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SAN DIEGO — Fort Myers Court Reporter

A Carlsbad man who testified that he “snapped” and killed his on-again, off-again girlfriend last summer when he discovered flirtatious text messages on her cell cell phone was convicted Monday of first-degree murder.

Jurors were being in their fourth day of deliberations once they reached their verdict against 41-year-old Jonathan Scott French, who maintained he was guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder.

The professional medical supplies salesman faces 26 many years to existence in state prison for that July 31 slaying of Jennifer Stark, a court reporter in the Vista Courthouse.

Retired Judge Peter Spinetta scheduled sentencing for July 12.

Jury foreman Scott Williford told reporters that French believed about what he was carrying out and took awhile to obtain up the nerve to destroy the 43-year-old victim.

“The evidence (showed) that he’d gone to her, taken a knife, gone by way of numerous drawers to get the proper knife, arrive back again, and there have been many slits on her throat previous to he made the decision to destroy her,” the juror stated.

Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek explained the victim’s household has gone via agony.

“Her mother and father, her kids, her buddies, her co-workers … they endured tremendously for the reason that of what happened,” he mentioned. “It’s one thing that could take place to any a single of us. By all accounts, Jennifer Stark was a terrific lady, dating this fellow, and it went awful, it went genuine negative. It was just agony for everybody; a ripple impact all through her whole lifetime.”

Stark’s friend, Kate Powers, says the guilty verdict signifies some closure for Stark’s two teenage youngsters.

“This has been one of the most horrendous ordeal, for all of us, her spouse and children, her pals, a whole lot of men and women inside the community,” she mentioned. “We are pleased using the verdict. We miss Jenny. We consider her every single day. She was a wonderful human getting that are going to be absolutely missed.”

Dusek stated French planned the murder and carried it out by beating and choking Stark and slicing her throat soon after they returned to her Carlsbad residence pursuing a night of drinking and kissing.

Defense lawyer Kenneth Kaminski told the jury that French killed Stark from the heat of passion and need to be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

French, testifying in his very own defense, proclaimed it was not anger that triggered him to punch Stark soon after reading “flirtatious and suggestive” text messages from yet another man.

“I just certainly snapped,” the defendant stated. “I went from zero to a thousand.”

French proclaimed he felt rage like he experienced in no way felt ahead of and strike Stark, sending her towards the ground.

“I screamed at her, why?” the defendant testified.

French proclaimed he strike Stark a couple of additional times and grabbed the unconscious woman by the neck. The defendant proclaimed he grabbed a knife, but did not actually don’t forget slicing Stark’s throat.

French testified that elements among him and Stark seemed being going extremely properly following the two got back again in concert pursuing a journey he took to Spain.

As they kissed in her residence ahead of the killing, the topic of the “goodbye” letter that he obtained written just before his journey came up, the defendant testified.

He testified that Stark told him that she obtained known as him twice with regards to the letter even though he was overseas, and pulled out her cell phone to prove it.

French stated he saw a name around the cellular phone — Chris — that he obtained in no way observed prior to, and questioned Stark about it.

When French yelled, “Are you even now seeing him?” Stark responded, “What if I’m,” the defendant says upon questioning by his lawyer.

Just after he killed Stark, French explained he tried to cut his wrists and stabbed himself from the leg in an make an effort to eliminate himself. He proclaimed he drove close to right up until turning himself in in the Encinitas sheriff’s substation.

On cross-examination, Dusek requested the defendant why he was not profitable at killing himself.

“There’s a rage there,” French proclaimed. “It was not there anymore.”

“Your intent was the identical, was not it? Dusek requested.

“I just was not really flourishing at it,” French answered.

“Why did not you do it?” the prosecutor requested.

“It’s harder to destroy your self than you consider,” the defendant answered.

French mentioned he and Stark experienced been because of several break-ups and reconciliations from the time they met from the fall of 2006. The defendant proclaimed they purchased a home jointly, however it went into foreclosure when his actual estate appraisal business enterprise went south.

Stark’s 15-year-old son observed her lifeless body in a very pool of blood in a very hallway upon returning household about 11 p.m.

Dr. Jonathan Lucas testified that Stark endured no less than 14 distinct slice wounds to her neck — which was fractured — and was also beaten concerning the encounter and choked into unconsciousness.

The fatal blow was a 5 1/2-inch cut to your front from the victim’s neck that went every one of the method to her spine, the deputy professional medical examiner stated. He proclaimed the wound went as a result of the carotid artery and jugular vein and cut across Stark’s airway and esophagus.

The deputy health examiner mentioned Stark’s nose was broken and she experienced 15 separate injuries — which integrated 10 effect wounds — on her encounter, together with bruises on her shoulder, collarbone, suitable breast, arms, hands, feet and head.

Simply because Stark worked for that county court program, Spinetta — a retired Contra Costa County judge — was assigned to hear the situation in San Diego.

At a briefing yesterday, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled the UK National Security Strategy, and for the first time ever, it included a strategy for combating cyber crime.

The plan is to create a centrally controlled agency called the Office of Cyber Security. This office will liaise with industry and law enforcement agencies and co-ordinate research and investigate laws and ethics with regard to online or ‘cybercrime’. At the same time another arm called the Cyber Security Operation Centre, based at GCHQ in Cheltenham, England will take a more active role. GCHQ is the UK’s intelligence gathering headquarters, which is home to most of the analysts and technicians that make intelligence gathering possible.

The Cyber Security Operation Centre or CSOC will start small with only twenty or thirty staff and will begin collating information and evidence on what kind of attacks can be expected now and in the future. In the longer term the team will develop methods and strategies that will combat these kinds of attacks. Part of the remit of CSOC is to actively prevent criminals and terrorists attacking Britain’s online infrastructure. Not only to protect the government but business too. At least ninety percent of UK bank transactions happen online, and although the banks have their own cyber crime teams, they welcome the national scheme. Especially if the CSOC have been given the freedom to actively seek out and take down people who present a risk to the UK. This active component is what everybody is talking about. Unlike traditional law enforcement they aren’t going to wait until something happens before investigating. They are going to be proactive and assess probabilities as well as existing scenarios.

Under this proactive guise investigators will be actively seeking wrongdoers and will have the technology and authority to do something about it. Although the words ‘Denial of service attacks’ were mentioned the spokesman wouldn’t comment on whether that was COSC defending against them or using them offensively.

The team will be made up of a mixture of civil servants from the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and the police. They will also be recruiting leading security specialists from around the world to add badly needed skills to the operation.

When asked this morning about the new elements of the UK National Security Strategy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said;

“Just as in the 19th century we had to secure the seas for our national safety and prosperity, and the 20th century we had to secure the air, in the 21st century we also have to secure our position in cyber space in order to give people and businesses the confidence they need to operate safely there.”

Although the new strategy is welcomed by everyone, some business analysts have wondered aloud why it has taken so long. After all the internet has been around commercially for almost fifteen years, and only now are the government catching up with the outside world. Nevertheless they welcome the move cautiously, waiting to see if it bears fruit before offering full support.