A triathlete and one-time U.S. Marine combat skills instructor was ordered held on $3 million bail and described as an "extreme danger to the community" in the case of a man found stabbed to death on an Oceanside construction site.
Mikhail Schmidt, 30, entered a not guilty plea to a first-degree murder charge in connection with Jacob Laughlin Bravo's death.
Bravo's body was found Thursday in a trailer on the construction site on Windward Way, just east of The Strand. The site is where several million dollar homes are being built.
Officers arrested Schmidt hours after Bravo’s body was discovered and just two blocks away from the crime scene.
Prosecuting attorney Cal Logan described Schmidt as an "extreme danger to the community" and a flight risk.
Logan said Schmidt followed the victim into the trailer and stabbed him several times in the neck and back.
"He followed the victim to his home, the trailer he was staying in on the construction site, went into the room where the victim was sleeping and then stabbed him several times, killing him with a knife," Logan said.
Defense attorney Brad Patton argued bail be set at $1 million because his client has no criminal record.
The judge ordered $3 million bail based on the severity of the charges.
Schmidt served in the U.S. Marine Corps for eight years, leaving in August 2013 as a Staff Sergeant, E-6, according to Public Affairs Officer Maj Garron J. Garn.
Schmidt was deployed to Iraq for seven months in 2008.
His last assignment was as a Marine Combat Instructor with the Infantry Training Battalion-West at Camp Pendleton, Garn said.
There is no indication that Schmidt and Bravo knew each other, Logan said.
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Bravo, 37, was described as compassionate by his cousin Jessica Ramos.
"We don’t understand why anybody would want to hurt him," Ramos said.
Bravo was an ordained minister with a certificate from the Universal Life Church. He was learning the skills of becoming a plumber and was living with a person who was teaching him those skills.
The motive is still under investigation. The prosecutor said he has some idea of a motive, but will not give any details pending the investigation.
