Morro Bay man killed father with a machete, DA’s Office says
A 22-year-old Morro Bay man who court records show was recently involuntarily placed in a mental health facility was charged Tuesday with the murder of his father, a crime prosecutors allege was committed with a machete.
William Joel Schonberger was charged after his arrest Friday morning in the alleged killing of 59-year-old William John Schonberger in the home the two shared on the 400 block of Napa Avenue in Morro Bay.
On Tuesday afternoon, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office filed a single charge of murder against the younger Schonberger, a charge that carries a special allegation for the use of a deadly weapon, a machete, Assistant District Attorney Lee Cunningham said.
Schonberger is scheduled to make his first court appearance at a Wednesday morning arraignment in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
He was taken into custody by the CHP after stopping officers in the Avila Beach area and telling them he injured a relative in Morro Bay. The body of the elder Schonberger was found inside the home by Morro Bay police. Officers at the time said a large, bladed weapon was used in the attack.
Court records show that Schonberger is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 2014 for possession of child pornography in Manhattan Beach. He pleaded no contest to the felony charge on Jan. 29, 2014, and was sentenced to three years of formal probation in lieu of state prison time, as well as community service.
As a condition of his plea, Schonberger could not possess firearms, knives or other deadly weapons. His probation was scheduled to terminate in January 2017.
Court records also show that Schonberger’s attorney in his child pornography case, Los Angeles-based Walter Urban, began proceedings to have Schonberger’s felony reduced to a misdemeanor pending completion of probation in January. Urban said on Tuesday that those proceedings are obviously on hold pending his murder case, but declined to comment further about his client.
In September 2015, Urban filed a request to transfer Schonberger’s probation from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo County. On Dec. 1, 2015, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy denied the request, saying that Schonberger didn’t live at the Napa Avenue home.
“(Probation officer) spoke with defendant’s father, who reported his son is in a mental health facility in San Pedro,” the report reads. “He also reports the defendant does not want to move to San Luis Obispo County.”
The court docket shows that Urban told a judge in February that Schonberger was not living with his father at the time because he had been placed on an involuntary 72-hour “5150” mental health hold and his move to San Luis Obispo County was postponed. The documents do not reveal why he was taken into custody of mental health services.
A subsequent email from the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department to Schonberger’s Los Angeles probation officer dated Jan. 5, 2016, shows that SLO County officers spoke to the senior Schonberger and were told that his son would be living with him, and the transfer was approved in February.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Schonberger’s child pornography case, did not respond to requests for copies of probation department reports that could shed light on Schonberger’s relationship with his father, on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, Schonberger remained in custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail without bail.
This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Morro Bay man killed father with a machete, DA’s Office says."