Vista : Dead Man’s Sister Pleads Innocent
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A charter member of the Vista Crime Prevention Commission pleaded innocent Thursday to a first-degree murder charge in connection with the shooting death of her brother last November.
Evanna Marie Cavanaugh, a 47-year-old mother of four, entered the plea before Superior Court Judge Zalmon Scherer. A readiness conference was set for May 27 in Scherer’s courtroom.
Cavanaugh is charged with shooting her brother, Charles Phegley, 44, five times in the head at their mother’s home in Leucadia. An investigation by sheriff’s detectives shows that Cavanaugh fired the final shot at her brother while she was talking with a dispatcher on the 911 emergency telephone line.
Prosecutors argue that Cavanaugh killed her brother because she wanted to end their long-running disagreement over income from rental property they owned. Cavanaugh’s defense attorney, Charles Goldberg, argues that his client acted in self-defense.
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