San Bernardino, CA: Man convicted of girlfriend's death at SB motel

Mike Cruz
Posted: 02/01/2010 02:58:34 PM PST

The trial for Anthony Lamont McCullough moved to the next phase Monday morning after a jury found him guilty last week of fatally stabbing his girlfriend at a San Bernardino motel in 2005.

The trial embarked on the sanity phase for McCullough on Monday morning in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records. A court trial for the defendant's two prior strikes will be held later, records indicate.

The jury found McCullough guilty Thursday of one count of murder in the stabbing death of 18-year-old Shicole Deshon Bester at the Econo Lodge Motel, in the 600 block of North H Street.

Police found Bester's body inside a second-floor room with stab wounds. The young woman was expected to graduate from high school within months of her death, according to prosecutors.

Bester and McCullough, now 39, had been dating. Witnesses said the couple were having an "emotional discussion" inside the Econo Lodge motel room just before it turned violent, according to prosecutors.

The stabbing partially severed the victim's tongue and resulted in a broken knife in her throat. Authorities say she also suffered chest wounds.

McCullough, who already has two strikes from prior felony convictions in Riverside County, faces a third strike and mandatory life in prison sentence.