Editor's Note: You might think the Sacramento region's Top 10 crime stories for 2011 would include Phillip and Nancy Garrido's imprisonment for the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard or former real estate executive Michael Lyon's guilty plea to secretly videotaping prostitutes. But that's not the case, according to sacbee.com readers.
Based on page-view counts of crime stories on The Bee's website this year, 10 other crimes topped those two sensational cases. The Bee counts down the top 10 and gives you updates of where the cases stand.
See all the Top 20 crime stories of 2011
See all the 2011 year-in-review galleries
10. Two men jailed in attack shown in viral video
Two young men who appeared to derive entertainment from taunting and attacking a woman in South Sacramento on camera are in jail awaiting trial on battery charges.
The short video, first posted on the Worldstar Hip Hop website and later the Smoking Gun, was recorded at a strip mall at Mack Road and Center Parkway. It shows a woman walking back and forth in front of a coffee shop while a young man stands nearby. Behind the camera, another person laughs.
At one point, the young man punches at the woman's face, leading her to chase after him. Then another young man punches the woman, knocking her to the ground with his left hand. The man walks away.
Police said the 42-year-old woman declined medical attention the day of the incident, Oct. 1, and did not want to file a police report.
Police pursued the matter after the video surfaced, arresting Rasaan Zawadi, 21, and Donnell Wade, 19. Their next court date is Jan. 26.
9. Arrests made in 2007 killing of father, infant
Four years after the horrific shooting deaths of a 7-month-old boy and his father, Sacramento County sheriff's detectives in October arrested two suspects.
Richard Noguera, 33, and Donald Ortez-Lucero, 27, are in Sacramento County Jail, charged with the Sept. 14, 2007, murders of Sean Aquitania, 27, and his son, Sean Aquitania Jr.
Aquitania had gone to visit two friends who lived on County Greens Court in South Sacramento and walked into a home invasion in progress. He was killed inside the house. The infant was shot once in the head as he sat buckled in his car seat in his father's Chevrolet Malibu outside.
Investigators have said it was unclear whether the baby was targeted in the shooting or hit by a stray bullet.
"The fact that a child was killed in such a violent way doubly motivated us," Detective Brian Meux said of officers involved in the investigation.
The next court date for Noguera and Ortez-Lucero is Jan. 17.
8. Prison psychologist accused of staging fake attack
A California prison psychologist was arrested after she allegedly faked a home-invasion robbery and sexual assault to persuade her husband to move to another neighborhood.
Sacramento police allege Laurie Ann Martinez, 36, who at the time was a licensed psychologist for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, conspired with friend Nicole April Snyder, 33, to stage a crime scene.
Police say officers who responded to a 911 call from the Martinez home on Norgard Court in April found Martinez lying on the floor, crying hysterically.
Authorities allege that Snyder bought boxing gloves, then hit Martinez in the face and helped Martinez hide some of her belongings in Snyder's home so it would appear as though Martinez had been robbed.
They allege that Martinez split her own lip, ripped open her shirt, scuffed her knuckles with sandpaper and urinated on herself to make officers believe she had lost consciousness.
On Nov. 30, the district attorney's office filed two felony counts each against Martinez and Snyder, alleging conspiracy to commit crime and conspiracy to commit "any act injurious to the public health, to public morals, or to pervert or obstruct justice, or the due administration of laws."
Corrections said Martinez has been fired.
Snyder's next court appearance is scheduled Jan 9, and Martinez's is Jan. 25.
7. Custodian held in death of Placerville principal
Tragedy struck the Placerville community Feb. 2 when revered Principal Sam LaCara was fatally shot at Louisiana Schnell Elementary School.
Police said that John Luebbers, the school janitor accused of gunning down the principal, told investigators that he shot his boss because he had been fired from his job.
But school district officials said Luebbers wasn't dismissed. They said Luebbers apparently confronted LaCara, his friend and longtime golfing companion, over the fact that the district had assembled a panel to hire a new night janitor, whose job wouldn't have affected Luebbers' employment.
LaCara reportedly told Luebbers to go home and cool off. Instead, police said, Luebbers went home and retrieved a gun.
He is scheduled for trial March 13 in Placerville.
6. Woman paralyzed by boyfriend's beating dies
Readers were moved by the life and death of Cindy Hammond, who was left paralyzed from the shoulders down after a savage beating by her boyfriend in 2009.
Hammond died in September of a severe infection and pneumonia related to her paralysis.
Despite all she suffered, friends said, Hammond never lost her ability to embrace life.
Her former boyfriend, Joe McCoy, was convicted in February of torture and corporal injury to a cohabitant causing great bodily injury. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
In the wake of Hammond's death, the District Attorney's Office filed murder charges against McCoy. Prosecutors said a murder conviction could mean a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
5. Search continues for killers of Sikh men
Elk Grove police are still working to identify assailants in the fatal shooting of two Sikh men.
Friends Surinder Singh, 67, and Gurmej Atwal, 78, were gunned down March 4 during their daily afternoon walk through a quiet neighborhood. Singh died on the sidewalk along East Stockton Boulevard near Geneva Pointe Drive. Atwal, who was shot twice in the chest, died six weeks later of his injuries.
The Police Department spokesman, Officer Christopher Trim, said the investigation continues. "It's still an active case," he said.
A reward of $57,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest of people responsible for the shootings.
4. Two await trial in Rancho Cordova killings
Two men are awaiting trial in the Feb. 13 slayings of three young men in Rancho Cordova.
Robert Corpos, 20, Richard Ward, 16, and Jamir Miller, 15, were shot about 4 p.m. from a car that drove up alongside them as they rode bicycles on Malaga Way. Corpos died at the scene, and Ward and Miller died after being taken to a hospital.
Detectives arrested Francisco Ignacio Delgado, 21, and Juan Isidro-Aucencio, 25, at their residences later that week.
Sheriff's officials said there was no indication the suspects knew the victims, but detectives believe the shootings were gang-related.
Family members of the victims, however, denied any gang affiliations among the youths.
Delgado and Isidro-Aucencio are being held in Sacramento County jail without bail. Their next court appearance is scheduled Jan. 13.
3. Custody battle ends in death of father, child
Mourad "Moni" Samaan killed himself and his 2-year-old daughter, Madeleine Layla Samaan-Fay, in August after a bitter custody battle that began before the child was born, according to Samaan's father.
Makram Samaan said his son was spending the day with Madeleine when he received word that a Sacramento County judge had awarded full custody to the child's mother, Marcia Ann Fay.
When Moni Samaan failed to return the child to her mother as scheduled, Fay reported her daughter missing.
An Amber Alert was issued, and on Aug. 13, Moni Samaan and Madeleine were found dead in Samaan's sport-utility vehicle on wooded property near the El Dorado County town of Grizzly Flat. The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department said both suffered gunshot wounds.
2. Mourners attack news crew after fatal shooting
A crowd mourning the shooting death of 27-year-old Chester Jackson outside the International House of Pancakes in the Natomas area Feb. 20 attacked a television news crew at the scene that afternoon.
The shooting occurred about 2:40 a.m. at the all-night restaurant. Homicide detectives said they believed two groups got into an argument inside the restaurant. The fight escalated outside and ended in gunfire.
That afternoon, a small memorial of balloons, candy hearts and candles appeared outside the restaurant. A crowd gathered and journalists arrived to record the impromptu event.
A Sacramento Bee photographer was threatened and chased by members of an angry mob who mistakenly believed she was recording it on her cellphone.
Soon afterward, a FOX 40 reporter and photojournalist, unaware of prior events, approached the memorial and a handful of mourners gathered there. Within moments, a dozen people ran from an adjacent parking lot and charged the journalists, screaming obscenities. The photojournalist was grabbed by the hair and pulled to the ground, and the reporter was punched as he tried to protect his colleague.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office declined to file charges against two people allegedly involved in the assault on the news crew, saying the actions "do not rise to the level of a prosecutable case for assault and battery."
Four days later, the suspects in the shooting, Marcus Jamal Davis, 27, and Robert Earl Lucas III, 31, both of Vallejo, turned themselves in to Sacramento police. Their trial on murder charges is scheduled for Jan. 26.
1. Mother accused of killing infant in microwave
In a rare case that shocked even detectives, a Sacramento woman was arrested in June, suspected of killing her 7-week-old infant in a microwave.
Ka Yang, 30, is being held without bail in Sacramento County jail charged with murder and assault resulting in the death of a child. She also faces a special circumstance alleging that the act was intentional and torturous, which could make her eligible for the death penalty.
The infant, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, was found dead March 17 by firefighters called to the home in the 800 block of Rood Avenue, in the city's Robla neighborhood. People at the scene told them an adult holding the baby had suffered a seizure and dropped her.
Fire officials summoned police because of the child's traumatic injuries. Investigators spent three months trying to determine what caused the infant's severe burns.
Yang's three other children, boys ages 7 and younger, were removed from that home at the time of the infant's death.
Yang is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Sacramento Superior Court on Feb. 2.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.
Read more articles by Cathy Locke





About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.