Man convicted of killing woman after date

EL CAJON (CNS) – A man who ambushed an acquaintance as she walked home from a Lemon Grove bar where they had spent the evening together was convicted Monday of first-degree murder.

Casey Michael Tschida, 34, will be sentenced on Dec. 22 to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutor Gordon Davis said Tschida and Jennifer Krajnak were together for about three hours at Dirk’s Niteclub on Broadway, beginning around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2013.

Tschida left the bar about 1:30 a.m., returned 15 minutes later with his car’s headlights off and shot the 30-year-old victim in the head as she crossed the street toward her nearby apartment, Davis said. Krajnak died a half-hour later.

Three days later, San Diego County sheriff’s homicide investigators announced that Tschida had been arrested in Happy Valley, Ore., where his mother lives.