SAN DIEGO -- A man accused of abandoning more than 30 animals – including a python snake – at an out-of-business pet store in Lemon Grove has pleaded guilty to charges of animal neglect and cruelty.

The San Diego Humane Society announced Friday that Charles Mendoza pleaded guilty to felony animal neglect.

In August, Mendoza allegedly abandoned more than 30 animals at Dave's Family Feed Store.

A python snake, several reptiles, 16 birds, 11 chickens and some rodents were found inside the shop after the SPCA and San Diego Humane Society received complaints that the store had allegedly permanently closed for business and live animals were left inside.

Six animals died inside the store. The SPCA's law enforcement agency said the other abandoned animals were housed in unhealthy conditions, left behind without water.

The San Diego Humane Society helped lead the animal cruelty investigation.

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According to investigators, Mendoza served one month in jail and has been ordered to pay restitution to the San Diego Humane Society.

He's also not permitted to own an animal for 10 years.

Investigators say there is still an outstanding arrest warrant for another suspect allegedly involved in this animal neglect case.

Anyone with information on this case or any other crimes against animals is asked to contact the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA's Humane Law Enforcement at (619) 243-3466.

SAN DIEGO -- A total of 14 suspects have been indicted on accusations they stole about a million dollars from casinos in California and Nevada.

The suspects were allegedly able to confuse the banking system, according to officials. Investigators said the suspects took advantage of a loophole in the Citibank system.

Officials said the suspects would open accounts at various Citibanks in Southern California, including San Diego. They would then go to a casino cash advance kiosk and withdraw money.

Because of that loophole, a suspect could make multiple withdrawals for the same amount of money, as long as it happened within 60 seconds and all those withdrawals would count as duplicate transactions.

Cash used to gamble
The suspect could then overdraw the account by tens of thousands of dollars.

The suspect would then take the cash receipts to a cashier and collect all the money.

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"Some of that cash appears to have been used to gamble at casinos where the fraud was conducted or nearby casinos, such was the volume of the gambling that they were comped free rooms at the casinos,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Coyle said.

Prosecutors said the suspects allegedly withdrew about $1 million during an eight-month period.

Authorities are still looking to arrest one person, the other 13 have already been apprehended.

FBI agents said the loophole in the Citibank system has now been closed.

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SAN DIEGO -- A mother and her 7-year-old son have been reunited five years after the boy was kidnapped by his father and taken to Mexico, authorities said.

According to the San Diego District Attorney's office, the boy had been living with his grandparents near Mexico City after his father, 37-year-old Julio Rocha kidnapped him and left him there.

"I haven't really celebrated Christmas or his birthday or anything," he boy's mother, Leilani Masumoto, told NBC 7. "I was just waiting to get him back home. This will be our first Christmas together."

Masumoto said she had just been given full custody of her son, Keoni, when Rocha took the boy to Mexico. But last week her prayers were answered.

That's when authorities got a call from the grandparents' next-door neighbor, who came across a missing children's poster online with the boy's photo and recognized him.

'Broke down in tears'
After years of anguish, mother and child were finally reunited.

"As soon as he came, I just broke down in tears," Masumoto recalled.

But they are tears she says she would not shed if she ever has to face Keoni's father again.

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"I think my first initial reaction would be to just slap him across the face. I don't think he cared about Keoni, it's just more the fact of taking him to hurt me and he accomplished that," she said.

Although she may have lost years of memories with her son, it only took one look at her little boy to find that love again.

"It was like, will I recognize my son? Will he recognize me? And when I saw him, that was it," she said.

Right now, Masumoto is focused on getting her son settled in back home.

Keoni is autistic so Masumoto is trying to find a school that focuses on special-needs students.

Authorities are still looking for Rocha. He is facing felony kidnapping charges.

Investigators say he might be going under the name Miguel Martinez and may be staying with relatives in Virginia or North Carolina.

NBC San Diego

NBCSanDiego.com reported that officials believe alcohol may have played a role in the fiery crash involving a Lamborghini on northbound Interstate 15.

Updated at 3:58 a.m. ET: SAN DIEGO -- A 35-year-old male driver sustained major injuries, including burns to his face, after crashing his Lamborghini on northbound Interstate 15.

According to California Highway Patrol officials, the crash happened around 11:20 p.m. Saturday just north of Mission Road.

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Officials said a suspected DUI driver from San Marcos was driving at speeds of more than 100 mph when he traveled from a lane into the center median on the freeway.

The collision caused the vehicle to split in half and the car quickly caught on fire.

The driver sustained major injuries and burns and was airlifted to UCSD hospital.

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CHP officials said both the northbound and southbound lanes on I-15 were closed down for 20 minutes as the air ambulance landed.

No other vehicles were involved and nobody else was hurt.

The investigation is ongoing and officials believe alcohol may have played a role in the fiery crash.

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One of two veterans in the San Diego Sheriff's Department injured in a gun battle in Lakeside, Calif., is in critical condition, law enforcement sources said Tuesday night.

Detective Ali Perez and Sgt. Craig Johnson were reportedly shot and injured by Daniel Witczak after confronting him Tuesday afternoon in a Lakeside apartment complex, sheriff's department authorities said.

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Witzcak, 30, was confronted by the deputies for allegedly keeping pornographic images of his girlfriend's children on his cell phone with the intention of selling them, according to his girlfriend.

Perez was in critical but stable condition Tuesday night, sources told NBC San Diego. He was shot at least twice with a high-powered gun, including once in the stomach.

Johnson was shot in the arm and is expected to recover.

Confronted about child porn, man shoots two deputies in San Diego County

Lt. Duncan Fraser from the sheriff's department said both endured hours of surgery after being transported to the hospital.

“It’s too early to tell," Sheriff Bill Gore said of the deputies' condition, "but any time you have major gunshot trauma, there’s great cause for concern.”

NBC San Diego

A shooting victim arrives at the hospital following a gun battle in San Deigo, Calif.

Detective Perez is an 18-year veteran with the department who is assigned to the Child Abuse Unit. Sgt. Johnson is a 23-year veteran with the department who is assigned to the Santee station.

Fraser said he knows Perez well, and that for him to be assigned to the Child Abuse Unit demonstrates that he's "a good detective and has the ability to do a good, thorough investigation."

Perez was one of the deputies who found 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams, the suspect in the Santana High School shooting of 2001.

The entire sheriff’s homicide detail was at the scene of the shooting investigating and canvassing the area, Fraser said. They secured a warrant to investigate the residence early Tuesday evening.

One of the deputies is married to an employee with the San Diego Police Department, SDPD Chief Bill Lansdowne said.

"This is a very difficult day for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and everyone in law enforcement," Gore said to reporters after one of the deputies had just gotten out of surgery. "It’s a constant reminder of what our law enforcement officers in this country face every day."

Witczak was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital, according to a hospital source. There is no word yet on his condition.

The girlfriend told NBC San Diego that she was getting her two daughters ready for school when she found pornographic pictures of her boyfriend and her two daughters engaged in sex acts on his cell phone. Her boyfriend told her that he planned to sell the photos for $50,000 to a child porn site.

The woman said that after the deputies stormed the apartment, her boyfriend shot the two deputies with a high-powered rifle and then shot himself.

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A San Diego woman accused of strangling her infant son, and throwing him out of a third-story window to his death was “calm and unconcerned about the baby,” a police sergeant testified Tuesday.

Zewoinesh Badasso, 32, of North Park, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 7-month-old son, identified in court records as David N.

Badasso's defense attorney said her client told her she was opening a third-story window while holding her baby on Sept. 7 when the boy fell to his death.

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But in an interview outside the courtroom, defense attorney Amy McDonald indicated she will not argue that Badasso is innocent, but will instead claim that Badasso suffered from ”post-partum psychosis”.

McDonald said witnesses told her that Badasso was a very loving mother who snapped and killed her child. She said Badasso might not have a memory of what actually happened that day.

A stranger called police after finding the baby on the ground below a unit inside Park View Apartments on 39th Street in North Park.

Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney said the medical examiner determined that David had been strangled and had found ligature marks on the boy's neck, and other injuries that showed he had been beaten.

McDonald said her client was in custody when told of David’s death and appeared to be shocked and saddened.

However, a police sergeant who was present inside the apartment when officers questioned Badasso said she appeared uncaring.

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Updated at 9:19 p.m. ET: A Lakeside, Calif. man confronted about alleged child porn opened fire inside his apartment, shooting and injuring two deputies before shooting himself, according to the man’s girlfriend.

The girlfriend told NBC San Diego that she was getting her two daughters ready for school when she found pornographic pictures of her boyfriend and her two daughters engaged in sex acts on his cell phone. The suspect has been identified as Daniel Robert Witczak, 30. 

The woman headed to the sheriff’s office, showed them the photos and called the suspect on a deputy-tapped phone line to confront him.

Her boyfriend told her that he planned to sell the photos for $50,000 to a child porn site.

The couple had been dating a year, the woman said, who added that her boyfriend was unemployed. She said he planned to support them with the money he would have made with the photos.

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Deputies, including a child abuse detective, entered the apartment complex to confront the suspect while the woman and her daughters waited outside. The woman said that after the deputies stormed the apartment, her boyfriend shot the two deputies with a high-powered rifle and then shot himself.

Both deputies were transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital, KPBS.org reported. Lt. Duncan Fraser of the sheriff's office said at a press conference that both men were in surgery.

One patient arriving to a Sharp Memorial Hospital was shirtless on the first gurney coming out of the Lakeside Fire District paramedics van. That ambulance was followed by another carrying a victim covered by medical cloth.

The suspect was transported to Scripps Mercy Hospital, according to a hospital source. His former employer told NBC News that he had been employed as a mechanic but was fired after a week because he was unreliable.

The shooting occurred at Ashwood and Mapleview streets just south of the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, said Lt. Mike Munsey of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Resident Jodi Davis, who lives across the street from where the shooting occurred, said she heard between 12 and 18 shots.

“Multiple shots, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” Davis said. “I said, 'Oh my gosh -- those are gunshots!'"

She said the police ordered her and her neighbors back into their apartments.

Nearby El Capitan High School went into lockdown; students were dismissed at 1:20 p.m.

NBC San Diego reporters at the scene said officers responded from agencies throughout San Diego County.

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