Friday morning near the shoreline located at 1298 South Coast Highway 101, approximately 26 miles north of downtown San Diego.

In just three days, two people have died at Swami's after surfing in the water. 

Close friends mourning at the memorial identified the second surfer as Joy Froding. Friends said the 57-year-old rode her bike to Swami's every day to catch a wave and was one of the kindest people they knew. 

"She always had a kind word," said a close friend who identified himself as 'Birdman'. "She was one of the happiest people I ever had known in my life."

Many friends came to lay down flowers, notes and cards at the makeshift memorial, describing the positive and uplifting person she was. 

"I love her, what can I say," said Linda Messing, a close friend. "That says it all. She was, she was a great person and I loved her."

Joy's boyfriend Mark worked with Kenny and the two surfers were friends.

One surfer at the memorial said he was with Joy when she took her last breath and said she had been having some pain in her upper body. She slumped over on her board right as she began to paddle out to catch another wave, the surfer said.

Officials said Joy died of heart problems, though an official cause of death will be determined by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office. Friends tried CPR when she was brought back to shore and paramedics tried to revive her. She was pronounced dead Monday. 

Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined an elite global club Wednesday by appointing women to 50 percent of his Cabinet positions, NBC News reported.

The self-proclaimed feminist made good his campaign promise that his governmental inner circle would be gender-equal. After initially trailing in the polls, the 43-year-old defeated incumbent Conservative Stephen Harper last month. His government was sworn-in Wednesday.

The appointment of a gender-equal Cabinet would mean Canada enjoying double the female representation of the United States; women make up just 25 percent of Washington's Cabinet of 16.

Democratic presidential hopeful, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley are calling for a halt on future leases of public land to extract fossil fuels, including gas, oil, and coal, and suspend current leases that aren't producing, Mekley's office announced in a press release Wednesday.

The two will unveil legislation Wednesday at a rally in Washington, D.C., designed to radically reduce the production of fossil fuels, which they say is necessary to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.

The bill, called the “Keep it in the Ground Act,” would also ban offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. 

The British government said Wednesday it was "concerned" that a bomb may have brought down the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula over the weekend, NBC News reported.

Prime Minister David Cameron's office said flights due to leave for the U.K. from the Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport — where the doomed flight originated — have been delayed so British aviation experts can travel there to assess security arrangements. 

"While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed," Cameron's office said in a statement. "But as more information has come to light we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device."