SAN DIEGO —
A former sheriff’s deputy must stand trial on a murder charge in the shooting death of a man he saw escape from a state parks patrol car near the downtown San Diego jail last spring, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Aaron Russell, 24, has pleaded not guilty in the death of Nicholas Bils, 36, who was shot as he sprinted north on Front Street at B Street on the evening of May 1. The incident was caught on a surveillance camera on Smart Streetlights near the intersection.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers’ decision to order Russell to face trial came at the end of a more than two-day preliminary hearing at the San Diego Central Courthouse.