Dwight William Rhone is a San Diego man accused of four murders spread over three decades. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them, none has been tried, and he is presumed innocent.
The first charge came in December 2024, when he was arrested in the killing of Bernardo Moreno, 54, in October 2023. A year later, in December 2025, investigators searched a property in the Southcrest neighborhood where Rhone had once been a tenant and found human remains, and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office named him a person of interest. On June 10, 2026, prosecutors charged him with three more murders: the death of Michael Brown, whose remains were the ones found in Southcrest, and two cold cases, the deaths of Heriberto Ruiz in 1993 and Ronald Johnken in 2002. The charges carry a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders. Rhone was 74 when he entered his pleas.
Bernardo Moreno was 54. Prosecutors allege that Rhone shot him in the South Bay area of San Diego on October 13, 2023. Moreno died of a gunshot wound, according to the medical examiner's finding as released by the District Attorney's Office.
ABC 10News, citing court documents, reported in June 2026 that prosecutors allege the killing followed a dogfight in which Moreno had stabbed Rhone's dog to break it up, and that court papers say Rhone afterward used Moreno's debit card at a shop in San Diego's Webster neighborhood. The station reported that the FBI broke open the case after agents began wiretapping Rhone's calls from jail.
ABC 10News reported that Rhone was named as the suspect and arrested in December 2024, after a long investigation. He has been held in county jail since then, awaiting trial, and in December 2025 Times of San Diego reported that he was being held without bail on murder and other charges.
On December 2, 2025, the California Highway Patrol and the FBI served a search warrant at a property in Southcrest, helped by cold case and missing persons detectives of the San Diego Police Department and by the District Attorney's Office. According to the police department, Highway Patrol detectives had developed information that led them to suspect that human remains were on the property. Remains were found there that day.
ABC 10News reported that residents saw investigators arrive as early as 7 a.m., that some neighbors had noticed unfamiliar vehicles in the area for two days beforehand, and that investigators had paid for the current residents to stay in a hotel for several nights. The station reported that excavation was still going on two days later.
On December 3 the District Attorney's Office named Rhone, then 74, as a person of interest. It said he was a former tenant of the property, that he was already in custody and charged in the Moreno killing, and that because the property lay inside the city of San Diego, police cold case and missing persons detectives would investigate the remains with the District Attorney's Office, working with the San Diego County Medical Examiner to identify them and establish a cause of death. The office asked anyone with information about Rhone's possible involvement in other crimes to call the police homicide unit or Crime Stoppers.
The current owner of the property told ABC 10News that he had evicted Rhone and paid him $2,500 to leave in July 2023. Court documents obtained by the station showed that Rhone had lived at the house since at least 2002. In 2017 his sister-in-law, who then owned the house, sought a restraining order against him, alleging that he brought intoxicated people into the home, broke down her bedroom door when she confronted him and threatened her repeatedly. One of his brothers, who asked not to be named, told ABC 10News: "Dwight's not a savory character. He's a unsavory character."
Rhone had spent more than 30 years in prison before the murder charges, ABC 10News reported, citing court records. A 2019 court filing said he had been convicted of at least 17 felonies and seven misdemeanors since 1969. The station reported that his record includes multiple armed robberies, perjury and possession of a firearm by a felon.
In 1980, while he was being held in jail awaiting extradition to Texas, he was convicted of sodomy involving a cellmate, according to court filings described by ABC 10News. The conviction required him to register as a sex offender, and the station reported that he failed to do so on numerous occasions over the years. In 2019 a deputy district attorney, opposing his release, wrote that he had committed an extraordinary number of crimes and had not stayed law-abiding for any length of time in the previous 50 years. A 2007 psychological evaluation quoted him describing himself as a drug addict who needed help, the station reported.
Neighbors on the street where he had lived described a different man. One woman, who lives a few steps from his former home, told ABC 10News in June 2026 that he was a fixture of the neighborhood. A next-door neighbor called him friendly. Neighbors said that after he moved out he seemed to be homeless for a time and lived in his truck.
On June 10, 2026, the District Attorney's Office announced three more murder charges, the result of what District Attorney Summer Stephan described as years of work by prosecutors and local, state and federal partners. The release named the San Diego Police Department, the FBI, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Highway Patrol as investigating agencies. Deputy District Attorneys Jalyn McNee and Annie Sanchez are prosecuting the case.
The charges cover three deaths, as described by prosecutors.
Heriberto Ruiz was found dead in San Diego in December 1993. The medical examiner determined that he had been strangled. Several news outlets gave his first name as Herierto.
Ronald Johnken was found dead in San Diego in September 2002. The medical examiner determined that he died of blunt-force injuries.
Michael Brown's remains were the ones found at the Southcrest property in December 2025. His age, the date of his death and the cause of death have not been made public.
The special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders means that, if Rhone is convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty if prosecutors seek it, Times of San Diego reported. Prosecutors have not said whether they intend to seek death.
"Victims deserve justice and their families deserve answers," Stephan said. She added that her office "will never stop seeking the truth no matter how many years have passed."
Rhone was arraigned on the new counts on June 10, 2026, in a courtroom in Chula Vista. He walked with a cane. Through his lawyers he pleaded not guilty, and ABC 10News reported that he denied all four murder charges. He was held without bail. A preliminary hearing was set for March 24, 2027.
"Some of these crimes are decades old," McNee told reporters after the hearing. She said the investigation was continuing and that the office was still trying to determine whether he could be linked to other cold cases.
Prosecutors said in June 2026 that they were looking at whether Rhone was connected to other missing or unidentified people, and they asked the public for information about two.
Danice Galloway, 33, was found dead in San Diego on May 1, 1989. Antenogenes Gomez Velasquez, a resident of the same Southcrest street where Rhone had lived, was last seen in 2021; he would have turned 40 that year. Rhone has not been charged in either case, and prosecutors have not said that he is a suspect in them.
In June 2026 Rhone was in custody without bail in San Diego County, charged with four counts of murder and the multiple-murder special circumstance. He has pleaded not guilty, none of the charges has been tried, and he is presumed innocent. His next scheduled court date is the preliminary hearing on March 24, 2027.
1969: Rhone's first conviction, according to a 2019 court filing that counted at least 17 felony and seven misdemeanor convictions since that year.
1980: convicted of sodomy involving a cellmate while held in jail awaiting extradition to Texas.
May 1, 1989: Danice Galloway, 33, is found dead in San Diego (not charged; under review).
December 1993: Heriberto Ruiz is found dead in San Diego (charged 2026).
By 2002: Rhone is living at the Southcrest house, according to court documents.
September 2002: Ronald Johnken is found dead in San Diego (charged 2026).
2017: his sister-in-law seeks a restraining order against him.
2019: a deputy district attorney opposes his release.
2021: Antenogenes Gomez Velasquez is last seen (not charged; under review).
July 2023: the owner of the Southcrest house evicts Rhone.
October 13, 2023: Bernardo Moreno, 54, is killed in San Diego (charged 2024).
December 2024: Rhone is arrested and charged with Moreno's murder.
December 2, 2025: the Highway Patrol and the FBI search the Southcrest property; human remains are found.
December 3, 2025: the District Attorney names Rhone a person of interest.
June 10, 2026: three more murder counts and a multiple-murder special circumstance are filed; Rhone pleads not guilty in Chula Vista and is held without bail.
March 24, 2027: preliminary hearing scheduled.