*CRIMINAL CASE UPDATE*

MAN SET TO BE SENTENCED FOR MURDER OF LAKE ELSINORE MAN WITH BAYONET OUTSIDE FAST FOOD RESTAURANT

MURRIETA - A Corona man is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, July 31, 2009, for the 2007 murder of a man with a bayonet outside a Lake Elsinore fast food restaurant.

George Michael Acuna, 35, was convicted on April 14, 2009, of murder for the June 15, 2007, slaying of 35-year-old Shane Elijah MacLachlan of Lake Elsinore. Acuna faces a potential life sentence.

Lake Elsinore police found the victim with a stab wound in his back as he lay on the ground in the drive-thru area of the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Riverside Drive. The weapon used to murder him, a bayonet, was found nearby.

Before his murder, MacLachlan confronted Acuna because he had been harassing some homeless men outside a laundromat next to the KFC. An argument ensued during which Acuna stabbed the victim to death.

An independent witness was able to provide police with the license plate information from Acuna's truck, which then led homicide investigators to his home. Investigators spoke to Acuna's children who identified the bayonet's sheath and one child said the sheath was last seen in Acuna's truck.

The sentencing hearing by Judge F. Paul Dickerson is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday in Dept. S303 at the Southwest Justice Center, 30755-D Auld Road, Murrieta.

The case, SWF022703, was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Chirco.