From the “Only in Barstow” file

Only in Barstow:

A man who was fighting with his girlfriend tried to lure her out of a Barstow gas station bathroom by starting a fire outside the door.

The victim, an Adelanto resident, suffered first- and second-degree burns to her ankles when the flames caught the floor of the bathroom on fire.

Damon Alan Spicer, 35, of Apple Valley received a minor burn to his left arm when the flames ignited his nylon shirt, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said.

The incident occurred about 4 a.m. Friday at a Shell gas station off the 15 Freeway at Cima Road. The couple was arguing while driving on the freeway, got off the freeway and stopped at the station.

The victim was afraid of Spicer, so she locked herself in the restroom inside the convenience store. Spicer tried to get her out of the bathroom for about 45 minutes.

He then used a flammable substance to start a fire at the base of the door. The store clerk dialed 9-1-1.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Spicer on suspicion of arson and torture. He also had two arrest warrants issued in Riverside County.

Paramedics treated the victim at the scene.

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Mental illness used by defense in bunker slayings

At a preliminary hearing for a West Covina man charged in the brutal slayings of a teenaged couple out in San Bernardino,  Collin Lee McGlaughlin’s attorney called his client mentally unstable and unfit for trial.

Here’s the story from the San Bernardino Sun. Testimony continues today in the case:

Just weeks before he was arrested in connection with the shotgun killings of 19-year-old Christopher Cody Thompson and his girlfriend, Bodhisattva “Bodhi” Sherzer-Potter, 16, Collin Lee McGlaughlin was taken to the doctor by his father to see about getting psychiatric medication, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in Barstow Superior Court.

During an interview with sheriff’s homicide Detective Robert Alexander, McGlaughlin’s father, Wayne, said his son had become “frightening.” He also said that about three weeks before his son’s arrest he had taken him to the doctor to see about getting medication to treat his erratic behavior, Alexander said during his testimony.

McGlaughlin, 19, and Covina residents David Smith, 20, and Cameron Thomson, 17, have all been charged with the Jan. 5 slayings of Thompson, of Apple Valley, and Bodhi, of Silver Lakes.

Stephan Williams declined to comment as to whether his client’s mental state will be the crux of his defense if the case goes to trial.

 

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