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Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

Due to the volume of questions, we may not be able to answer every question. You can lookup information about specific cases using our Arrest Log and Sacramento Superior Court's case database.

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Questions 1 - 12 of 275 (Page 1 of 23)

Q: Anything new regarding the homicide of Alvin Harold Stone III, gunned down in Oak Park on Sept. 13, 2002?


A: Stone's homicide is unsolved.

Stone, 35, was killed when two men, one of them wearing a red bandana over half his face, rounded the corner of 18th Avenue and 38th Street around 8:46 p.m., The Bee reported. The men shot multiple rounds at a group of people socializing in the warm night air, according to police.

Two other men, not identified by police, were injured by the gunfire and treated at UC Davis Medical Center.


Q: What happened to Daina Cullen, who was arresetd for allegedly shooting a neighbor in Placerville in December 2008?


A: Cullen is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 6 in El Dorado County Superior Court on a charge of assault with a firearm, according the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

Cullen, 60, is accused of shooting a 63-year-old neighbor in Placerville on Dec. 15, 2008, according to a report in The Bee's Sacto911. The neighbor survived.

On that date, Cullen called 911 about 5:15 a.m., reporting that she had just shot a man, The Bee reported.

Deputies went to the area in the 2500 block of Mortara Circle in Placerville. The found a man with a gunshot wound in his chest, The Bee reported.

No motive for the shooting was given.

Cullen and the shooting victim evidently knew each other and lived in separate residences on the same property, The Bee reported.


Q: What is the status of the murder case against Morris Greenberg in El Dorado County?


A: Greenberg faces a March 2 trial on a murder charge in connection with the shooting death of Anthony Dumont, according to the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

Greenberg, 38, of Placerville allegedly shot himself after Dumont was shot on July 20, 2008, according to an El Dorado County Sheriff's Department spokesman. Greenberg is now well enough to stand trial, the spokesman said.

The shooting happened at a residence on Nutmeg Lane, perhaps the result of an unidentified dispute, The Bee reported shortly after the shooting.

Following a 911 call, deputies arrived at Nutmeg Lane, where Greenberg was found in a driveway with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head, The Bee reported.

A second call was made to 911 reporting that Dumont, 26, of Grizzly Flats received a gunshot wound at the residence on Nutmeg Lane, The Bee reported.

Dumont's family had driven him to El Dorado County Fire Station 19. Failing to find medics there, Dumont was driven to Bones Roadhouse restaurant, where a phone could be used to call for help.

He died at the location from his injuries, The Bee reported.


Q: Was anyone prosecuted in the slaying of Suzette Willis in the early '90s?


A: The slaying of Suzette Jennifer Willis of Roseville remains unsolved, according to a Roseville Police Department spokeswoman.

On Nov. 21, 1991, three teenagers discovered the bludgeoned body of the 27-year-old Willis near Miner's Ravine in northeast Roseville. Her partially clothed body lay on a creek embankment 20 feet from the water, in which her orange 1976 Honda Civic was found, The Bee reported.

Willis had been hit seven to nine times with a blunt object in the head, face and shoulders. A blood-stained rock found in the creek may have been the assailant's weapon.

Willis, who lived with her mother and stepfather and was a carpenter, was last seen the night of Nov. 20, shooting pool at the 7440 Club on Auburn Boulevard in Citrus Heights, investigators told The Bee.

Afterward, she and a male acquaintance bought beer and went to his home. According to the man, who was initially considered a suspect but later cleared, Willis left his place around midnight, investigators said.

Willis was known to hang out by the creek and go off-road driving in her Civic. Based on scrapes on the car's underbelly, it appears Willis had been off-road driving earlier Nov. 20.


Q: In the late '70s or early '80s the grandmother of the Dutra family was murdered at her farmhouse on Pocket Road. Was the killer ever caught?


A: Eileen Dutra, 68, was gunned down in the driveway of her grandson's Pocket area home on Dec. 11, 1981, The Bee reported.

Noticing an unfamiliar pickup truck in the driveway, she stopped at the residence to investigate. Police say she was jotting down the license plate number of the vehicle when a surprised burglar fatally shot her four times.

Donald James Elder, 33, was convicted of the murder in December 1983. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, according to court records.

Eileen Dutra Park was dedicated in memory of the active church and civic worker.


Q: What happened to Officer Rosen of the Sacramento Police Department who was on trial for raping a women?


A: On Oct. 22, 2004, Darryl Rosen, a former Sacramento Police Department officer, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for sexually assaulting women while on duty, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

Rosen, then 29, was convicted of 11 separate counts of sexual battery, false imprisonment and assault by a peace officer involving four women. Jurors found him innocent on four charges relating to two of his six alleged victims.

The jury deadlocked 9-3 for conviction on the rape charge, which could have meant a lifetime in prison for Rosen, but found him guilty of both sexual batteries and a charge of intimidating a witness.

The city of Sacramento paid $390,000 to resolve federal civil rights lawsuits filed by three of the sexual assault victims.


Q: What is happening in the case of Estaban Nunez?


A: A judge has set new trial dates for Nunez and two other young men charged in the fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old college student on the campus of San Diego State University last year, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.

A Nov. 5 trial date was set for Ryan Jett and a March 29 trial for Nunez and Leshanor Thomas. The defendants face murder and other felony charges.

The judge said the new dates were necessary because of scheduling conflicts involving lawyers in the case, according to the Union-Tribune.

However, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office objected to the judge's decision to schedule two trials.

The judge said he would revisit the issue Nov. 5, when he will hear motions in the case, the Union-Tribune reported.

The men are charged in the Oct. 4, 2008, fatal stabbing of Luis Santos during a fight on the university's campus. Three other people were wounded.


Q: Is there any information on the murder of Vicky Mitchell about 5 or 10 years ago?


A: On July 22, 1994, Kenneth Ray Baggett, then 44, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the slaying of Vicky Mitchell, 39, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

Vicky Mitchell, 39, who had lived with Baggett for about three weeks, was found outside their downtown Sacramento apartment with severe injuries by a neighbor at 6 a.m. June 4, 1993, according to Bee reports.

Mitchell died six days later, the Bee reported.


Q: In 1979 or 1980, Officer Ron Head of the Vacaville PD shot and killed his estranged wife. He was arrested for murder. Was he convicted and sent to prison?


A: On Dec. 4, 1981, Ron Head, a former Vacaville police officer who pleaded guilty to the unintentional shooting of his estranged wife, was sentenced to four years in prison, according to reports in The Bee.

Head, 31, was given two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and two years for the use of a gun in a crime.


Q: What happened to Mike Madigan, who in the mid '70s robbed the Crocker
Bank in Mills Center, Rancho Cordova?


A: Michael Madigan and Brian Young were neighbors in Rancho Cordova when they took over the Crocker Bank on May 31, 1974, held 25 people hostage at gunpoint and demanded a $1 million ransom, The Bee reported.

Madigan, then 22, and Young, then 19, held the hostages for more than seven hours before surrendering.

No one was hurt in the siege. At one point, about 100 officers surrounded the bank.

They were convicted on a variety of charges, including kidnapping, for which they received life sentences.

Their sentences on all the charges were set so the pair would have to spend a minimum of 11 years in prison.

The last story The Bee did on the pair was in May of 1981 when Madigan was turned down for parole.


Q: Whatever happened in Rodney Foster case in 1980?


A: Rodney Foster, 15, was shot to death while riding a bicycle on Florin Road at about 1 a.m. Jan. 19, 1980, The Bee reported. His case is unsolved.

Foster was returning from a dance at the Florin Creek Recreation Center with another 15-year-old boy. Foster was riding on the handlebars of his friend's bicycle.

As they were passing Luther Burbank High School, a red Chevrolet and a brown van passed the pair. Shots were fired from one of the vehicles. A bullet hit Foster in the chest, killing him almost instantly, The Bee reported.


Q: what is the status of the Vernon Holden murder back in the late '80s> He was a good friend of mine.


A: The June 21, 1987, slaying of Vernon Marquitti Holden, 24, apparently is unsolved.

That year Holden's brother told The Bee that Holden, an amateur boxer, disappeared after leaving the house to purchase illegal drugs about two weeks before his body was found on Aug. 9 below the Deer Creek Bridge east of Sloughhouse.

Shotgun blasts to the upper torso were the cause of death. There was a white pillow case looped around his legs, as well as a brown cloth rope.

It appeared he was dumped at the site after being killed elsewhere.



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