CARLSBAD — A young man awaiting trial for the slaying of a 68-year-old Carlsbad woman pleaded guilty to a murder count on Thursday and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1 in a San Diego County Juvenile Court, according to media reports.
Haloa Beaudet, 18, of Carlsbad, was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing 68-year-old Lisa Thorborg on the morning of Nov. 23, 2020, at Hosp Grove Park. At the time the crime occurred, Beaudet was 17 years old.
Carlsbad police arrested Beaudet on Dec. 14, 2020, after video footage identified him leaving the area of the crime scene approximately 15 minutes after the murder, according to court testimony from Carlsbad police detective Josh Bubins.
Police later found Beaudet’s DNA on the victim’s shorts and located a pair of flip-flops at the scene, which the suspect later told detectives he left behind because he doesn’t believe in “material things.”
After his arrest, prosecutors intended to charge Beaudet as an adult for stabbing Thorborg twice in the neck while she was walking along the Hops Grove East Trail. A message seeking a response from the San Diego County District Attorney’s office regarding news of Beaudet’s confession was not returned prior to publication.
Bubins said Carlsbad police retraced Beaudet’s steps from 10:21 a.m. when he was dropped off in his grandmother’s SUV at Hosp Grove Park. The detective said Beaudet frequented the trail to exercise and his typical routine began after he was dropped off at the park by a family member before walking home.
During a previous hearing, prosecutors presented several still images from video footage taken from the park in the days and weeks after the crime.
The cameras, which were set up on Dec. 2, recorded Beaudet “almost” daily walking the trail at Hosp Grove Park, peering into the yards of residents, lifting up door handles on cars and talking to himself, according to Bubins.
Beaudet had moved to Carlsbad prior to the school year from Oregon after moving from Hawaii, Deputy District Attorney Helen Kim said in the Dec. 23, 2020, hearing.
She said Beaudet was suspended “multiple times” for fighting at school in Oregon. Prior to moving to Oregon, Beaudet lived in Hawaii with his maternal grandmother, who sent him to a boarding school.
Kim said Beaudet twice ran away from the school, although Christie Hernandez, Beaudet’s grandmother, said he enrolled in the school to earn his diploma early with hopes of joining the military.
When Beaudet moved to Carlsbad, he enrolled in an online home school. According to Hernandez, Beaudet was to live with the Hernandez’s for six months, at which time the family would re-evaluate the situation.
For the latest crime reports in Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar, please visit The Coast News’ Weekly Crime Reports. For up-to-the-minute arrest reports in North County, check out Daily Arrest Logs. Read more local crime news here.
