Alpine and El Cajon men plead not guilty to liquor store murders

By Neal Putnam
The Alpine Sun

     EL CAJON — Two men, including one from Alpine, pleaded not guilty on Nov. 29 to committing two murders at a store in El Cajon. The District Attorney’s office has filed special circumstances allegations in which the death penalty may be sought if they are convicted.
     Anthony James Miller, 21, of Alpine, and Jean Pierre Rices, 25, of El Cajon, are charged with shooting Heather Mattia, 22, and Firas Waahid Eiso, 23, in the head at the Granada Liquor store on March 1. Mattia was the co-owner, and Eiso worked there. Both victims were shot execution-style in the back of the head during a robbery.
     Deputy District Attorney Glenn McAllister said he knew Miller lived in Alpine at the time of his Nov. 27 arrest, but he did not know where he worked. Rices was already in jail on bank robbery charges in hold-ups in Lakeside and El Cajon that occurred after the murders.
     El Cajon Superior Court Judge Laura Halgren declined to set any amount of bail for both men. The District Attorney’s office will decide later whether they will seek the death penalty or a life term in prison without the possibility of parole if they are convicted of multiple murders.
     The other special circumstances that qualify for the death penalty allege the murders took place during a robbery and burglary.
     McAllister said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will decide if the death penalty should be sought after talking to the victims’ families, attorneys for both men, and the committee that makes sentencing recommendations on cases that qualify for the death penalty.
     A preliminary hearing was set for Jan. 22 and a status conference was scheduled for Dec. 21. Rices has a mental competency hearing in San Diego Superior Court on Dec. 20 on his bank robbery chase. His attorney on the bank robbery case told a judge he doubted Rices was mentally competent to stand trial.
     Rices’ other attorney questioned his mental ability to understand the bank robbery charges before he was charged with the double murders. Criminal proceedings are suspended in the bank robbery case, but that does not affect, at least yet, the double murder case.
     The arraignment judge cited case law that says there can be two ongoing cases against a defendant, but the mental competency proceedings don’t affect the other one.
     A number of relatives and friends of the victims attended the arraignment. Several said they didn’t understand why both people were killed as it appeared that the victims were cooperating with them during the robbery.

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