San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

In the San Diego Courts yesterday a man that was accused of fatally stabbing a Pacific Beach man more than thirty years ago is facing trial on murder charges.

61 year old Gerald Dean Metcalf was taken into custody on October 14th for the 1971 stabbing murder of Gerald Jackson, a 27 year old Vietnam veteran who was found in his Pacific Beach apartment bedroom on January 2, 1972.

The San Diego Police Department linked this case to Metcalf through DNA testing and modern fingerprint analysis. Before then this was an unsolved case.

The prosecutors brought enough evidence from witnesses, former police officers and criminal investigators who worked on this case 37 years ago, to San Diego Superior Court Judge Frank Brown to have this case go to trial.

Metcalf could be facing 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted.

The victim had 61 stab wounds on his body, including his throat, chest and back. According to authorities, he was killed the night of December 28, 1971.

Jackson who worked as a U.S. postal carrier and also as a bouncer at the Barbary Coast nightclub in San Diego was reported missing by friends and co-workers. They knew something was wrong when he didn’t show up for work for days.

Ronald Coberly who was 27 at the time the violent murder took place said in court that he went to Jackson's apartment went into the bedroom saw blood on the bed and wall, “I could not believe what I was looking at”, said Coberly about the San Diego crime scene.

Jackson’s Ford Torino was missing and later found in Mexicali, Mexico. A stereo receiver was also found in a pawn shop in Calexico.

Fingerprints that were taken from Jackson’s car and stereo receiver that were stored in a database matched Metcalf’s, along with DNA that was taken from cigarette butts and stains according to Deputy District Attorney Jill Schall.

Man to face trial in 1971 fatal stabbing, The Union Tribune, February 25,2009