Camp Pendleton

A former Marine once based at Camp Pendleton has pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas to stealing more than $40,000 from the bank accounts of 15 Marines, some of whom were serving in Iraq. Edgar Hermosillo, 24, had access to the Marines' bank account information while he was on active duty from 2001 to 2005. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy, fraud and identity theft charges and will be sentenced July 7. -- -- Tony Perry

SAN DIEGO — A Marine staff sergeant pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of murdering the 22-year-old wife of a fellow Marine as the prosecutor announced that the victim's blood and a possible murder weapon were found in the defendant's car. A judge ordered Staff Sgt. Louis Perez, 45, held in jail on $3-million bail in the killing of Brittany Dawn Killgore, whose body was found dumped near Lake Skinner in Riverside County. Killgore had been set to attend a dinner cruise in San Diego with Perez and his girlfriend on April 13 but instead sent a text message to a friend saying she was in "distress" and needed help, Deputy Dist.

At long last: Dunkin' Donuts is coming to California. But don't get too excited - the shop will be on the Camp Pendleton military base. This spring, the cult-favorite East Coast chain will launch its first Golden State location in many years in San Diego County, accessible only to the 64,000 people who live, work and train at the base. Dunkin' Donuts, which hasn't operated in California since a short-lived Sacramento store closed a decade ago, said it has no plans to open any other restaurants in the state “at this time.” In recent years, Californians have reported several sightings around the state of what inevitably turns out to be a non-Dunkin' shop with a similar name or look.

OAKLAND - Aaron Negherbon remembers the plaintive email he received from a Marine sergeant in Afghanistan. "Aaron, I don't know if you can do this," it read. "Our supply truck was blown up and all the gear from my nine medics was destroyed. " The sergeant was requesting surgical kits, gauze, equipment for cutting into tracheas and "all the etc. " Negherbon, 38, founder and president of TroopsDirect, a nonprofit organization, had the supplies gathered, shipped and in the hands of front-line troops within 10 days.

On a sultry mid-July afternoon on this military base, a few hundred Marines, some with spouses and children in tow, were mustering for a free screening of the movie "Warrior" at a squat cement cinema house on Mainside, the section of the 200-square-mile facility reserved for civilian comforts like the Stars and Strikes bowling alley and Smokey's House of BBQ. In the film, which won't arrive in theaters until September, a Marine just home from Iraq...

Four Marines killed when their helicopter slammed into a mountain on a night training mission were remembered Wednesday at a crowded memorial service at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin. During the solemn hourlong service, held in a tiny theater on base, those aboard the CH-46E Sea Knight that crashed last Thursday at Camp Pendleton were depicted as simple, small-town men who loved to fly. Navy chaplain Robert B.

Like many casualties of the housing collapse, Adam and Kimberley Roche had a horrible 2008 as their window installation business, which once had 50 workers, ran out of projects. By November they had no money, no employees and no banks that would lend them a hand. "We had absolutely no work for six months," said Adam Roche. "That was a scary place to be."

Jerry Germenis was sitting in his seventh-grade English class in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2001, when the math teacher -- a normally taciturn sort -- rushed into the room with tears in his eyes. "Turn on the TV, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York," he blurted out. Within weeks, combat Marines from Camp Pendleton became the first conventional U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan, helping to topple the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden and his followers.

Heavy fog is being blamed for an early-morning traffic fatality that backed up Interstate 5 northbound traffic near Camp Pendleton for about three hours Friday, the California Highway Patrol said. Robert E. Trent, 61, of the 3900 block of San Pablo Avenue in Oceanside, was killed, and four other people suffered minor injuries, a CHP spokeswoman said.

A body found near Lake Skinner in Riverside County has been identified as that of 22-year-old Brittany Dawn Killgore, a Marine wife missing since Friday, the San Diego County medical examiner's office announced Wednesday. Meanwhile, Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Ray Perez, 45, considered a person of interest in the case, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista to charges of receiving stolen property and possession of a stolen assault rifle. Bail was set at $500,000.

SAN DIEGO -- A body, possibly of a Marine wife missing since Friday, has been found in rural Riverside County near Lake Skinner, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. Authorities also have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of homicide in connection with the disappearance of 22-year-old Brittany Dawn Killgore, Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said. The suspect, Jessica Lynn Lopez, was found Tuesday morning in a San Diego motel after an apparent suicide attempt and was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, Fraser said.

After the formal ceremony was over, after the traditional order to "honor the dead" had been given, Marines and family members approached what are called battlefield crosses: individual displays of boots, dog tags, pictures and inverted rifles. Sgt. Dane Bell strode to the display honoring his friend, Sgt. William Stacey, killed by a roadside bomb while on his fifth combat tour. After their son's death, Stacey's parents had made public a letter he had written in which he told them not to mourn if he was killed because "it was all worth it. " That was Stacey, Bell said quietly, never a second thought about the mission.

CAMP PENDLETON - A Marine Corps board Thursday night recommended that a sergeant who made "contemptuous" comments about President Obama be booted from the service and be given an other than honorable discharge. Sgt. Gary Stein, who left a variety of anti-Obama comments on a Facebook page, was stoic when the three-member board announced its decision at about 11 p.m. after an all-day hearing. The final decision on Stein's status will be made by the commanding general of the Marine Corp Recruit Depot San Diego.

After a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps is tweaking its recruiting pitch to emphasize not just combat prowess but also the Marines' involvement in humanitarian missions. A new 60-second television commercial, “Toward the Sounds of Chaos,” is set to make its debut on ESPN during Saturday's Big 12 championship basketball game. A shortened version will be shown in theaters. Similarly themed materials will be deployed to social media sites and recruiters' offices.

At long last: Dunkin' Donuts is coming to California. But don't get too excited - the shop will be on the Camp Pendleton military base. This spring, the cult-favorite East Coast chain will launch its first Golden State location in many years in San Diego County, accessible only to the 64,000 people who live, work and train at the base. Dunkin' Donuts, which hasn't operated in California since a short-lived Sacramento store closed a decade ago, said it has no plans to open any other restaurants in the state “at this time.” In recent years, Californians have reported several sightings around the state of what inevitably turns out to be a non-Dunkin' shop with a similar name or look.

Some described the big-shouldered Marine's soft way of talking, others the discipline he expected from his troops. All spoke of the religious faith he wore as openly as his uniform. "He wasn't the kind of guy that went to church on Sunday and on Monday was out raising hell," said Nils Bjorn, a civilian who worked with Sgt. Manuel L. Loggins Jr. at Camp Pendleton. "He was a religious guy who put his family first. " Of Loggins' death earlier this month, he added: "It does seem kind of senseless.

Seven Marines were killed in a midair collision of two attack helicopters in a remote part of Imperial County, the Marine Corps said Thursday. The collision between an AH-1W Super Cobra and a UH-1Y Super Huey occurred about 8 p.m. Wednesday during a routine training mission called Scorpion Fire. The training, part of preparations for deployment, was within an hour of suspending for the night. Six of the seven victims were from Camp Pendleton and the other was from the Marine base in Yuma, Ariz.