Get along home Cindy, Cindy

I was there that afternoon when she came back to the coffee shop. I certainly didn't notice anything different about her, she was in her normal jovial mood. Then the cops came and everything changed for good.

Cynthia Cdebaca is facing murder charges for killing her son in law, a man she is said to have always hated. She was coming down the stairs and he allegedly made a disparaging remark about her choice of attire. Never a smart thing to do.

So she grabbed her Charter Arms thirty eight and put five bullets in him, then went out to the car to get more ammo and reload, just in case.

She was a familiar fixture outside the coffee shop, always sitting around smoking a cig with Brett, possessed of a genuine and hearty cackle and laugh. We would sit and sing together some days. I knew she was from the south but I forget exactly where.

She shot him on her birthday that day in February, February 11 it was. Gave herself a little birthday present. Some said that the father, a local rugby coach, abused his kids. I don't know, I wasn't there. Evidently she and he had been butting heads for a long time and she had had her fill. He had allegedly told her she couldn't attend her grandchild's spelling bee, said that she looked "ghetto."

She put eleven penetrating and perforating wounds in him, plus some grazers. Just couldn't stop. She was reportedly elated when the detectives told her that she had finished the job and that her son in law was dead, pumping her arms in the air and shouting "Good, good, good, good." Said she would do it again.

“She (the defendant) then left the residence, tossed the gun in a nearby drainage ditch and threw the ammunition away. She then went to Denny’s for breakfast, she went to Pechanga (Casino) for gambling, she went to the liquor store for cigarettes and she went to her favorite coffee shop to end her day.”Deputy District Attorney Tracy Prior

Sounds like a hell of a birthday present. Not often somebody from your coffee klatch goes off and kills somebody, first time I can remember. But I guess we all have our breaking point. Hope she had a decent run at the casino and that she doesn't have to spend the rest of her life in the slam. But knowing her the way I do, I think she probably wouldn't change a thing. She had had enough and she was willing to pay the freight.