


From superior court judges to casual newspaper readers, residents of San Diego County already know of the connection between violent crime and methamphetamine abuse.

What may be surprising, however, is the frequency of the connection. With an almost eerie dependability, meth has been associated with many of the most sensational crimes in the county's recent history.

Infamous, chilling and just plain bizarre acts have been committed by people on meth: Brutal slayings, kidnappings and suicidal assaults on police are just some of the more violent ones.

Methamphetamine, a stimulant that can be smoked, snorted or injected, is a highly addictive drug that can cause paranoia and delusions in long-term users. Addicts have turned to petty and sophisticated crimes to supply their habits, but often it is the senseless, unmotivated crimes that attract the most attention.

San Diegans likely will never forget Army veteran Shawn Timothy Nelson, who slipped into the National Guard Armory near Mesa College on May 17, 1995.

With his house in foreclosure, his life in a downward spiral and his brain ravaged by meth, Nelson pried open the hatch of an M-60 Patton tank, climbed inside and barreled down Clairemont Mesa streets, flattening cars and snapping lampposts like matchsticks before getting stuck on a Highway 163 median, where he was shot to death by a police officer.

In a similar incident with a less tragic ending, Cameron Taylor reportedly was on meth when he hijacked a San Diego bus at knifepoint in 1997, leading a police chase over 70 miles in 2 1/2 hours before he was captured.

On Death Row

Meth users have killed in moments of confused delusions or plotted and committed murders in cold blood.

One of the county's most disturbing murders occurred in Chula Vista in 1995. Veronica Gonzales was caring for her niece, 3 1/2-year-old Genny Rojas, with her husband, Ivan, because Genny's father was in prison and her mother was in drug rehabilitation.

But Genny's aunt and uncle were on meth, and in no shape to care for a young child. They tortured the little girl for six months before eventually scalding her to death in a bathtub.

They became the first married couple sent to California's death row.

Meth also was involved in what prosecutors at the time called the most heinous crime ever seen in the county. David Allan Webb was 16 in 1991 when he kidnapped Amanda Gaeke, 9, in North Park.

For 36 hours, Webb drugged the little girl and kept her in his bedroom in his mother's house, torturing and raping her when he was home and tying her under his bed when he went to school. He eventually killed her and hid the body in a canyon. The crime went unsolved until he was arrested and pleaded guilty in 1997.

Webb's attorney said he believed methamphetamine and other drugs played a significant role in the crime.

'American Beauty'

The headline-grabbing story of Kristin Rossum also had a methamphetamine connection. In what was called the "American Beauty" murder because of a similar scene in a movie by that name, Rossum covered her husband with rose pedals after poisoning him.


