New Coast Guard Cutter Named After Fallen Officer

Of the four new U.S. Coast Guard cutters bound for duty in California next year, the Terrell Horne III was named after the 34-year-old officer murdered in 2012 off Santa Cruz Island. Horne died after his inflatable boat was intentionally rammed by a 30-foot panga manned by Jose Mejía-Leyva, of Ensenada, Mexico. Mejía-Leyva was sentenced to life in federal prison for second-degree murder; shipmate Manuel Beltrán-Higuera got 10 years as an accessory. The men were suspected of supplying gasoline to drug-smuggling boats. Based in San Pedro, the cutters will operate throughout California and in international waters off Mexico and Central America.