NOVEMBER 12, 2008 — John Joseph Taskey Jr., 47, of La Mesa, on parole for his fifth drunken-driving conviction, was given a sentence of 15 years to life in prison today at a sentencing hearing in San Diego Superior Court. Taskey pleaded guilty last month to second degree murder charges for a freeway fatality accident on September 13, 2007. In the crash, Taskey hit a Ford Focus near West Mission Bay Drive on westbound Interstate 8, killing Rosa Degerman, 75. Degerman died as a result of her injuries the day after the accident. Taskey’s five previous DUI convictions dated back to 1997.
NOVEMBER 12, 2008 — 4 people have been confirmed dead after a 1972 Piper Cherokee plane crashed in a plane crash in San Bernardino County. The victims included the pilot, Douglas Bowles, 75, Joshua Chlebek, 28, Oludare Akinwunmi, 29, and David Helland, 60, of Olivenhain. Bowles’ plane disappeared from radar screens in Sunday morning during the flight to Hesperia from Baja California. The plane wreckage was found Monday near San Gorgino Peak in the mountaines of San Bernardino. Authorities do not know why the plane went down, and are investigating the cause of the plane crash. When the plane went off the radar, Bowles had been flying in an area that did not require communication with air traffic control. The NTSB is investigating the cause of the crash.
