San Diego
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A judge took under submission Wednesday a request to move out of the county the trial of a Spring Valley man charged with murdering two police officers.
San Diego Superior Court Judge William Low did not say when he would issue a written ruling on the change of venue motion by attorneys for Joselito Cinco, 26.
Cinco’s trial is scheduled for Aug. 19. He is accused of murder in the Sept. 14, 1984, slayings of San Diego Police Officers Kimberly Tonahill, 24, of La Mesa and Timothy Ruopp, 31, of San Diego.
Cinco’s attorney, John Cotsirilos, cited two surveys that showed Cinco had the second-highest public awareness and perception of guilt in a criminal case surveyed since the Brenda Spencer case in 1978. It was Judge Low who ordered the trial of Spencer, a 16-year-old San Carlos high school student, moved to Santa Ana in a change of venue. She subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the sniper slayings of a school principal and custodian.
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