Deputies have arrested two men on suspicion of stealing copper wire from a property in McClellan Park this afternoon, and attempting to sell it at a nearby recycling center about 15 minutes later, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

Authorities received a report around 4:55 p.m. Friday, of two males loading copper into a black Honda Accord at a Regional Transit building near the intersection of Dean Street and Kilzer Avenue, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said.

When deputies arrived, the car was not on scene. However, they found that copper wiring had been removed from a large pole in a fenced-off yard behind the building, Ramos said.

A 41-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of a man in broad daylight at a busy Sacramento intersection Wednesday afternoon, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

The stabbing occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the corner of Broadway and Alhambra Boulevard, police reported. The 54-year-old male victim was transported to a local hospital with "very serious" injuries, said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department deputies are investigating the invasion this afternoon of a home in North Highlands occupied by four children.

Around 12:30 p.m., deputies responded to a residence in the 3700 block of Bolivar Avenue after a 12-year-old girl reported two male adult suspects had broken into her home, according to a sheriff's department news release.

Deputies determined that four children, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, had been inside the home when one of the suspects knocked on the front door, the release states. The children did not answer and, a few minutes later, they found the two suspects had entered the home through the garage and were ransacking a bedroom.

A stabbing in broad daylight at a busy Sacramento intersection Wednesday has left a man hospitalized with serious injuries, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

Officers responded around 1:30 p.m., to reports of a fight and stabbing at the corner of Broadway and Alhambra Boulevard, said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck. They located a 54-year-old man suffering from multiple stab wounds.

A 32-year-old Sacramento man has pleaded guilty in federal court to selling counterfeit music CDs and motion picture DVDs at California flea markets, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Carlos Benavidez Tejeda pleaded guilty today to criminal copyright infringement, according to a Department of Justice news release.

According to the plea agreement, between June and November of last year, Tejeda sold counterfeit CDs and DVDs to the public at the Galt Market in Galt, and at other flea markets in the Eastern District of California, the release states.

A man has been convicted in Sacramento County Superior Court of six felony charges in the kidnapping and robbery of a 68-year-old Orangevale nurse in December 2010, according to a county District Attorney's Office news release.

Joseph Sullivan was found guilty by a jury of the felony charges, which include kidnapping for extortion with bodily injury, burglary, robbery and carjacking, the district attorney's office announced Friday. He faces life in prison.

The District Attorney's Office reported this series of events:

A Sacramento man has pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of sex trafficking of three different minors, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Paul "Yoshi" Moore, 50, entered the guilty pleas Friday before Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia, according to a Department of Justice release.

According to the superseding indictment, Moore's criminal conduct occurred between December 2005 and February 2007, the release states.

By Matt Kawahara

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect wanted in connection with two recent robberies at a U.S. Bank branch in Rancho Cordova.

The robberies occurred on June 13 and July 2 at the bank in the 11000 block of Olson Drive, the sheriff's department reported.

Both times, the suspect entered the bank, simulated the possession of a handgun under his shirt and demanded money, the department reported. He then fled on foot.

A Sacramento man has been convicted by a federal court jury of possessing oxycodone and marijuana with intent to distribute, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Gabriel Johnson, 35, was convicted Friday, according to a department news release. The verdict was returned following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr.

According to testimony presented at the trial, Johnson possessed significant amounts of oxycodone and marijuana for sale at his apartment in midtown, the release states.

An Elk Grove man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to access device fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Richard Nuwintore, 42, of Elk Grove, pleaded guilty last December to using stolen credit card numbers to purchase airline tickets for himself and others, according to the release. He was sentenced today by United States District Judge William B. Shubb.

The case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.

A 72-year-old man was shot and killed last night after he allegedly drove his vehicle at a Sutter County Sheriff's deputy.

The man, Jagtar Singh Kang, of Yuba City, was pronounced dead in the Rideout Memorial Hospital emergency room after the shooting that is under investigation by several agencies. The deputy was not injured.

Sutter County Undersheriff Jeff Pierce said today he could not confirm media reports that Kang was upset with neighbors firing off illegal fireworks. Deputies were called to the 900 block of Mesa Verde in Yuba City about 10 p.m.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

Redding police arrested a vagrant man Saturday night next to Parsons Junior High School on Maraglia Street after they found him brawling on the ground with man visiting his family from Medford, Oregon, according to a department news release.

The altercation reportedly began in front of the 99 Cent Store at 2611 Hilltop Drive. Police say that Christopher Jacob Anderson, 21, approached a 15-year-old girl and eventually spat on her. The girl's mother reportedly came to protect her daughter from Anderson, the release said.

The exchange between Anderson and the mother and daughter reportedly grew so intense that another woman tried to wedge her car between the parties, according to police. Undeterred, Anderson reportedly jumped on the hood of the woman's car, causing minor damages.

The girl reportedly managed to phone her father during the confrontation. Like his wife had earlier, he hurried to his daughter's aid, police said, following Anderson out of the shopping center and onto Maraglia Street. There, the father tried to speak with Anderson, who reportedly became angry and pulled out two 2x4 pieces of wood with nails hanging from the ends. When Anderson tried to use the weapons, the father reportedly knocked him to the ground and the two men fought until police arrived, the release said. Neither man was seriously injured, police said, but they did have minor abrasions and cuts.

Police said that Anderson struggled when they arrested him. Once inside the patrol car, he reportedly tried to escape by kicking a door open, which prompted an officer to subdue him with pepper spray.

Anderson was booked at the Shasta County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon, and for allegedly resisting arrest.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies have arrested two 23-year-old men in connection with the explosion of a device in a residential mailbox early Wednesday morning.

The sheriff's department received a call just after midnight from a resident in the 4300 block of Vulcan Drive in Sacramento, who reported hearing a loud explosion, according to a sheriff's department news release.

A neighbor also called in and reported seeing somebody place an object into the first caller's mailbox just before the explosion, the release states. The neighbor said the suspect then got into a vehicle that fled the scene.

Maggie the cattle dog, run over during a livestock drive last week in Sierra County, is getting better -- and canine lovers are paying her vet bill.

Maggie, an 8-year-old border collie, was injured when an impatient driver in a Jeep veered into cattle being driven to summer pasture last week.

"She's continuing to improve," said dog owner and cattleman John Reader. "With time, it appears she is going to be fine."

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Fireworks sellers have pledged financial support this year for the arrest and prosecution of those who use or sell illegal fireworks.

Dennis Revell, spokesman for TNT fireworks, said that many local police and fire departments have sustained budget cuts. In addition, the Sacramento County District Attorney's office has been forced to lay off prosecutors.

In light of the cutbacks, non-profits who sell the state-approved fireworks are increasing their support to fund patrols to cite or arrest those using or selling illegal fireworks -- and also underwrite their prosecution. An exact amount of funding was not available.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

An armed robber led sportsmen on a golf cart chase Thursday at Haggin Oaks golf course before he opened fire and escaped on foot, Sacramento police said.

Officers later arrested a suspect, identified as Jim Aldridge (left), 45, of Sacramento, and reported that no one had been injured.

The incident began shortly after 5 p.m., when Aldridge allegedly held up a concession cart - a golf cart modified to sell snacks and drinks - near the 10th green at Haggin Oaks, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The woman accused of killing her baby in a microwave earlier this year repeatedly told authorities that the baby likely was injured during a fall as she suffered a blackout-inducing seizure, and even suggested that she suffered from a split personality, according to court records.

Sacramento police on Tuesday arrested 29-year-old Ka Yang on suspicion of killing her 6-week-old daughter, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, in March. She is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on suspicion of murder and assault resulting in the death of a child under the age of 8.

The investigation began on March 17, when paramedics were called to a home in the 800 block of Rood Avenue and found the infant severely burned. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her mother told family members, firefighters and, later, police detectives that she suffered a seizure while holding the baby as she worked at the computer, according to homicide Detective Thomas Shrum's request for an arrest warrant.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

During her attempted getaway from a bar fight, a Redding woman reportedly struck a middle-aged passerby with her vehicle.

The non-fatal incident occurred just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Redding Police Department news release, outside Bert and Ernie's Bar at 825 Industrial St.

Officers said they responded to a call about an altercation at the bar, involving a number of female patrons. When bouncers tried to intervene, the women reportedly took their dispute to the parking lot.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall sentenced reputed street gang members Marquel Dixon and Ronald Grant to life in prison with no chance of parole today, District Attorney Jan Scully announced.

Dixon and Grant, along with Marcus Scott Jr., were convicted by separate juries in the killing of Perrell Marquise Waters in 2009.

Scott was sentenced last week, also to life in prison.

In addition to life in prison without possibility of parole, Dixon received an additional 25-year sentence, Grant received 39 additional years and Scott got an added 35 years.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced today that a six-week statewide sweep resulted in the seizure of 1,209 firearms from people legally barred from possessing them.

The 99 Department of Justice agents involved also seized 155,731 rounds of ammunition.

The sweep looked at people who can't lawfully own a gun including people determined to be mentally unstable and those with active restraining orders.

The Vallejo Police Department has arrested a special education teacher on suspicion of raping a developmentally disabled student aide.

Jerry Johnson, 57, of Elk Grove, is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old at Loma Vista Elementary School on campus and during school hours. The assault occurred during the latter part of February, said a department spokesman. Police do not know if the incident was isolated or if Johnson committed other assaults.

Johnson was arrested in Elk Grove yesterday around 5:30 p.m. with the assistance of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office.

Sacramento County Sheriff's detectives have arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the 2007 slaying of 39-year-old John Pogacar near Rancho Cordova, the sheriff's department reported.

Kirk Jared Rivers, 22, left, walked into the sheriff's department Monday afternoon and handed a security officer a note in which he claimed responsibility for the killing of a man in 2007, said sheriff's department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Rivers was detained and interviewed by homicide detectives, who determined there was enough evidence to arrest Rivers in connection with Pogacar's death, according to a sheriff's department news release.

A 29-year-old man is expected to survive after being stabbed Monday during a confrontation at a south Sacramento care facility, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

Officers responded to a report of a fight between two clients of the facility in the 1600 block of Belinda Way at about 2:30 p.m., said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck.

Bee Metro Staff

It was a busy weekend for Sacramento's downtown police officers. Starting Saturday afternoon and moving into the wee hours Sunday, the officers of Central Command responded to the following incidents. These items are taken from the police blotter.

1:30 p.m., 13th and J streets: Man out of prison for two hours found with crack cocaine

Officers stopped a man for aggressive panhandling. He was acting nervous and wearing prison release clothing. Michael Milligan, 48, kept trying to leave as officers spoke to him. Officers determined that Milligan had just been released from prison two hours earlier. A parole search was conducted and officers located crack cocaine and a narcotic smoking pipe on him.

10:16 p.m., 1900 block of Seventh Street: Intoxicated man stabs himself with butter knife

Officers checked out a report of a man who was intoxicated, off his meds and stabbed himself. Officers located the man on the north side of a park with a butter knife sticking out of his abdomen. They took him to the hospital.

Sacramento police are investigating an attack on a jogger that occurred Friday evening in the North Natomas area, a police spokesman said.

The victim told police she was running on a trail in the area of Town Center Drive and New Market Drive at about 7:35 p.m., when she was grabbed from behind by a male assailant, who pulled her to the ground and began choking her, Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said. She was able to free herself and escape, Leong said.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall today sentenced reputed street gang member Marcus Scott Jr. to life in prison with no chance of parole for murdering a man two years ago.

Scott, 22, was convicted last month in the Dec. 15, 2009, gang-related shooting death of Perrell Marquis Waters, 19.

The sentences on two co-defendants in the case, Marquel Lamar Dixon, 18, and Ronald Delano Grant, 21, were continued.

By Peter Hecht
phecht@sacbee.com

With accused killer Steven Paul Colver on the witness stand, a prosecutor today put a gruesome photo of Joanne Witt's face and her knife-ravaged neck on a projection screen, aggressively challenging his version that he only arrived after she was dead.

A day after Colver testified he nudged the leg of Joanne Witt with his palm to check on her after the El Dorado Hills mother was stabbed by her then 14-year-old daughter, Tyar Marie Witt, prosecutor Lisette Suder bore into him in a blistering exchange over how he happened to touch the victim exactly where male DNA was later found on her body.

"You would admit that face is very obviously the face of a dead woman," the El Dorado County deputy district attorney sternly said to Colve as she gestured to the grim crime scene photo.

"Yes, ma'am," Colver replied.

"So you had to touch her body above the knee to make sure she was dead?" Suder continued.

The CHP will be targeting speeders with radar enforcement today on Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada.

California Highway Patrol officers in the Gold Run, Auburn and Truckee areas will be focusing on speeders and people who talk on their cellphones while driving. Teams using radar will be working throughout the day.

"Our message is simple," said Gold Run Lt. Commander John Arrabit. "We want to remind motorists to drive safely this summer so that their loved ones won't have to drive to the hospital or mortuary."

The anti-speeding campaign today will be replayed several times throughout the summer.

In addition, officers from the Valley Division's Commercial Enforcement group will conduct vehicle inspections on big rigs.

A fight between brothers in north Sacramento County allegedly left one of them hospitalized with multiple stab wounds Tuesday night, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman reported.

The California Highway Patrol received a call at about 9:45 p.m. from a woman who said her brother had been stabbed at a residence in the 7000 block of Stanford Oak Drive, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos wrote in an email.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the location and found a 24-year-old victim with knife wounds to the back of his head, near his collarbone and in his arm, Ramos wrote.

Redding police arrested a man they say yelled gay slurs, held a knife to a dog's neck and then repeatedly stabbed the animal's owner.

Andrew Scott Horne, 19, of Redding was booked into Shasta County Jail on suspicion of attempted homicide for stabbing Bowen Thomas Parks, 27, of Redding. Parks was listed in critical condition with stab wounds to his head, left forearm, abdomen and thigh.

Police said Parks and his friends were eating pizza Monday night about 8:30 p.m. on a second-story apartment balcony on Bundy Court that borders a movie complex parking lot. Horne, according to police, was in the parking lot and began arguing with Parks.

A Sacramento County Superior Court jury has found a 40-year-old man guilty of committing sex acts with a child, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced Friday in a news release.

Mahend Vikash was found guilty of 13 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, and one count of attempted lewd and lascivious act by force on a child under 14, according to the release.

Elk Grove police are asking for the public's help in identifying two suspects in the armed robbery of a Bank of the West on Thursday morning.

The robbery occurred at about 10:45 a.m. at the Bank of the West in the 8100 block of Sheldon Road, according to an Elk Grove Police Department news release. Two suspects entered the bank and, armed with handguns, ordered everyone in the bank to get on the floor, according to the release.

One suspect jumped over a teller counter and entered the vault area, where he took an undisclosed amount of money, the release states. The second suspect removed money from a teller's drawer. Both suspects then left the bank and were seen fleeing on foot, the release states.

By Matt Kawahara

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has released the name of the man found stabbed to death along the American River Parkway on the night of May 31.

Adam Michael Steinbach, 29, of Gold River, died from stab wounds to the upper body, the Sacramento Police Department reported. He was found in the area of Del Paso Boulevard and Northgate Boulevard.

Officers were responding to reports that came in about 11:20 p.m. about a noisy disturbance in the wooded area, Sacramento police reported.

Police have not released details about what Steinbach was doing in the area or the circumstances that led to his killing.

Three Sacramento residents have pleaded guilty to a federal indictment charging them with sex trafficking of a minor, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced Thursday that Deanijiniqe Cail, 23, Christian Demitris Dotson, 20, and Veraniquie Wallace, 40, pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court.

According to court documents, Dotson approached a 14-year-old acquaintance in June 2010 and asked her to be a prostitute. Court documents indicate Dotson took sexually explicit photographs of the girl, which Cail and Wallace posted online, advertising her for prostitution, according to the Department of Justice release.

Folsom police are warning local businesses of a scam used twice at local eateries in the last week.

On May 30, the Togo's on East Bidwell Street received a phone call from an individual claiming to be in the company's corporate office, who told employees that a customer had accidentally been overcharged by $80 for a food order a couple days earlier, according to a Folsom Police Department release.

The caller advised employees that the customer would be returning to the restaurant to collect the money that she had been overcharged.

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office announced Thursday that Jennifer Beeman, the former head of anti-violence efforts at the UC Davis, has been sentenced to five years felony probation and 180 days in county jail for embezzlement and falsifying accounts.

Yolo County Superior Court Judge Janet Gaard delivered the sentence and also ordered Beeman to pay $9,153.50 in restitution, according to a district attorney's office news release.

Beeman pleaded no contest in April to one felony charge of embezzlement and one felony charge of falsifying government records from the UC Davis Campus Violence Prevention Program, which she oversaw for years as director, according to the release.

Read the grand jury transcripts released today.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Jaycee Lee Dugard described in terrifying detail last fall how Phillip and Nancy Garrido snatched her off the street and whisked her away for 18 years of captivity.

Grand jury transcripts released moments ago recount her secret testimony that was the basis of the guilty pleas the Garridos accepted in April. The transcripts were released at the request of The Sacramento Bee and other media organizations.

Dugard told the El Dorado Grand Jury that the Garridos' car pulled up beside her the morning of June 10, 1991, "and I didn't think it was weird at the time, but it pulled in kind of close to me. And I thought he was going to ask for directions because he started to say something."

Davis police locked down an elementary school this afternoon while searching for two suspects in connection with the armed robbery of a Motel 6.

The suspects entered the Motel 6 on Chiles Road at about 1:45 p.m., pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money, according to a Davis Police Department news release. The clerk turned over an undisclosed amount of cash, and the suspects fled on foot south on El Cemonte Avenue, the release states.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

An El Dorado County man has been convicted of cockfighting charges following his February arrest, El Dorado County Animal Services officials said Thursday.

Saul Cuevas Ayala of Garden Valley pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges in late May and was ordered to serve 45 days in jail and three years probation.

He also was levied $700 in fines and $4,200 in restitution costs.

Ayala and another man, Rogelio Reyes-Higareda, were arrested after a routine traffic stop discovered injured game birds and cockfighting equipment in his vehicle.

Reyes-Higareda was not charged, but was deported.

Investigators turned up hundreds of birds on Ayala's property that were euthanized because they were either aggressive or in bad physical shape.

Cockfighting, though a felony in some other states, is a misdemeanor in California.

By Peter Hecht
phecht@sacbee.com

As a defense lawyer bored in on her fascination with television crime dramas, Tylar Marie Witt testified today about the aftermath of her mother's murder - when she closed the windows and blinds, turned on the air conditioning and warned her boyfriend not to touch anything.

In her second day of testimony on the June 12, 2009 slaying of her mother, Joanne M. Witt, the 16-year-old girl told how Steven Paul Colver shielded her with a Sponge Bob Square Pants blanket as she moved around the bed where her mother lay savagely stabbed to death.

She testified in a Placerville courtroom that she took it upon herself to secure the house after the murder because Colver "couldn't do anything. He couldn't touch anything."

A DUI crackdown in Sacramento County over Memorial Day weekend resulted in 71 arrests of drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to provisional data from the region's "Avoid the Capital 17" anti-DUI task force.

The DUI campaign included one sobriety checkpoint, two special DUI saturation patrols and officers on routine patrol looking out for impaired drivers from Friday night through Monday, according to an Avoid task force news release. Funding for the campaign was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There was also one reported DUI-related fatality in Elk Grove, according to the provisional data.

Law enforcement officials will conduct more anti-DUI efforts in Sacramento County and the surrounding region during the Fourth of July weekend and an 18-day campaign in August ending Labor Day weekend, according to the release.

By Bee staff
A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Zang Her of murder and burglary in connection with the death of John Lone Eage in his Carmichael home in 2004, according to a release from Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully.
The jury also determined the murder was committed during a burglary, a special circumstance, according to the release.
No verdict was reached on the charge that Her personally used a deadly or dangerous weapon during the crime, the release said.
Lone Eagle, a 65-year-old real estate foreclosure speculator, died during a home invasion robbery. His employees told The Bee at the time of his death that he kept tens of thousands of dollars in cash in his home office.
Her was arrested Jan. 22, 2009, on a cold DNA hit.
Sentencing was scheduled for July 28.

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com

Lawyers for the state Attorney General's office on Wednesday alleged that tax attorney Roni Lynn Deutch violated court orders by diverting phone calls from would-be customers to family and former employees, who've started their own tax resolution businesses.

Attorneys made the claim at a morning hearing in Sacramento Superior Court to determine whether a court-appointed receiver would continue to operate the firm Deutch shut down in mid-May or whether the California State Bar would assume control.

Deputy Attorney General Conor Moore said the alleged phone referrals from Deutch could generate money that should go to court-appointed receiver Scott Sackett.

Sacramento police announced Tuesday the arrest of a 28-year-old man in connection with a robbery that occurred at a church in Sacramento's Southside Park neighborhood on Good Friday.

The robbery occurred in the early morning hours of April 22 at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in the 700 block of T Street.

The victim, who had arrived at church for the early service and was carrying $2,000 to give to a friend who needed to buy a car, was robbed at gunpoint as he exited a church restroom, The Bee reported.

On April 27, at 1:36 a.m., a Sacramento police officer stopped a suspicious subject in the area of 28th and C streets after responding to an activated alarm in the area, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

Two suspects in a high-profile wildlife poaching case in Colusa County recently pleaded not guilty to multiple felony and misdemeanor charges. Meanwhile, an investigation continues into a related case of witness intimidation.

The case reached a nationwide audience on the National Geographic television program "Wild Justice," which profiles the work of California Fish and Game wardens. A Jan. 26 featured the program's most gruesome poaching case yet, and showed wardens interviewing an informant.

The informant's identity was not obscured, and the footage hinted that he provided the wardens with names.

By Anita Creamer and Gina Kim

acreamer@sacbee.com

A man and a woman were found dead of head wounds in a Loomis home Saturday, and a second man was taken to a local trauma center in what could be a murder-suicide scenario, Placer County Sheriff's Department officials said.

"We think they all lived there," said Det. Sgt. Alfredo Guitron. "It didn't seem like anything was out of place in the house.

"We don't think they're related. I don't know if there was a dating relationship. These same people have been here a long time, from what I understand."

The Placer County Sheriff's Department is reporting that a Sacramento man was arrested Thursday in connection with a nationwide fraud case.

Michael Stephen Moynihan, left, was arrested by Placer County Sheriff's detectives and Sacramento Police Department officers after a short foot pursuit in Sacramento, according to a sheriff's department release. The sheriff's department had been seeking Moynihan, and he had fled from investigators on two prior occasions, the release states.

The release states that Placer County Sheriff's detectives were recently contacted by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Colorado Springs, Colo., which had been conducting an investigation involving Moynihan.

A registered sex offender arrested last week by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on suspicion of failing to update his registration within five days of changing his address, was arrested again Thursday by South Lake Tahoe police on a federal warrant, the police department reported.

On May 16, South Lake Tahoe police responded to a report of a suspicious person at the city-owned Ice Arena, next to the City Recreation Center on Rufus Allen Boulevard. During their investigation, officers identified Joseph Scanio, a registered offender on federal probation for possession of child pornography, according to a police department release.

Scanio, above, was not arrested at the time, but an ensuing investigation determined he was in violation of his mandatory obligation to register his correct physical address with law enforcement, according to the release. On May 18, police arrested Scanio on suspicion of failing to comply with that obligation, a felony violation, the release states.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
Jury deliberations got under way today in two separate Sacramento murder trials.
One panel received the case of Juan Carlos Carranco, 18, who is accused in the Oct. 31, 2009, shooting of Carlos Cervantes Jr., 23, at a party on Clover Manor Way in the south area.
Two other men also have been convicted in the party shooting. Christopher Jun Leong, 22, whom a jury found guilty of attempted murder earlier this year, was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Before the Carranco trial, co-defendant Manuel Miguel Sotelo, pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon. He will be sentenced June 24.
In the other murder trial that went to the jury today, Zang Her, 30, is accused in the strangulation killing of John Lone Eagle, 65, whose body was discovered Aug. 23, 2004. Her was arrested Jan. 22, 2009, on a cold DNA hit.
Authorities believe Lone Eagle, a real estate foreclosure speculator who flashed large amounts of cash, was slain in a robbery inside his Rampart Drive home in Carmichael.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

State corrections officials incorrectly allowed 1,500 inmates to be placed on unsupervised parole last year, including 450 who should have been classified as having a "high risk for violence," a new audit of the state's parole programs has found.

A report released this morning by the state inspector general's office found that prison officials trying to implement a 2009 program to place inmates on non-revocable parole incorrectly classified many of them initially, allowing hundreds to be returned to their communities with no supervision at all.

Corrections officials disputed the findings of the 34-page report, which does not indicate whether any of the parolees who were improperly classified went on to commit new crimes.

Another shooting occurred Tuesday in Lodi where over the weekend police responded to what they said were two gang-related assaults.

The most recent shooting occurred about 4 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of South Washington St. where a 15-year-old boy was shot several times. He was transported to a local hospital. His condition was not available.

Witnesses told police that two Hispanic teens were involved in the shooting of the 15 year old. One was described as about 14 years old, 5 feet tall, 130 pounds, wearing a black shirt and a black hat with the letter "P".

A 17-year-old boy is accused of stabbing a fellow student at Amador High School this morning, according to authorities.

The victim, a 16-year-old sophomore, was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center with at least one stab wound to the lower abdomen, said Sutter Creek police Chief Brian Klier. The boy's current condition is not known; Klier said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Klier said that there had been "visual and verbal taunting" between the two boys over the last few weeks, and that the boys began to argue today about 10 a.m. The boys were between classes in an open area on campus when the argument escalated into a physical fight, Klier said.

Lodi police are investigating two assaults over the weekend that seriously injured two men.

The first assault occurred about 8:15 p.m. Sunday in the 2200 block of Scarborough Drive when officers responded to a shooting of 20-year-old Raymond Madrid.

Lodi police searched the area for two vehicles seen leaving the scene of the shooting, but no arrests have been announced. Madrid suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Authorities cancelled a statewide Amber Alert moments ago for two children who had been reported abducted when the car they were riding in was stolen from the roadside in Stockton.

Stockton police had been told that the car was taken when the children's father stepped out of the vehicle to argue with a woman passenger, leaving the vehicle running and the car doors open with the man's 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in the back seat.

Police were told that a passing car stopped and a passenger jumped into the man's Buick with the children and took off.

However, state officials canceled the Amber Alert just after 10:30 p.m. and Fox 40 was reporting from Stockton that the children had been found safe with their mother.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A Butte County man arrested in the fierce beating of an acquaintance was found dead in the Butte County Jail Friday night in an apparent suicide, authorities said today.

David Ryan Forester, 36, was found at 7:26 p.m. as deputies were conducting a routine head count, the sheriff's office said. A deputy found Forester "hanging by the neck from the top bunk inside a cell," the sheriff's office said in a release.

Officials administered CPR and first aid and he was taken by ambulance to Oroville Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A search was continuing Friday night in Trinity and Humboldt counties for a 2-1/2-year-old girl (in photo, left) whose mother was found walking naked on Highway 3, near Coffee Road in the Trinity Lake area Friday morning.

The woman, identified as Claudia Pedreros or Claudia Pedreros Parker, 30, had been reported missing in Humboldt County.

She had reportedly left her home about 12:30 a.m. Friday with her daughter, Sophie, and was driving a 2008 silver Kia Sedan.

Two Nevada City residents were indicted today for interstate marijuana trafficking.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Patricia Jane Albright, 59, and her son Jordan Robert Wirtz, 24, charging them in a conspiracy to cultivate marijuana and structure financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.

In January 2010, law enforcement officers identified Albright as a marijuana grower, according to court documents.

South Lake Tahoe police today announced the arrest of a registered sex offender who is on federal probation for possession of child pornography.
Police on Monday responded to a citizen's report of a suspicion person at the city-owned Ice Arena, next to the City Recreation Center on Rufus Allen Boulevard. During their investigation, officers identified Joseph Scanio, left, a registered sex offender on federal probation.

Scanio was not arrested at the time, but subsequent investigation revealed that he was in violation of his mandatory sex registration obligation, according to a Police Department news release. Officers discovered that Scanio was living at 2275 Wyoming Ave., but in June 2010, he had reported that he was living at a different residence in South Lake Tahoe. At that time, police said, Scanio signed an acknowledgement that he was aware that he was obligated to update his registration within five days of changing his address.

Redding police said they suspect a husband of threatening to kill his teenage son last night with a baseball bat and peppering the floor with gunshots near at his wife's feet when she wouldn't make him dinner.

Steve Florreich, 43, of Redding, was booked into Shasta County Jail for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm, terrorist threats, spousal assault and brandishing a firearm.

A press release from the department said that officers were told that Florreich had been drinking beer before they were called to the family's trailer in the 2200 block of Concord Lane. His wife and son said Florriech became angry when his spouse would not cook him dinner.

South Lake Tahoe police said they were called upon to investigate a registered sex offender at the city-owned ice rink.

Police on Monday were called to the Ice Arena, which is next to the City Recreation Center on Rufus Allen Boulevard, after a citizen reported a suspicious person. Officers discovered that the suspicious person was a registered sex offender on federal probation.

The man was not arrested.

By Jane Braxton Little
Bee Correspondent

ILLE - Sierra County officials are trying to establish the identity of a body found Saturday near Crystal Peak at the remote eastern edge of the mountainous county.

The remains, which may have been there for more than a year, tentatively have been identified as belonging to a male, said Sierra Sheriff John I. Evans.

Near the bones sheriff's deputies found a blue steel Kahr Arms semi-automatic .40 caliber P-40 pistol with black plastic grips.

A woman was Tased by a robber while making a pizza delivery Sunday in Redding.

The 20-year-old delivery person, Amy Boettcher of Redding, was robbed while delivering a Round Table pizza in in the northern part of the city.

Redding police said she was approached by two men about 10 p.m. near Northpoint Drive and Baywood Drive. One of them pointed a Taser and deployed it at Boettcher, hitting her in the torso and stunning her with the electrical current.

She told Redding police she was unable to defend herself and the men took cash -- and the pizza. The men then fled on foot.

A neighborhood battle with bats and sticks sent a Redding man to the hospital today, police reported.

Redding officers responded to the 3700 block of Churn Creek Road at 12:43 a.m. after receiving reports of numerous people fighting.

Upon arrival, they heard additional reports of shots fired, but those were later found to be inaccurate.

Eight people were arrested in 8 hours during a sting in Marysville on Thursday that targeted adults selling alcohol to underage police decoys.

The 8 adults, ranging in age from 21 to 53, are suspected of buying alcohol for the undercover decoys used by Marysville police. The decoys "are obviously under the age of 21 and disclose to adults they are not old enough to purchase alcohol themselves," according to a police press release.

The decoys typically ask outside a store for the adults to buy them beer or other alcoholic beverages. Those arrested Thursday were cited for a misdemeanor and released.

So-called "shoulder tap" stings in Marysville have resulted in 39 citations being written since February.

A Sacramento man was accosted at knifepoint on a Redding street last night, the robbers making off with his backpack, cellphone and wallet.

Jeffrey Chavez, 23, was walking along Tehama Street in the downtown area about 8:30 p.m. when he was approached by two men. The men grabbed Chavez, one of them holding a knife against him.

The men then took the backpack and other belongings. Chavez was not injured.

A Solano County man was sentenced today in federal court in Sacramento for his participation in a gun-running scheme.

Travis Price, 36, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to five years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for unlawfully selling firearms and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, from June to December 2008, Price conspired with straw purchasers to buy firearms from four different federal firearms dealers in Colorado and shipped the firearms via the U.S. Postal Service and FedEx to an unwitting associate in Fairfield.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Vacaville police arrested an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Monday after he allegedly stole an Xbox gaming system from Target, according to authorities.

Police allege it was 36-year-old Shawn Hammonds' fourth successful burglary from the store, and that he has sold stolen property over the Internet, said Vacaville police Sgt. Jeff King.

Hammonds, a 5-year veteran of the CHP, was booked into the Solano County Jail on suspicion of four counts of burglary, King said. He later posted $30,000 bail and was released.

An 86-year-old Oroville man previously convicted of sexually molesting minors pleaded guilty today in federal court in Sacramento to conspiracy to possess child pornography.

Bruce Clinton Johnson, left, is to be sentenced Aug. 9 by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez.

According to court documents, on Nov. 11, 2010, a computer repairman fixing a printer belonging to Johnson's son contacted Butte County Sheriff's deputies after he found animated images of child pornography on the printer.

At the same time, IP addresses linked to a residence that Johnson shared with his son, Donald Wayne Johnson, were identified, offering images and videos of child pornography through a file-sharing network between April 11, 2007 and Nov. 8, 2010.

Grass Valley police are investigating a Monday night fight that sent two teenagers to the hospital with knife wounds.

About 8:30 p.m., police received numerous 911 calls regarding a fight involving numerous people on Walsh Street near Mill Street, according to a Police Department news release.

Officers located a large crowd and found that a 17-year-old woman and 18-year-old man had suffered injuries from a knife during the fight. Both were taken to Sutter Roseville Trauma Center for treatment.

A former licensed contractor whose state license was taken away last year has been sentenced to four years felony probation and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

Brian Gross, 55, of Valley Springs in Calaveras County was arrested Oct. 1 by investigators from the Contractors State License Board Statewide Investigation Fraud Team and the Amador County District Attorney's Office, according to license board news release. They found Gross and three employees roofing a home in Jackson.

The contractors license board was tipped by building officials in Jackson that Gross had attempted to secure a local business license using his revoked contractor license.

David Corado's place of birth could accurately read: bus stop, Pioneer Trail at Aspenwald Street, South Lake Tahoe.

That's where he was born early Wednesday morning as his parents waited for a cab. He was born without a doctor's assistance, but with the help of South Lake Tahoe police dispatchers.

David's mother, Maria Ortiz-Corado, about nine months pregnant, with 10 days until her baby boy was expected to be born, was enjoying a quiet evening at home late Tuesday. Then she went into labor. (Photo at left of mother and baby is courtesy of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.)

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Phillip and Nancy Garrido will be sentenced June 2 for the kidnap and rape of Jaycee Lee Dugard, but that won't be the end of the case that day.

El Dorado Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister has scheduled a hearing after the sentencing to decide whether to unseal the transcripts of Dugard's appearance before a grand jury last September.

Phimister agreed to hold the hearing in response to a request from The Bee made April 29. In a letter to the judge made on behalf of media organizations statewide, The Bee asked the judge to grant "access to the documents immediately upon the closure of this case."

The Yuba County Sheriff's Department is continuing its search this evening for a foothills man with developmental disabilities who was last seen Sunday.

Brian Cook (below), 44, was last seen by his brother Sunday afternoon. Sheriff's officials said the two men reportedly walked to the Fresh Market in Oregon House and then hiked near the area of Dolan Harding Road and Marysville Road in the Browns Valley area..

About 1 p.m., Brian Cook decided he wanted to return home, but his brother wanted to keep walking, so they parted ways. Brian Cook has not been heard from since and his family is concerned that he may be lost, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

A Yuba County man is credited with alerting sheriff's deputies when he spotted his neighbor's pickup truck in a fast-food parking lot, leading to the arrest of a suspected burglar.

A neighbor of the truck's owner called the Yuba County Sheriff's Department about 1 p.m. Monday to report that he had seen the vehicle in the parking lot of a Burger King restaurant on North Beale Road. Soon afterward, a deputy spotted the pickup near the Burger King and tried to stop it, but the driver, later identified as Michael Gorham, 32, sped up and led deputies down Arboga Road to 11th Avenue, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Gorham then turned around and drove north on a fire trail near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that parallel Arboga Road. He abandoned the stolen truck at the dead end of Second Avenue and ran off on foot.

The Yuba County Sheriff's Department is looking for a parolee in connection with a stabbing that occurred Sunday in Olivehurst.

The incident occurred during an argument in an acquaintance's front yard on Garden Avenue.

Damon Aaron, 39, of Olivehurst and Nelson Figueira, 36 of Yuba City were arguing when Figueira grabbed a handle from a broken golf club and tried to stab Aaron, according to a Yuba County Sheriff's Department news release. Aaron managed to block some of the stabs with a metal broom handle, but was stabbed once on the side near his arm pit.

Aaron was taken to Rideout Hospital for treatment and Figueira fled the scene.

A Shasta County Sheriff's deputy was accidentally shot by another deputy Friday while they were attempting to apprehend a fugitive, but the injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The incident began when National Park Service Rangers requested assistance finding a couple wanted on multiple felony warrants in the Whiskeytown Lake area.

Elizabeth Hope Riley, 46, was sought on a warrant for marijuana sales and transport.

Grass Valley police are investigating a collision that occurred this morning involving a passenger vehicle and a pickup truck belonging to the Nevada Irrigation District.

Officers were dispatched at 8:17 a.m. to Brunswick Road near Sutton Way, where they found a heavily damaged gray Ford Focus with two occupants in the intersection of Brunswick Road and Plaza Drive. A second vehicle, a white Ford utility pickup belonging to the Nevada Irrigation District, was located farther east of the intersection, also heavily damaged, with one occupant, according to a Police Department news release.

Police said the preliminary investigation indicated that the Ford Focus was westbound on Brunswick Road when it began to drift left and into the path of the pickup, which was eastbound. Witnesses told officers that the driver of the pickup attempted to move to the right, but was unable to avoid being struck by the Ford Focus.

By Bill Lindelof and Barbara Osborn
blindelof@sacbee.com

Two Placer County men were booked Tuesday for investigation of assault, kidnapping and two car thefts they allegedly committed during a three-day, three-county crime spree.

Dillon James McMahon, 22, of Roseville, and John Cody Adrian, 19, of Colfax, were arrested by Yuba County law-enforcement officers Monday night following a high-speed pursuit near Marysville in which their vehicle was stopped by a spike strip.

Earlier Monday evening, the pair is suspected of severely beating an elderly man with a tire iron in Nevada County when he refused to give them money.

A Coronado man was arrested by Truckee police following a collision in which a pedestrian was seriously injured Sunday night.

Police received a report at 8:10 p.m. of a collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian at 11700 Donner Pass Road, in front of the Sunset Mobile Home Park. Officers located the parties, including an injured pedestrian, an adult male, who was taken by Tahoe Forest Hospital by ambulance and later to Renown Hospital in Reno for treatment of injuries suffered in the collision, according to a Truckee Police Department news release.

The driver of the vehicle, Ronald Sosnowski, 60, was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Police said the collision is still under investigation. Anyone who witnessed it is asked to call Sgt. Robert Womack at (530) 550-2335.

The California Highway Patrol has arrested a man from Smartville who they say fell from a razor-wire topped fence when he tried to flee.

The CHP said they had been looking for Donald Harter Likens, 22, of Smartsville, Yuba County, for a number of vehicle thefts. He was also wanted for outstanding warrants in Yuba and Nevada counties.

An officer spotted him Saturday morning in Linda. After a short vehicle pursuit, Likens got out of his vehicle at a levee near Park Avenue. A foot chase began as other CHP and Yuba County Sheriff's deputies moved in.

Chris Kangas of Nevada County has died from injuries sustained when his girlfriend hit him in the head with a full beer bottle, Detective Sgt. Stephen Tripp of the County Sheriff's Department said Saturday.

Although that was not the only blow struck during the deadly domestic dispute, it apparently was the fatal one, Tripp said.

"It was a real knock-down-and-drag-out that went on for several minutes," Tripp said of the alleged clash early Thursday between the 26-year-old Kangas and Audrey Yoder, 21.

A former Mexican attorney general from Baja California said today that legalization of marijuana in California would curb pot-related violence in Mexico but would do little to stop the overall killings and corruption of Mexican drug cartels.

Antonio Martinez, who served as attorney general for Northern Baja California from 2001 to 2007, told a McGeorge School of Law symposium on marijuana and legal issues, that sanctioning marijuana use in California would force cartel to increase other forms of drug trafficking.

"They still will be in the black market," Martinez said of Mexican drug networks. "And those individuals will shift into other sectors of organized crime. They will kidnap. They will steal ... They will go into cocaine, firearms and other things. For that merchandise (marijuana), violence will go down. But that doesn't mean it will stop."

Two Grass Valley residents have been arrested after Nevada County sheriff's deputies responded early this morning to a report of a seriously injured man.

Deputies, who were called to the 13000 block of Ballantree Lane in the Grass Valley area at 3:36 a.m., suspected foul play and began an investigation involving the major crimes unit, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The victim was taken to Sutter Roseville Medical Center via air ambulance and is listed in critical condition, sheriff's officials said. The man's identity has not been released.

The California Highway Patrol says the arrests of three men found with Home Depot merchandise Wednesday may help solve thefts from the big box stores stretching from Salinas to Oroville.

The CHP said their big break began when an officer stopped a black Cadillac at 7:25 p.m. Wednesday in Marysville for an expired vehicle registration. During a search of the car, five boxes of Dewalt and Makita drill sets from Home Depot were found.

Officers calling from the scene of the stop discovered that the Yuba City Home Depot had suffered a theft on Tuesday and that an Oroville Home Depot had been hit about one hour before the traffic stop.

A Yuba City man has been arrested on charges of receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento on April 7 returned the two-count indictment against Joseph Wood, 61.

The indictment alleges that Wood received and distributed images via the Internet depicting the sexual exploitation of minors and possessed other similar images when law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at his house.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Before authorities released word that they had arrested a 77-year-old Reno man in four slayings going back to 1977, they alerted law enforcement officials in Sacramento and elsewhere months ago to review cold case homicides for possible connections.

Piquing their interest was the fact that all four of Joseph Naso's alleged victims had first and last names starting with the same initials, and detectives went to work checking their files.

"They went through homicides as well as female missing person's reports and got no matches with the name alliteration," Sacramento sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said today.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

A San Francisco man was being held on $100,000 bail in Redding today after he was arrested on suspicion of hijacking an Amtrak bus Saturday night, Redding police said.

The suspect - Robert A. Fender, 43 - was arrested after a foot chase near the Redding bus terminal, police said.

Quick-thinking by the bus driver, who threw a kill switch on the outside of the bus, apparently prevented the suspect from driving away from the Redding Area Bus Authority station in the 1500 block of Yuba Street, according to police spokesman Cpl. Bart Langley.

A crackdown on cellphone-using drivers resulted in 220 tickets being written this week.

The California Highway Patrol and local police and sheriff's departments statewide conducted the crackdown Monday and Tuesday. The effort was mounted to stop drivers from texting and talking while behind the wheel, hopefully cutting down on the number of drivers weaving, running red lights, clogging traffic lanes and causing accidents.

The two-day "Distracted Driving" campaign produced the following results in the Sacramento region:

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Sutter County Sheriff's Department is investigating as a homicide the death of a Live Oak man.

The sheriff's dispatch center received a 911 call at 5:38 p.m. Sunday reporting an unresponsive man in the 9300 block of North Butte Road in Live Oak. The Live Oak Fire Department located a man, identified as Marvin Leon Hammons, 64, who had suffered a gunshot wound, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

California Department of Justice criminalists conducted a forensic examination of the crime scene, and Sutter County detectives initiated an investigation into what is being treated as a homicide, pending an autopsy.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Sutter County Sheriff's Department at (530) 822-7307, or contact "Leave a Tip" on the sheriff's website at www.suttersheriff.org .

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

The California Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies are urging motorists to hang up and drive and are promising a crackdown on distracted drivers this month.

California elected and public safety officials will gather at the CHP's training academy in West Sacramento Monday to promote the effort.

The parents of a driver who died in a distracted driving crash will be there, along with the vehicle that the victim was driving.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Sutter County Sheriff's officials today announced arrests in connection with a series of burglaries in south Sutter and Yolo counties.

Sheriff's deputies identified Tomas Quezada Sr., 48, and his son, Tomas Quezada Jr., as suspects in several of the burglaries.

The Yuba/Sutter Narcotic and Gang Enforcement Team, NET-5, also had been investigating Tomas Quezada Sr. for possible involvement in distributing methamphetamine in the two counties, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A South Lake Tahoe elementary school was locked down for 20 minutes this afternoon after two students reported seeing a suspicious man carrying a gun on the playground, according to a South Lake Tahoe Police Department release.

Police responded to the Tahoe Valley Elementary School shortly after 12:30 p.m., as school officials initiated lockdown procedures, according to the release.

Officers searched the grounds and found no threat on campus. Officers also established a perimeter around the school and searched surrounding neighborhoods for anyone matching the suspect's description.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

By Loretta Kalb and Laurel Rosenhall

A Vacaville man was hospitalized this morning after he walked to his driveway and picked up a newspaper containing a hidden bomb, which exploded, a police spokesman said today.

The man, who police did not identify, suffered unknown injuries in the blast, reported at 10:20 a.m., said Vacaville Police spokesman Mark Mazzaferro.

Mazzaferro said officers evacuated 40 to 50 homes near the bomb site -- the residential neighborhood of Cashel Circle -- and checked for other devices throughout the area. Finding no other explosives, authorities allowed most residents to return to their homes by the end of the day, Mazzaferro said.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A South Lake Tahoe woman died earlier this afternoon at the Lake Tahoe Community College, after police and firefighters responded to reports that the woman was not breathing, according to a South Lake Tahoe Police Department release.

The death is not currently being investigated as suspicious, pending autopsy results, South Lake Tahoe Police Sgt. Shannon Laney wrote in an e-mail.

Police responded to the community college at about 1:10 p.m. and found the 36-year-old woman not breathing, the release states.

By Barbara Barte Osborn
Special To The Bee

The Nevada County Sheriff's Office is investigating this morning home invasion robbery and assault in Penn Valley.

The Sheriff's Office received a 911 call at approximately 6:30 a.m. from a teenager saying his mother had been hit in the head with a gun, tied up and robbed, according to a news release from Sheriff Keith Royal.

The youth was also tied up during the robbery, a sheriff's spokesperson said, but both were able to work their way loose after the suspects left.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Marysville police arrested seven people over the last two nights during stings that targeted offenders who sell or furnish alcohol to minors, according to a Marysville Police Department news release.

Officers in Marysville carried out "shoulder tap" operations targeting persons who purchase alcohol for minors and "minor decoy" operations targeting vendors who sell or furnish alcohol to minors, the release states. Six people were arrested in the "shoulder tap" stings Wednesday and Thursday nights and one person was arrested in the "minor decoy" stings.

The following people were arrested after they were allegedly observed furnishing alcohol to a minor during "shoulder tap" stings, according to the release: William Allan Unwin, 64, of Marysville; Eugene R. Gibson, 46, of Marysville; Michael Benedict Duran, Jr., 22, of Chico; Dennis Ray Bowman, 47, of Marysville; Vincent Angelo Henry, 50; and Jesus Pablo Garcia Jr., 22, of Marysville.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former special education teacher at Will C. Wood Middle School in Sacramento has been indicted by a federal grand jury for receipt and possession of child pornography.

Mark Allen Cline, 45, of Stockton, appeared for arraignment Monday morning in Sacramento before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows. Cline pleaded not guilty.

Cline was taken into custody pending a detention hearing, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Redding police today took a man into custody who was wanted for attempted murder in Sacramento.

Jesse Moore, 22, was booked into Shasta County Jail on suspicion of resisting arrest, providing a false information, possession of a loaded .357 magnum revolver and outstanding warrants.

Police said they were called to the intersection of Trinity Street and Gilbert Street regarding somebody breaking into a vehicle at 1:22 a.m. today. When they arrived, they noticed a man walking away.

By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com

Two people were arrested in South Lake Tahoe on Friday on suspicion of passing forged American Express Travelers Cheques.

Olewasami Brown, 35, of Pittsburg and Annette Powell, 35, of Merced were arrested in a hotel on Ski Run Boulevard, according to the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.

The pair is suspected of buying merchandise in three South Lake Tahoe businesses with $500 Travelers Cheques and getting cash back. They tried to buy something at a fourth business but were turned away by an employee who had heard of the other three transactions, police said.

A store employee reported the suspects' vehicle description and the automobile was spotted at the hotel. The pair was booked on suspicion of conspiracy and forgery.

Call The Bee's Ryan Lillis, (916) 321-1085.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

This week is Teen Driving Safety Week in California, and officials are seizing on the opportunity to remind young drivers of the dangers of being distracted on the road.

Statistics offered up by the non-profit organization Impact Teen Drivers are sobering: Reckless and distracted driving is the leading cause of death for teens in the United States, claiming 3,500 teen lives in 2009.

Another alarming stat: More than two-thirds of fatal teen crashes can be attributed to distracted driving and not the usual suspects, drugs and alcohol.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

South Lake Tahoe police are seeking help finding a man who pushed aside a souvenir shop clerk and took money from the store till.

The robbery occurred Saturday night at Lake Tahoe Souvenir, 3477 Lake Tahoe Blvd. The clerk told police a man pushed her against the cabinet and helped himself to money from the cash register.

The suspect and an accomplice waiting in the parking lot then fled in a white sports utility vehicle. The robber was described as a unshaven white man, about 45 years old, 6 feet tall, with an average build. He was wearing a dark gray, zip-up hooded sweatshirt and a black ski cap.

Anyone with information is asked to call officer Ray Poole, (530) 542-6100.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The California Highway Patrol said that one of their officers was forced to shoot a driver in Chico early this morning after a wild pursuit.

The incident began when the Butte County Sheriff's Office requested that the CHP take over a pursuit of a pickup in the Durham area, south of Chico. Officers said that the truck was a "suspicious vehicle and speeding."

Chico police deployed a spike strip at Dayton Road and Hegan Lane, north of downtown, which flattened both front tires on the pickup.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The California Highway Patrol said a drunk driver ran his pickup truck into a drainage ditch Thursday night in Olivehurst, causing major injuries to his passenger.

The CHP said that Michael W. Shaeffer, 38, of Olivehurst was southound on Feather River Boulevard, south of Myrna Avenue, near the Yuba County Airport, about 7 p.m., when due to his level of intoxication, he allowed his pickup to leave the right side of the roadway.

Shaeffer was able to pull back from the edge, but lost control and the truck ran off the left side of Feather River Boulevard. The front of Shaeffer's truck hit a partially filled drainage ditch.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Sacramento County sheriff's detectives have added a suspicon of murder charge to the sole suspect in custody in connection with the killing of a Rancho Cordova woman earlier this year, according to authorities.

Demetrius Shaffer (left photo), 32, is accused in the fatal strangulation of Rajeet Kor Singh, 37, whose body was found near light rail tracks on New Year's morning, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Shaffer, who already was in custody on an unrelated rape charge, also was booked on suspicion of penetration with a foreign object, Ramos said.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The leader of a federal student loan fraud ring has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Nakesha Sharrieff, also known as Takiyah Raheem and Asiya Hanifah Kahan, 24, of Sacramento, entered the plea today before Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. Sharrieff is the fourth defendant in the case to plead guilty, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Sharrieff admitted in her guilty plea that she began participating in a scheme to obtain federal student loan funds in September 2004 and eventually led the scheme herself. She began by submitting an application for student loan funds for community college, although she had no intention of attending and never did attend classes.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

An estimated 300 law enforcement officers from nine agencies swept through the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center today in search of drugs, weapons and other inmate contraband.

Sacramento sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said there was no incident that precipitated the sweep of the 2,200-inmate jail, "other than that we felt the need to be proactive."

As of 2 p.m., the officers from the Sheriff's Department, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and seven other agencies found a dozen inmate-manufactured weapons, "a few dozen pills," gang correspondence and intelligence that inmates had gathered among themselves on institutional security, Ramos said.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

South Lake Tahoe police arrested a heavy equipment operator Sunday night on suspicion of driving under the influence and other charges after he turned his front end loader on an officer's car and tried to ram it, according to a press release.

Steve Beattie, 55, was taken into custody after the 9 p.m. confrontation with officers that came to a conclusion on dead-end Terry Lane. He was booked on charges of drunken driving, assault with a deadly weapon on an officer and felony evasion of officers, the press release said.

Police said they responded to a call of a snow-removal tractor knocking over a light standard and traffic control signs on Ski Run Boulevard. They said that when officers tried to stop the vehicle, the driver refused to stop, then flipped them the middle finger and drove his vehicle toward a police car driven by Officer Ray Poole.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A Mono County couple have paid the government $1 million for damages from a fire they accidentally caused that scorched 7,435 acres of the Inyo National Forest, according to U. S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

The Sawmill Fire ignited on Sept. 14, 2006, after Jonathan and Penny Bourne burned brush in a fire pit on their private property that was not fully extinguished and embers blew into dry fuel, Wagner said.

He said it cost the government more than $1 million to suppress the blaze.

"This recovery is the most recent in the government's continued efforts to hold individuals and companies accountable for behavior that jeopardizes and damages the national forests," Wagner said. "These are cherished resources, particularly in California."

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Sacramento man has been sentenced to life in prison for a home invasion robbery in which the victims were tortured.

Minh Throng Huynh, 38, is the last of seven gang members to be sentenced in the robbery spree, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb today sentenced Huynh to life in prison plus a consecutive 65-year term for using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. The sentencing came after years of delays initiated by the defense, federal officials said.

According to evidence presented at the three-month trial in 2007, over the course of two months, December 1995 and January 1996, co-defendant John That Luong, 39, the leader and organizer of a criminal organization, planned and executed four violent armed robberies, and attempted a fifth, of computer chip companies and a Stockton jewelry store. Minh Huynh was a robbery crew chief.

By Christine Vovakes and Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A 3-year-old Shasta County boy remains in critical condition at UC Davis Medical Center after shooting himself in the head with a handgun Sunday morning at a Shingletown residence.

Shasta County sheriff's deputies were summoned to a home shortly after 8 a.m. and reported that the youngster had "obtained a handgun and shot himself in the head."

The boy was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding and later airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center.

Shingletown is a rural community on Highway 44 about 30 miles east of Redding.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Five members of a Yuba City white supremacist gang have been arrested in connection with an unusual scheme to smuggle heroin into the Susanville State Prison, Attorney General Kamala Harris said today.

The five members of the "New Order" gang allegedly planted 1 gram of heroin onto the glue strips of envelopes, then mailed them to inmates inside the prison, Harris said.

Each heroin-laced envelope was valued at $500 inside the prison, more than five times its street value, Harris said.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

A woman has been hospitalized after spending two hours this morning in her crashed car near Grass Valley, California Highway Patrol officials report.

The woman, who was not identified, apparently swerved as she was driving and then over-corrected, plunging off Highway 49 near Lady Jane Road.

"She went way down an embankment," said CHP Officer Folke Lilyquist.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Grass Valley man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was found severely injured at the Alta Sierra Airport runway Thursday.

Nevada County sheriff's deputies received a report of a man vandalizing property and making threats to homeowners on Norlene Way in the Grass Valley area about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

Deputies responded and contacted Cody Robert Feiler, 30. Deputies detained Feiler because of his bizarre behavior and unusual statements, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A 21-year-old Yuba City man was shot and killed Friday night while driving away from a convenience store, the Sutter County Sheriff's Department reported today.

Alfredo Martinez had just bought some gas at the Quick Stop at Lincoln Road around 10 p.m. Friday night and drove out to the west when a car pulled up alongside and someone inside fired at him several times and hit him once.

Martinez, who had two passengers with him, tried to get away by heading north on Sanborn Road but drove off into an orchard at Cherry Street.

Modesto Bee

DNA samples have confirmed that the boy whose body was found in the Delta-Mendota Canal on Tuesday was Juliani Cardenas, who was kidnapped Jan. 18 from his Patterson home, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said Friday.

The sheriff's office said it received the test results from the California Department of Justice. DNA from the child matched that of his mother, Tabitha Cardenas. She was notified of the results, the sheriff's office said.

Juliani's death is being investigated as a homicide. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Joe Esteban Rodriguez, whom a farmworker saw drive his Toyota Corolla into the canal near Patterson a short while after Juliani was snatched from his grandmother's arms. Juliani was in the car.

Read the full story here.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Grass Valley man has been indicted for distributing child pornography over the Internet using peer-to-peer software.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento on Thursday returned a two-count indictment charging Clifford Donald Wells, 55, with distribution and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to allegations contained in court documents, in June and August 2010, Wells used peer-to-peer software that allowed authorized users worldwide to access and download images from computer directories that Wells made available.

An undercover FBI agent in another state downloaded several dozen illegal images from Wells' computer, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

Photo credit: Phillip Garrido, 59, has mostly sat quietly through his court appearances over the past 18 months.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

The judge in the Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnap case today ruled that Phillip Garrido is mentally competent to face trial in her 1991 abduction.

El Dorado Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister said, "The defendant is in fact competent to stand trial."

He set the next hearing the case for Feb. 28.

Garrido and his wife Nancy are accused of kidnapping Dugard when she was 11 and holding her captive for 18 years, but the case has been on hold because of questions about Phillip Garrido's mental competence.

The lawyers on both sides agreed today to allow the judge to decide that issue.

Phimister said that after reviewing reports from psychiatrists he determined Garrido is competent.

Gallery: The Dugard case

Story: Garrido competency issues to be discussed

Story: Judge puts Garrido couple's phone calls on hold

By Dixie Reid
dreid@sacbee.com

Full of chicken wings and guacamole - and more - hundreds of Super Bowl partiers are expected to hit the streets following Sunday's big game.

Be warned: So will a lot of DUI enforcement officers.

The Sacramento Police Department is conducting a post-game "saturation patrol," looking for folks who've had too much to drink and unlicensed drivers, according to a press release issued today.

By Bill Lindelof

blindelof@sacbee.com
A 20-year-old inmate who escaped from a minimum-security Sutter County lock-up last month is back in custody.

Jeremy Lee Grove, who was being held on a minor drug offense, escaped Jan. 22 from the Sutter County jail where inmates are housed in three large dormitory buildings surrounded by a fence with razor wire, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Grove apparently scaled the fence and threw his shirt over the razor wire before climbing out, a news release states.

Yuba City police officers arrested Grove on Saturday. He was returned to Sutter County where he was booked on a charge of suspicion of escape, authorities said.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Two Sacramento teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after they allegedly ran down a rival gang member in their car Friday night, a Lodi police spokesman said.

Around 6 p.m. Friday, a 19-year-old male and a 16-year-old male were driving in Lodi when they spotted a member of a rival gang, said Lodi Police Department spokesman Sgt. Doug Chinn.

They struck the 16-year-old Lodi teen with their car near the intersection of Garfield and Tokay streets and dragged him about 460 feet, first on top of the car, then under it, Chinn said.

Photo gallery: The search for 4-year-old Juliani Cardenas

BEE STAFF UPDATE:

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson says a vehicle pulled from the Delta-Mendota canal this evening is empty and does not contain the bodies of missing 4-year-old Juliani Cardenas and his suspected kidnapper.

"We wanted to find little Juliani alive. ... The chances of that happening are diminishing exponentially," the sheriff said Friday evening during a televised news conference at the canal.

Juliani's mother is in Sacramento County at a vigil, the sheriff said.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Truckee woman is accused of embezzling more than $80,000 while working as a bookkeeper.

Truckee police detectives on Wednesday arrested Keri L. Campbell, 37, on suspicion of embezzlement, fraud, and burglary as a result of information obtained from one of Campbell's employers and an investigation into her business operation, according to a Police Department news release.

Campbell, an independent contract bookkeeper for several businesses in the Truckee-Tahoe region, allegedly embezzled more than $80,000 from at least one of her local employers while employed as a part-time bookkeeper. She was booked into the Nevada County jail in Nevada City.

Truckee detectives are continuing their investigation and ask anyone with additional information pertaining to the case to call Detective Arnie Lopez at (530) 550-2336 or Detective Danny Renfrow at (530) 550-2339.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

One Reno man is in custody and four other suspects are sought in connection with a Jan. 12 robbery in the Yuba County community of Dobbins in which the victim was threatened by armed intruders who stole cash and 30 marijuana plants.

Douglas Gilliland, 43, was arrested Jan. 15 by Reno police detectives and was transferred to the Yuba County Jail on Monday, according to a Yuba County Sheriff's Department news release.

Reno detectives checked Gilliland's old address at the request of Yuba County investigators and found a car matching the description of the suspect vehicle from the Yuba County robbery, officials said. They soon spotted Gilliland at the home, where they took him into custody. He was subsequently taken to a Reno hospital for treatment of dog bites he received from the robbery victim's dog.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A Nevada County man is suspected in a series of home burglaries where he allegedly stole a luxury car, a golf cart and two all-terrain vehicles.

Richard David Longacre II, 28, was arrested on suspicion of multiple felony charges, according to the Nevada County Sheriff's Department. He allegedly burglarized homes in the Lake of the Pines area.

Detectives served a search warrant at Longacre's home in the 24000 block of Green Valley Road in Lake of the Pines on Monday.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former Grass Valley couple has been sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud following their extradition from Costa Rica.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Lin Bartee, 66, and Christine Bartee, 52, were each sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. for conspiring to evade income tax and fraudulently concealing property in connection with a bankruptcy case. In addition to the prison sentence, they were ordered to pay $239,472 in restitution.

According to their plea agreements, the Bartees admitted to receiving at least $260,000 in taxable income in 2002. However, neither defendant filed an income tax return and Lin Bartee instead sent the IRS a document indicating that he was not required to pay taxes.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Law enforcement authorities were still searching Monday for a 20-year-old inmate who escaped from a minimum-security jail.

Jeremy Lee Grove, who was being held on a minor drug offense, escaped from the Sutter County jail where inmates are housed in three large dormitory buildings surrounded by a fence with razor wire. Grove apparently scaled the fence and threw his shirt over the razor wire before climbing out about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Most of the inmates in the dorms are low-risk offenders. Grove is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and 180 pounds with blond hair and hazel eyes.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

A Redding woman told police she was assaulted in her own backyard by four youths from the high school next door.

The woman, Maureen Saari, said that she was in her backyard when the teens climbed the fence from Enterprise High School, according to a police department release.

Saari, 35, said she confronted them and was pushed to the ground, getting a slight cut on her forehead.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

An Anderson man apparently seeking quicker attention for mental health treatment threatened to shoot himself and others in the emergency room of Mercy Medical Center in Redding, police said.

Officers arrested Jesse M. Whitlow on Saturday afternoon and recovered a loaded .22 caliber pistol in his car and numerous .22 caliber rounds in his pants pocket, Redding Police spokesman Bart Langley reported.

Police said that Whitlow brought the handgun into the emergency room waiting area shortly after 4:30 p.m. and apparently sought to use it to try to get the attention of the hospital staff. Whitlow eventually gave the gun to an acquaintance, who locked it in the car, police said.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former civilian employee with the Department of the Navy has pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain federal workers' compensation benefits.

Michael Howell, 59, of Vacaville entered the plea Thursday before U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr., according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to the plea agreement, Howell began receiving monthly workers' compensation payments in July 2001, claiming total disability that prevented him from working.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A man convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend in 2009 has been sentenced to 55 years to life in prison.

Demario Richard Wiggins, 32, was sentenced today by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Russell Hom, according to a Sacramento District Attorney's Office news release. A jury in October convicted him of second-degree murder in the death of Tersha Brown, 26.

On July 20, 2009, Sacramento police officers found Brown in her apartment in the 600 block of Garden Highway, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Wiggins shot Brown after the two had an argument.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A Clements man has been arrested after he allegedly robbed a Lockeford bank Thursday while claiming to have a bomb in his purse, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department.

Robert Daniel Mehrten (left), 52, was arrested without incident at about 9 p.m. Thursday while leaving his residence by surveillance teams set up in the area of his home.

At about 9:30 a.m., Sheriff's deputies responded to reports of a bank robbery at the Bank of the West on East Highway 88 in Lockeford, according to a sheriff's department release.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Sacramento police are investigating a stabbing that occurred outside Arden Fair mall Thursday night.

The victim fought with several subjects shortly before 6:20 p.m. in the mall parking lot between Macy's and Goodyear Auto Services Center, said Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The victim was stabbed and received non-life-threatening wounds, Leong said. He called the police from inside the Goodyear store.

The victim, a validated gang member, has not been cooperative with officers, Leong said.

Call The Bee's Matt Kawahara at (916) 321-1015.

By Cathy Locke and Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested a 43-year-old woman in connection with a homicide at a Foothill Farms apartment complex Thursday night, a department spokesman said.

Tiffany Renee Henry was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of murder early this morning, according to booking logs. She is ineligible for bail.

Sheriff's deputies responded to reports of a woman with a gun at the apartment complex on Andrea Boulevard near Elkhorn Boulevard shortly before 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

By Bill Enfield
benfield@sacbee.com

A convicted murderer of an Olivehurst man wants out from behind bars - this time legally, according to the State Board of Parole Hearings.

Troy Alexander Temple, now 50, is serving 15 years to life for killing Kenneth D. Cossey, 50, of Olivehurst in 1989. He also is under a nearly 32-year sentence for a jail escape from the Yuba County Jail after he was convicted in 1991.

The escape sentence will start when and if Temple is paroled from the murder conviction, records indicate.

Temple also has a criminal history in Nevada and El Dorado counties, records indicate.

By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com

Hmong American leaders throughout the Central Valley feel vindicated by the news that entire case against the remaining 12 defendants charged with plotting the overthrow of Laos has been thrown out.

Vaming Xiong, who helped organize large Hmong rallies against the case at the Capitol and the Sacramento Federal Court House, said, "We're so grateful that U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner and the government understand there is no evidence against the defendants and are doing the right thing for the Hmong people, not just in the U.S. but around the world."

A tearful Xiong said, "I'm so grateful, but I'm so sad Vang Pao couldn't have lived to see it."

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

At the request of federal prosecutors, a Sacramento judge today dismissed the entire case against 12 men charged with plotting to overthrow the communist government in Laos.

Much of the case, which was originally charged more than 31/2 years ago, was thrown out as unsupported two months ago by U.S. District Judge Fank C. Damrell Jr.

After Damrell's action, "we conducted a further assessment of the matter," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in a prepared statement. He said it was decided that, "under the totality of cirumstances, it is not in the government's interest to continue this prosecution."

CHESTER - The Plumas County Sheriff's Department has released the names of two people killed in a plane crash at a rural airport in Plumas County.

Ronald Gilmore, 76, of Chester has been identified as one of the victims. His wife, Janet Gilmore, is thought to be the second person who died, the Sheriff's Department said.

A department spokesman said that the department received several calls reporting a "possible airplane in distress" near or at the Chester Airport about 7 p.m. Thursday. Chester is in northeast California near Lassen National Park, 170 miles north of Sacramento.

When deputies, along with the California Highway Patrol and the Chester Fire Department, arrived at the airport, about 30 minutes later, they found a single-engine aircraft crashed in the snow about one-quarter mile southwest of the airport.

The Beechcraft Bonanza is owned by Ronald Gilmore. The National Transportation Board will conduct an investigation.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Desperately seeking a drug that would allow them to execute a Death Row inmate last fall, California corrections officials scoured the nation for a dose of it, calling dozens of hospitals and local surgery centers, asking the federal government, Veteran's Administration officials and numerous other states for help, newly released documents show.

The documents, released late Tuesday as the result of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, reveal new details of how California sought unsuccessfully to cajole the governor of Texas to lend the state a supply of sodium thiopental, and how they reached out to officials nationwide seeking the drug. At one point, previously released documents state, they considered buying a batch from a supplier in Pakistan.

Finally, they turned to Arizona officials as part of what they described as a "secret and important mission" to pick up the drug from an Arizona prison south of Phoenix, then drive it to San Quentin.

The planned execution of Albert Greenwood Brown, which set off the search, never took place. California finally was able to find a British supplier of the drug for $36, 415, but details of that transaction remain secret.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement today saying the agency, "Does not review or approve products for the purpose of lethal injects."

But the FDA said it was releasing the shipment to California without reviewing the drug "to determine their identity, safety, effectiveness, surety or any other characteristics."

No executions are currently scheduled in California, but officials say delivery of the British supply of the drug has been approved by the FDA and should be arriving in California shortly.

"We're comfortable that it will be arriving in the coming days," corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said today.

The ACLU disputes whether that drug can legally be used in future executions and believes it is an issue that will be addressed in court, said Natasha Minsker, death penalty policy director for the ACLU's Northern California branch, which filed the suit.

The nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate that is the first of three drugs administered in lethal injection executions, has bedeviled corrections officials nationwide as they seek to put condemned inmates to death.

The U.S. maker of the drug has said it will not be able to manufacture new batches of it until early this year, and has made it clear to states that it opposes the use of the anesthetic in executions. That set off international searches for supplies of it by states seeking to put inmates to death.

But details of California's efforts last fall to put Brown to death remained sketchy until the ACLU prevailed in court to force release of public records that describe the dramatic efforts to obtain the drug.

So far, the ACLU has received nearly 1,200 pages of e-mails, correspondence and other documents from its lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and it says CDCR has promised that more are on the way.

The portrait the documents paint is one of officials calling everyone imaginable in search of the drug, which they first learned was in short supply last June.

"We have contacted 80-90 hospitals over the past few days and none of them have a drop of Pentothal," one e-mail written Sept. 16, two weeks before Brown's scheduled execution, states. "Most have been out for quite some time. I still have folks in the industry keeping an eye out and I will let you know if I hear of any leads."

That e-mail, like many in the documents released, had the identities of the sender and recipients redacted. But it is clear from the documents that extraordinary efforts were made to locate a supply of the drug.

"I called approximately 100 Hospitals and local general surgery centers," John McAuliffe, a contract worker for the corrections department, wrote to CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Sept. 29, the day before Brown was scheduled to die.

"Still have not heard from AZ," Kernan then wrote to department Secretary Matt Cate. "Trying not to press to (sic) hard."

Cate replied with an e-mail asking if military hospitals had been called and noting that he had called an official with Veterans Affairs.

Officials in other states were in similar positions. One e-mail that appears to have originated from the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office was sent to officials in dozens of states, as well as the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. In it, an official whose name is redacted asks, "(I)f anyone has any information on how to obtain this drug or any other ultra short-acting barbiturate, that would be extremely helpful."

Another e-mail indicates that officials in "Washington called every community hospital in the state and found one that had some they could borrow."

That sparked interest by California officials, with one writing that Cate, the CDCR secretary, "thought we should contact community hospitals (probably excluding the bay area) in the state to see if we can find any in stock."

Finally, California received guidance from Arizona corrections officials on how to obtain the drug from a London supplier. With officials in most states unable or unwilling to share their doses of sodium thiopental, a foreign supplier was the only avenue that officials believed viable.

"As we discussed on the phone today, we have followed the lead of Arkansas and purchased the drugs we need from a company in London," Charles Flanagan, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, wrote to a California corrections official Sept. 28. "Frankly, there was no possibility of getting the Thiopental Sodium/Sodium Pentothal from any source in the U.S., to include from any of the departments of corrections in other states that use the same 3-drug protocol as us."

American Civil Liberties Union documents

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.

By Jane Braxton Little
Bee Correspondent

Lassen County officials are investigating the death of Robert McElrath, 37 of Susanville, an officer with the Susanville Police Department.

Deputies found McElrath's body Sunday near a railroad trestle near Devil's Corral seven miles west of Susanville.

The cause of death is under investigation, said Sgt. Matt McFarland. He is asking anyone who was in that area between the morning of Jan. 1 and midday Jan. 2 to contact the Lassen County Sheriff-Coroner's office at (530) 257-6121.

Law enforcement officials reported 84 homicides in Sacramento County during 2010, up from 70 in 2009 but similar to the average over the last decade, police and coroner's data show.

Use this new interactive map to see the location of each homicide during 2010.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A $2,000 reward is being offered in an effort to find the man who assaulted a Yuba County woman Monday morning.

Yuba County Sheriff Steve Durfor announced that a local group, the Fellowship of Friends, has offered the reword for information leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of the suspect in the attack. A sketch of the man was released (left).

The assault occurred in the community of Oregon House. The victim, a 47-year-old woman, left her home in Oregon House about 5 a.m. and was driving down Marysville Road when her car broke down between Road 270 and Frenchtown Road. A man pulled over in a pickup truck and agreed to give her a ride to the Oregon House Store.

However, the man drove past the store and struck the woman in the face and body with a blunt object while driving, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. He then pulled over, and the two struggled before the woman was able to fight him off and escape. She ran to a home, where residents called the Sheriff's Department.

The woman was treated for her injuries at Rideout Hospital and later released.

The man is described as white, or light-skinned Hispanic, in his mid to late 30s, with brown hair and a full, neatly groomed beard. His truck was described as a dark-colored extra cab pickup. Officials said he may have injuries to his hands and face as a result of the struggle.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Yuba County Sheriff's Department at (530) 749-7777. Callers may remain anonymous.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A 47-year-old man died Monday afternoon when his vehicle overturned on a winding portion of Forbestown Road in Butte County.

According to the California Highway Patrol report, Robert Todd Lonsberry of Forbestown was driving his full-size Chevrolet pickup westbound on a winding portion of Forbestown Road, about a half-mile west of the Forbestown Store, shortly after 3 p.m. As he entered a left curve in the roadway, the tires on the right side of the truck went off the edge of the pavement. In an attempt to get the vehicle back on the pavement, Lonsberry overcorrected and lost control of the truck, the report says.

The pickup turned counterclockwise as it slid back across the road and into a dirt embankment on the south side of the road. The truck then rolled over and came to rest on the passenger side, facing eastbound in the eastbound lane. Lonsberry, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was partially ejected through the truck's right side window and suffered a fatal head injury when the vehicle rolled on top of him.

The CHP reported that an open can of beer was found in the vehicle, and alcohol is believed to have been a factor in the crash.

Had Lonsberry been wearing his seatbelt, officials said, he might have been able to ride out the crash and walk away with minor injuries. The report says the pickup sustained moderate damage to its right side and was still drivable.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. State Department announced today that agents arrested 12 people in the Central Valley this year for suspected passport fraud.

Pat Durken, special agent in charge of the Diplomatic Security Service San Francisco office, said the accused are suspected of applying for a passport using counterfeit, stolen or other unlawfully-obtained documentation, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Among those arrested were Juan Carlos Lopez Hernandez of Woodland and Alexander Sabolovic of Sacramento.

Among their range of duties, Diplomatic Security personnel protect the Secretary of State and investigate passport and visa fraud. In 2008, the Diplomatic Security Service participated in 2,487 arrests around the world, primarily for passport and visa fraud.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

A man died Thursday when his car was hit head-on in Oroville by a van driven by an apparently intoxicated woman, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Peggy Castaneda, 46, of Oroville was driving a Dodge Grand Caravan east, while Robert Alexander, 69, was driving west, both on Oro Dam Boulevard East, near Rusty Dusty Road.

Castaneda, due to her intoxication level, allowed her van to drift over the double-yellow lines, according to the CHP incident report.

The left front of her vehicle hit the left front of Alexander's Suzuki Samurai. Both cars overturned.

Alexander was taken to a hospital where he died.

The Butte County Sherriff Office's online jail records showed Castaneda still in custody this afternoon.

The collision is still under investigation, the CHP said.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Officials at San Quentin State Prison are investigating the cause of death of a 42-year-old inmate who was found unresponsive in his Death Row cell Monday afternoon.

John Levae Post, who was sentenced to death Dec. 17, 2001, out of Los Angeles, was found in his cell at 2:20 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 2:52 p.m., officials said.

Post was convicted in the 1996 drive-by shooting deaths of 17-year-old Aaron Johnson and 23-year-old Larry Logan.

State prison officials say that since 1978, when capital punishment was reinstated in California, 52 Death Row inmates have died from natural causes and 18 committed suicide. Thirteen have been executed in California and one was executed in Missouri.

As of Monday, there were 717 inmates on Death row in San Quentin.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Lodi police arrested a man and his wife after a struggle Saturday night in which they said one officer was hit over the head with a cellphone.

Police said the officer suffered a small cut and bump in the struggle.

The altercation occurred Saturday during an overnight saturation of the city looking for drunken drivers. In all, officers arrested 10 suspects, five for DUI.

A total of 40 stops of vehicles were made, resulting in 34 citations being written and 8 vehicles being towed.

About 9 p.m. officers stopped a car driven by Luis Hernandez in the 300 block of East Pine Street. Police allege that Hernandez ran from officers but was caught in front of his home.

Police say Hernandez fought with them and that during the confrontation his wife, Angeles Bernal, tried to help her husband escape by hitting an officer in the head with her cell phone.

Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, resisting arrest and two outstanding warrants, police said. Hernandez was also arrested on suspicion of being in the country illegally.

Bernal was arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A man was shot twice with bean bags from a police shotgun over the weekend in Lodi.

Phillip Raymond Ferguson, 26, was booked into the Lodi Police Department Jail on suspicion of resisting or obstructing officers, being under the influence of narcotics and an outstanding felony warrant for possession of a dangerous weapon.

Police said that they received several calls Saturday evening from citizens complaining of a passenger in a sport utility vehicle yelling at them as the SUV drove through downtown Lodi. Officers noticed the SUV as it rolled by the police department.

As officers made the stop, they got additional word from a citizen that the loud man might be armed. When officers stopped, Ferguson and two others in the SUV got out at the command of police.

However, police said they were forced to shoot Ferguson with a bean bag when he reached for his waistband. He fell back but attempted to get back into the SUV, police said.

That's when police said they fired another bean bag. This time he complied and was taken into custody.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

Bee staff

A 13-year-old Vacaville girl and her baby brother were stabbed and seriously wounded in a home invasion early today, police said.

Police said the girl and her 18-month-old brother were home alone on Balsam Drive in Vacaville when an intruder broke into their home while they slept. The girl sustained more than 30 stab wounds and the baby was stabbed 10 times, police said.

The girl was also sexually assaulted during the incident, police said.

The two were reported in critical condition at UC Davis but their wounds weren't considered life threatening, police said.

A juvenile suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide and sexual assault. Police said the suspect was a friend of the children's older brother, but "we do not have any specific motive."

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Redding police were busy Friday night with a spate of five auto collisions triggered by three drivers believed to have been under the influence.

The collisions occurred over the course of just 90 minutes.

In one case, police used a Taser to subdue a suspect attempting to leave the scene.

In that incident, Shane Austin Collins, 24, of Redding, was believed to have lost control of his vehicle, which struck a guardrail around 8:35 p.m.

Collins, carrying his one-month-old baby, tried to leave the scene with the infant's mother, who was not identified.

After an officer tried to detain Collins, police reported that he challenged the officer to fight, handed the baby to its mother and attempted to run away.

After police used a Taser on him, Collins was taken to a hospital for evaluation and then booked on suspicion of resisting a peace officer, child endangerment, violation of probation and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

About 40 minutes earlier, Jaclyn Marie Pruitt, 29, of Redding, was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment after her car struck a tree in a single-vehicle accident.

In the final incident, a 2010 Ford F 250 driven by Stephen Best, 56, of Burney, was involved in three separate hit-and-run incidents.

The Ford truck hit a GMC Jimmy which, in turn, struck a Ford Ranger. Best's car left the scene and sideswiped a Jeep Liberty before running into a light pole, police said.

Redding Officer K.C. Marks saw Best driving away from the last crash, stopped him and arrested him.

Drivers of the Jimmy and Ranger were taken to the hospital complaining of pain.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that the owner of three Northern California pharmacies has paid $175,000 to settle the government's claims for civil statutory violations occurring at the pharmacies.

The claims involved three pharmacies owned by Ronald T. Lim of Redding: Lim's Family Pharmacy in Redding, Susanville Family Pharmacy in Susanville, and Lim's Shasta Lake Pharmacy in Shasta Lake, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The government contends that Lim's Family Pharmacy and Susanville Family Pharmacy violated the Controlled Substances Act by failing to maintain certain records and failing to accurately record certain transactions involving controlled substances. In addition, officials said, audits of the pharmacies' inventories showed a shortage of several controlled substances, along with overages of others.

The False Claims Act allows the federal government to recover damages and penalties for fraud. The government contends that Lim submitted, or caused to be submitted, claims for payment to the Medicare Program and California Medicaid Program, in violation of the False Claims Act by billing for certain drugs that were not dispensed to beneficiaries. Instead of reimbursing the government, Lim kept the monies and returned the drugs to inventory, the government alleges,

In addition to the monetary payment, the settlement requires the three pharmacies to engage in certain record keeping and return to stock compliance measures. Lim also is to designate a Drug Enforcement Administration compliance officer who will confirm reimbursement for drugs that are not dispensed and perform a quarterly audit of 50 individual drugs that were dispensed but not picked up to assure that the subject federal health care program was refunded for the drug.

The settlement is the result of a joint investigation by the DEA Sacramento Diversion Group, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

Q: What has happened to Eric Houston who killed a teacher and three students at a Yuba County school years ago? Anonymous, Marysville

A: Houston, now 38, is in his 18th year on California's Death Row for the May 1, 1992 murders at Lindhurst High School in Yuba County. (In photo, law enforcement officers evacuate students from the school. Bee staff photo.)

On that day as seniors and juniors talked of prom dresses and graduation, Eric Houston, then a 20-year-old disgruntled dropout, donned a camouflage hunting vest, loaded his car with an arsenal and pulled up to the school as afternoon classes got under way, The Bee reported.

Houston strode into the school with a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun and fatally gunned down three students and Robert Brens, a popular 28-year-old history teacher.

He killed students Beamon Hill, 16, Judy Davis, 17, and Jason White, 19.

Houston, who had just lost his job and his fiancee, injured 10 others in the attack that trapped 84 students in the building as hostages. During the next eight hours, he let small groups go during the standoff with authorities, until 10:30 that night, when he walked out unarmed.

In the days that followed, tales of valor emerged, of quick-thinking students and staff members who curbed the bloodshed, who died to save others.

The apparent motive: Houston blamed the bleakness of his life on the school where he failed to get a diploma.

In 1994, a judge ordered Houston to pay $189,607 to the Marysville Joint Unified School District for workers' compensation and death benefits. But since he's without assets, the district may never receive it, The Bee reported.

For a complete list of questions answered by Sacto911, click here

Bee Metro Staff

Shasta County sheriff's deputies are searching for a 15-year-old Redding girl who they believe is with a 44-year-old uncle wanted on a felony warrant.

Jean Marie Berlinghoff, 15, was last seen at her home two weeks ago. Officials believe she is with her uncle, 44-year-old Charles Berlinghoff. The uncle is from the San Bernardino area and is wanted on a $100,000 felony warrant, according to the sheriff's department.

Electronic message signs along freeways in California counties from Sacramento north have been activated with information about the missing girl. They read: "Missing Child, '87 Gry Olds 4DR, Lic 2DNX546."

"During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend - the busiest and most traveled time of the year - it is hoped that a member of the motoring public may see the car and call authorities with information," sheriff's officials said in a prepared statement.

Jean Marie Berlinghoff is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall and about 120 pounds. She has a quarter-size birthmark above her right knee.

Charles Berlinghoff is about 5-foot-11, 185 pounds with a large tattoo on his right shoulder. He drives a gray 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass, California license plate 2DNX546.

Anyone who sees the pair is asked to call the Shasta County Sheriff's Office at (530) 245-6025 or their local law enforcement agency.

A $10,000 reward is available in this case through the Shasta County Secret Witness Program.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

The Placer County jurors in the case of the Roseville dog park battery told the court this afternoon that they are hopelessly deadlocked. A mistrial has been declared, court officials said.

Sacramento Sheriff's Deputy Monica Chavez was charged with battery after she struck event planner and former model Shelly Riley after Riley forcefully separated their scrapping dogs at the Roseville Bear Dog Park.

Chavez's attorney, Michael Bowman, argued that his client acted in defense of herself and her dogs.

It is not clear yet whether the Placer County prosecutors will seek a new trial.

Chavez could still face administrative punishment without a conviction, Sacramento Sheriff's Department officials said.

Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269.

Photo: Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Monica Chavez, center, leaves Placer Superior Court on July 20. Credit: Randy Pench.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

A San Joaquin County Superior Court jury is still deliberating in the trial of one of four people accused of holding captive and ritualistically abusing a Sacramento teenager in Tracy in 2008.

Anthony Waiters, 31, could face life in prison if convicted on all charges included in a grand jury indictment issued earlier this year. Three other people - Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, and their friend Caren Ramirez - all accepted plea deals and were each sentenced to at least 30 years in prison.

Waiters' attorney, Allan Jose, sought to demonstrate to jurors that his client played a lesser role in alleged abuses that the teen said included burnings, slashings, chokings, and beatings with a baseball bat.

The youth, now 18, escaped the Schumacher home with a chain still attached to his ankle in December 2008. He told the jury that he routinely was chained to a fireplace grate.

Initial reports that the jury had reached a verdict were erroneous. The jury continues to deliberate.

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.

By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com

Hate crimes across the United States are at their lowest level since 1994, and down 15 percent between 2009 and 2008, according to an analysis of FBI statistics from all 50 states that was released today.

California saw a 26 percent drop from 2008 to 2009.

Database: See 2009 hate crime stats for cities, counties

The FBI's 2009 Hate Crime Statistics Act report indicates crimes directed against individuals because of race, religion, sexual orientation and national origin all declined. In 2009, the FBI reported 6,604 hate crimes, a decrease from 7,783 in 2008.

Of the 4,422 law enforcement agencies in the United States that reported their 2009 cases to the FBI, only 2,034 - 14.1 percent - reported even a single hate crime.

Sacramento reported nine hate crimes in 2009, compared with 13 in 2008, 20 in 2007, 37 in 2006, and 50 in 2005, according to an Anti-Defamation League analysis of FBI statistics.

"In California, the number went down from 1,381 crimes reported in 2008 to 1,015 in 2009," said Michael Lieberman, Washington Counsel for the ADL.

Religion-based crimes decreased from 1,519 in 2008 to 1,303 in 2009. The number of reported anti-Jewish crimes also decreased, from 1,013 in 2008 to 931 in 2009. The majority - 71 percent of reported religion-based crimes - were directed against Jews and Jewish institutions. Reported crimes against Muslims increased slightly from 105 to 107.

Hate crimes directed at gay men and lesbians decreased for the first time in four years - from 1,297 in 2008 to 1,223 in 2009.

Hate crimes against Hispanics continued to decline - from 561 in 2008 to 483 in 2009.

The Anti-Defamation League welcomed the drop in the number of hate crimes documented by the FBI, but expressed disappointment that more than 60 U.S. cities with 100,000-plus populations did not participate in the annual study.

A victim of hate violence is much less likely to report the crime to a police department if he or she does not believe the crime will be treated with the seriousness it merits, the ADL said.

FBI hate crime stats

Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A Caltrans employee was struck and killed by a suspected drunken driver late last night north of Chico.

He was identified as veteran Caltrans employee Gary Wayne Smith, 57, of Chico.

The California Highway Patrol arrested Russell N. Hodge, 45, of Corning on suspicion of second-degree homicide. He is suspected of driving drunk and hitting Smith, a 32-year Caltrans maintenance employee, who was helping to set up a road closure for an earlier fatal collision.

A CHP press release said that Hodge was driving his pickup northbound Highway 99 near the Hamilton-Nord-Cana Highway about 11:20 p.m. when due to his state of intoxication he failed to stop for a Caltrans road closure.

Hodge allegedly struck Smith and continued to travel northbound on Highway 99 until stopped by a CHP officer at the earlier fatal collision that was still being investigated, according to officers.

Smith died of his injuries and Hodge was booked into Butte County Jail.

Smith was a Caltrans highway maintenance lead worker, said Caltrans spokeswoman Rochelle Jenkins. She said his crew was taking the loss of their leader hard.

"His crew is devastated," said Jenkins. "One crew member witnessed the event unfold. Gary worked at the Chico yard for almost his entire career. He was a stable fixture at that yard. He was the one who taught the younger guys."

Smith was married to his wife, Sue, for 33 years and had an adult son, Jenkins said.

Smith is the 175th Caltrans employee to die in the line of duty. He was directing traffic to an established detour around an earlier fatal collision when he was struck, said Jenkins.

In the earlier accident, two adults and one child died shortly before 6 p.m. when two pickups collided on Highway 99. The CHP said a Dodge pickup traveling northbound on Highway 99 in an erratic manner hit a GMC pickup traveling in the opposite direction.

Rogelio Herrera, 29, and Saray Alvarez, 31, and an unidentified boy, 7, from Hamilton City in the GMC died. A six-year-old boy was life-flighted to UC Davis Medical Center.

The CHP said in a press release that several pounds of processed marijuana was found in the Dodge pickup. At least three people in that vehicle were arrested for transportation for sale of marijuana.

The CHP said that the identity of the driver is under investigation. Alcohol is also suspected to be a factor in this collision.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Queenie Wong
qwong@sacbee.com

Residents who receive calls from a person requesting monetary donations for the training of CAL FIRE firefighters should keep their wallets closed, according to fire officials.

The state agency says that the phone solicitation is part of a recent donation scam and that funding for CAL FIRE comes from the department's budget, not from solicitations.

The agency learned about the scam after a resident of Santa Clara County reported receiving such a call, according to the news release.

If you receive a call, the agency said to try to get as much information as possible and then report it to CAL FIRE Law Enforcement Officers at (408) 778-0930.

"We hope that by getting the word out early no one will give their money to these criminals and that if residents do get a call from a scammer, they will be prepared to gather pertinent information so we can put a stop to this," said Josh White, CAL FIRE deputy chief of law enforcement, in a statement.

Call The Bee's Queenie Wong, (916) 321-1008.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police arrested two men suspected of taking a woman's purse and cell phone Friday morning.

According to a police report, the woman was in the 3500 block of Meadowview Road when one suspect approached and demanded her purse.

She refused until the suspect pulled a gun. He took the purse and ran off while a second suspect allegedly took her phone by force.

Officers were quickly on the scene and managed to arrest the suspect who had taken the purse.

The second suspect was seen jumping a fence on Andros Court and officers surrounded a house there and asked those inside to come out.

When they emerged, the victim identified one of them as the man who took her phone.

The woman's phone was found inside the residence in the suspect's bedroom.

The two suspects were identified as Dale Ellis, 25, and Perry Ellis, 19.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcala, (916) 321-1987.

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By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Two teenagers have been arrested in the killing of a Sacramento cab driver earlier this week.

James Walker, 54, was found dead in his taxi early Monday at Hillsdale Village Apartments near Madison Avenue and Interstate 80.

Sacramento County sheriff's detectives early this morning booked Jermaine John Campbell, 19, and Jonathan Steven Hudson, 18, into Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of murder and robbery.

Campbell was also booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, a charge unrelated to the killing of Walker, according to Sacramento County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran.

Campbell was arrested at a home in the 2500 block of Seamist Drive and Hudson was arrested in the 500 block of El Camino Avenue.

Sheriff's detectives allege that the two young men were visiting friends at the apartment complex and telephoned for a taxi with the intent to rob the driver.

When Walker arrived at the complex he was shot and killed when the two suspects tried to rob him, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Walker suffered at least one gunshot wound to his upper body, Curran said.

Deputies were called to the 5100 block of Hillsdale Boulevard Monday after residents reported hearing gunshots at 3:14 a.m.

Deputies found Walker in the driver's seat of his cab, parked in the driveway of the apartment parking lot. Paramedics arrived a short time later and pronounced Walker dead, Curran said.

Nobody witnessed the shooting, Curran said.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

California prison officials have launched an online service that allows inmates to be located by plugging their names or other information into a website that will pinpoint what prison they are in, as well as visitation and other rules for each facility.

The website, http://inmatelocator.cdcr.ca.gov, is designed to help family of friends of inmates determine where they are being held in various prisons throughout the state.

Individuals can go to the site and enter an inmate's name or California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate number to find out where the person they are searching for is being held.

"Inmates who stay connected with loved ones are often more motivated to change their behavior and lead a crime-free life," CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in a release announcing the new service. "This new tool will make it more convenient for the public to locate, write and visit incarcerated family members and friends."

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Yuba City parolee has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for being a felon is possession of a firearm.

Sue Vue, 28, was convicted by a federal jury in Sacramento in July following a four-day trial and was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia.

According to testimony presented during the trial, a Sutter County sheriff's deputy was patrolling the area of the Sutter Cemetery on March 14, 2009, when he saw a traffic accident and stopped one of the vehicles involved to investigate. Vue was in the vehicle and refused to show the deputy his hands before running from the vehicle.

The deputy gave chase through the cemetery, caught Vue and tried to take him into custody.

Vue resisted arrest and removed a loaded Ruger semiautomatic handgun from his waistband. The deputy knocked the gun from Vue's hand, and the struggle continued until other emergency personnel came to the deputy's aid.

Vue also was found to possess a knife, hatchet and an additional loaded magazine matching the handgun, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. Officials said the handgun had been reported stolen years before and had been involved in shootings.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A federal grand jury in Sacramento returned three indictments today charging five individuals with manufacturing and conspiring to manufacture marijuana in Nevada County.

This follows a separate indictment, returned July 29, arising form the same operation charging eight other defendants with manufacturing and conspiring to manufacture marijuana, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

All four indictments are part of Operation Cash Crop, a joint operation by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies targeting major marijuana traffickers in Nevada County and neighboring areas.

Charged today were Scott Blake Miller, 31, of Grass Valley; Michael James Taylor, 47, of Bali, Indonesia; and Damien Michael Baranowski, 37, Kawika Mark Medeiros, 27, and Christian Carlson, 25, all of Nevada City.

According to court documents, during execution of 16 search warrants in three counties, law enforcement agents seized more than 4,100 marijuana plants, more than 200 pounds of processed marijuana and several firearms. A number of defendants were armed at the time of their arrest, and several of the individuals have prior felony convictions for narcotics offenses, officials said.

Carlson was arrested in a marijuana grow with a firearm while on pre-trial release from an earlier arrest. He currently faces charges for manufacturing marijuana in Southern California in 2009, the news release said.

Documents found at a number of the search locations show hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial transactions, and interstate shipment of cash and narcotics, officials said.

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency; California Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement; and the Nevada County, Placer County and El Dorado County sheriff's departments. The joint investigations focused on both illegal narcotics transactions and illegal financial transactions.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former licensed contractor whose state license was taken away earlier this year has been arrested and faces several felony and misdemeanor charges involving contracting with a revoked license and failure to carry workers' compensation insurance.

Brian Gross, 55, of Valley Springs in Calaveras County was arrested Oct. 1 by investigators from the Contractors State License Board Statewide Investigation Fraud Team and the Amador County District Attorney's Office, according to license board news release.

Gross' general building contractor's license was revoked June 1 for failure to pay two separate administrative citations totaling more than $4,000, the release states. His license had expired Dec. 31, 2009.

Last week, building officials in Jackson tipped state fraud team investigators to Gross' attempt to obtain a local business license using his revoked contractor license number. Gross was arrested when he and three employees were found roofing a home in Jackson.

Gross faces a felony count of fraudulent use of a contractor license number and misdemeanor counts for contracting without a license, illegal advertising, displaying a revoked license, failure to carry workers' compensation insurance and soliciting an excessive down payment, officials said. He is to be arraigned Oct. 15 in Amador Superior Court.

Gross' past administrative citations, according to the news release, were for filing false exemptions to avoid paying for workers' compensation insurance, failure to secure building permits, charging excessive down payments, working outside of his license classification, illegal advertising and illegal contracts.

California law requires that any home improvement job valued at $500 or more for labor and materials be done by a licensed contractor.

Licensees must carry workers' compensation coverage for all employees so that homeowners are not financially liable if a worker is injured on their property.

Roofing contractors must purchase workers' compensation coverage for themselves as well as their employees.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The California Highway Patrol announced that a yearlong campaign to prevent people from driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol resulted in more than 1,900 DUI arrests.

The federally funded Border-to-Border DUI Enforcement Campaign began in October 2009 with the goal of reducing the number of alcohol-involved collisions in California resulting in fatalities and injuries. To that end, the CHP conducted approximately 240 sobriety/driver license checkpoints, 100 DUI task force operations and more that 50,000 hours of proactive DUI enforcement patrols, according to a news release.

"All of these DUI enforcement efforts serve three major purposes: deterrence, removal of impaired drivers from the road and educating the motoring public," CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said in a written statement.

The agency also implemented a statewide media campaign, and conducted local traffic safety presentations and Designated Driver Programs.

Officials recently announced that the state, for the fourth year in a row, recorded a decline in deaths related to driving under the influence.

The enforcement campaign was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The Fresno police chief said finding a kidnapped 8-year-old Fresno girl this morning was the highlight of his career.

Elisa Cardenas was the subject of a statewide Amber alert all night as law enforcement searched for the little girl until she was found safe this morning. The California Highway Patrol confirmed that Elisa's suspected kidnapper was also taken into custody.

The young girl was abducted Monday night in central Fresno. She was with a group of six other girls at the time of her kidnapping.

Police Chief Jerry Dyer told the Fresno Bee that a good Samaritan helped in rescuing Elisa.

Dyer said the girl bolted from the kidnapper's pickup truck this morning after the pickup was cut off and stopped by a driver who had recognized the truck from media reports. Dyer said the good Samaritan had followed the pickup, then cut it off after he saw the little girl's head pop up in a window.

The pickup truck was later seen by the CHP. The suspect was taken into custody in the parking lot of an apartment complex at Ninth Street and Saginaw Avenue in Fresno. Dyer said the suspect, who offered no resistance, was positively identified by a witness to the abduction.

Elisa was taken to Community Regional Medical Center and was in good condition, Dyer said.

"I gotta tell ya," Dyer said, "it was a highlight of my career to see Elisa and her mom reunite in that hospital room."

In a televised press conference before Elisa was found, Dyer recounted her kidnapping. He said a man grabbed the little girl, pushed her into the driver's side of his pickup truck and sped off with the vehicle's headlights off.

Dyer said that just before the abduction, police received a call from the public about a man who exposed himself to two girls a few blocks away from where Elisa was kidnapped. The suspect and vehicle in the indecent exposure case matched that of the man who kidnapped Elisa.

Overnight, police conducted a methodical search of the neighborhood and checked motels, bus depots, train stations, schools and parks.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079. The Fresno Bee contributed to this report.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

STOCKTON - Lawyers are preparing for jury selection while discussing a possible plea deal in the case of four people accused of ritualistically abusing a Sacramento teenager.

Caren Ramirez, Anthony Waiters, Michael Schumacher and Kelly Lau have been indicted on 17 criminal counts including torture. They are accused of holding a teen known as Kyle M. hostage in a Tracy home and chaining, burning and beating him before he escaped in late 2008.

A last minute plea deal remains a possibility, lawyers said today.

The defendants are scheduled to appear again Wednesday in San Joaquin Superior Court.

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Butte County authorities are reporting a non-fatal shooting today of two individuals in the Berry Creek area near Lake Oroville State Recreation Area.

A suspect is still at large, according to the Butte County Sheriff's Office.

The victims, a man and a woman, have the same last name, but authorities could not immediately confirm their relationship.

The sheriff's office said it expects to release further details tonight.

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The state has a high seat belt wearing compliance rate, but the California Highway Patrol would like to see improvement.

The CHP said that 95.3 percent of the state's motorists buckle up.

"However, we still have approximately 4.7 percent of the population, which is equivalent to more than 1.7 million people, who are not buckling up," said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow.

A grant this year from the state Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been used to inform the public about the importance of seat belts in saving lives, Farrow said.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A state Fish and Game warden looking for deer poachers instead recently arrested three men with marijuana estimated to be worth $40,000.

The warden, Michael Beals, saw a pickup driving out of the Mendocino National Forest in Glenn County with its truck bed covered with drywall boarding.

Beals also noted that the chunks of the drywall was flying out of the truck bed, littering the highway.

He stopped the truck and lifted the drywall to find a large bag filled with dried marijuana. Beals arrested the driver and three occupants of the vehicle.

A later investigation revealed that two of the men in the truck had been working in an illegal marijuana garden hidden in the national forest. Recently, a law enforcement marijuana eradication helicopter had flown over the garden, prompting the two men to run away with the 40-pound bag of marijuana, according to a Fish and Game press release.

Fish and Game authorities believe the two men then contacted the other two men in the truck. The four were headed home with the pot when they were intercepted by warden Beals, according to state officials.

The four were booked into Glenn County Jail on suspicion of drug-trafficking.

Marijuana growing operations on public land divert water, and use pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, some of which are illegal. The growers also kill animals that eat their crops and the operators of such gardens pose a threat to innocent hikers who stumble upon the illegal operations, officials said.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

Four people accused of sadistically abusing a Sacramento teen-ager will go to trial next month, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge decided Monday.

Judge Terrence Van Oss rejected a motion to delay the trial which is set for Oct. 12.

Michael Schumacher, Kelly Lau, Caren Ramirez and Anthony Waiters have been indicted on charges of holding a teen-age boy captive in a Tracy home for more than a year. The alleged abuses included beatings with a baseball bat, slashings with a razor and chemical burns, among other things.

"This is one of the weirdest cases I've ever seen, that any of us have ever seen," Van Oss said.

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A fight this morning among three inmates at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville left a 40-year-old inmate dead after a prison officer fired a rifle to halt the altercation, authorities said tonight.

The inmate's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives and an investigation into the incident, but the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said he was serving a life term out of San Francisco for first degree murder, attempted murder, rape by force and first degree burglary with a weapon.

The inmate had been at the prison since May 1, 2007, the department said.

The incident began at about 11 a.m. Saturday in the recreational yard at the prison when two inmates attacked a third, the department said.

During the attack, one of the inmates choked another until he was unconscious and "in an effort to prevent significant bodily injury and possible death" an officer fired a rifle round that hit one of the inmates in the upper body, the department said.

He was taken to the prison's treatment and triage area, where officials worked to save him until he was pronounced dead at 11:50 a.m, the department said.

The incident is being investigated by the state Office of the Inspector General Bureau of Independent Review and the prison's investigative services unit. Prison officials also notified the Lassen County District Attorney's Office.

One of the surviving inmates was described as a 25-year-old serving life for first-degree murder out of Contra Costa County. He has been at the Susanville prison since April 8, 2008.

The other is a 35-year-old from Kings County serving a 52-year to life sentence for attempted murder and shooting into an inhabited dwelling. He has been there since March 8, 2005.

Authorities say no prison staff were hurt in the incident at the prison, which houses about 5,000 minimum, medium and maximum-security inmates.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted a Glenn County man for manufacturing identification documents.

The panel today returned a 10-count indictment charging Camilo Reyes, 37, of Orland with producing and transferring false identification documents and possessing a document-making implement.

The indictment alleges that between Dec. 14, 2009, and Aug. 13, 2010, Reyes manufactured alien registration receipt cards and Social Security cards, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations.

If convicted, Reyes faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A 60-year-old Lodi man has been convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography.

A federal court jury in Sacramento found Duke Nottingham guilty Thursday after a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to testimony presented at trial, Nottingham, using an online file-sharing program, distributed images of minors being sexually exploited. Federal agents testified that in July 2009, Nottingham made more than 500 images and 200 videos available for an undercover agent to download from his computer. When they seized Nottingham's computer in October 2009, they found that Nottingham possessed more than 1,400 images of minors being sexually exploited.

The case resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nottingham was remanded into federal custody after the verdict was returned and is to be sentenced Dec. 14.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The defense rested today in the Chu Vue murder trial, setting the stage for closing arguments that Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White scheduled for Tuesday.

Defense attorney Donald Masuda concluded his case by calling two prison employees from the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. The employees testified that they had sex with Vue's wife in the year after the Oct. 15, 2008, shooting death of their fellow correctional officer Steve Lo.

Masuda had said earlier in the trial that the testimony was necessary to undercut suggestions that Vue still loved his wife and wanted to maintain his relationship with her even after he was arrested and charged with murder in Lo's death.

Prosecutors say that he arranged the killing in anger over his wife's affair with Lo and that he was obsessed with her, even through his testimony that concluded on Wednesday. The defense maintained in trial that Vue had moved on from the relationship and that her affairs did not motivate him to kill anybody.

Vue, 45, is on trial with fellow Hmong clan member Lang Vue, 27, who is accused of renting motel rooms and cars and then buying a sports utility vehicle that the suspected gunmen drove the night of the killing and then used to drive home to Minnesota afterward.

The accused gunmen are Chu Vue's younger brothers, Gary Vue, 29, and Chong Vue, 31. The two were wanted for a 2001 murder in Minnesota at the time of Steve Lo's death. They have since been convicted in the Minnesota case and are scheduled to be tried next year in the Lo shooting.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

By Jane Braxton Little

Lassen County officials battling to block a convicted killer from being paroled in their rural area were close to a partial victory Tuesday.

Loren Herzog, initially convicted of three first-degree murders and implicated in several others, will most likely be paroled to state property near a state prison in Lassen County, said Ken DeVore, chief of staff for Assemblyman Dan Logue.

"It's a 95 percent done deal," DeVore said.

One option is to release Herzog to state property near a state prison in Lassen County, said Steve Thomson, a spokesman for Assemblyman Dan Logue. His announcement mid-way through a Lassen County Board of Supervisors meeting today drew a cheer from the emotional crowd of 450 residents but it did not halt their efforts to completely prevent Herzog from being placed in Lassen County.

"None of us wants this scum here," said Supervisor Jack Hanson., whose district includes the tiny community of Doyle, where the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation planned to relocate Herzog on Saturday after his release Friday from a prison in Riverside County.

Herzog won an appeals court ruling after his 2001 conviction on first-degree murder charges that included the rape and murder of Cyndi Vanderheiden in 1998. He then pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Vanderheiden's death, reducing his initial 78-year sentence to 14 years.

The prison system cannot hold Herzog after Friday, said Lassen County Sheriff Steve Warren.

Placing him on the grounds of a prison, where he will wear an electronic monitor be under constant surveillance, is better than having him loose in an unprotected community, he said. But Warren and the county supervisors pledged to continue their campaign to prevent Herzog from entering Lassen County under any circumstances.

They are seeking a court order prohibiting the state Department of Corrections from sending Herzog to the rural county.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

Attorneys for four people accused of ritualistically torturing a Sacramento teenager in a Tracy home are considering seeking a change of venue from San Joaquin County.

But the Superior Court judge in charge of the matter expressed impatience Monday at continued delays in the case, and said he hopes the trial can begin as scheduled in October.

Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, and their friends Caren Ramirez and Anthony Waiters have been indicted on charges that could send them to prison for life. They are accused of holding a teenaged boy captive for 18 months and severely abusing him.

The boy escaped from the Lau and Schumacher home in December 2008 by unclasping a shackle attached to his ankle and running to a nearby health club. He is now 17 years old and his care is being overseen by the court and Child Protective Services.

Attorneys for the alleged abusers told Judge Terrence Van Oss on Monday that they are exploring the idea of filing a motion to shift the trial from San Joaquin County because extensive publicity in the case might make it impossible to empanel an impartial jury.

Van Oss bristled at the idea of delaying the case further, however.

"We're coming up on two years, and all of these defendants have been sitting in custody in our county jail and there's no end in sight," he said. "Everyone is entitled to some kind of reasonably prompt justice."

The parties are next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 27.

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Two liquor store clerks have been arrested on suspicion of selling more than booze.

Mandpreet Singh Ghuane and Geoffrey Scott Maciel were arrested on suspicion of selling and possessing marijuana. The men were arrested at the Bottle Shop, 45 Main St., in Jackson, Amador County, last week.

State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators went undercover in recent months to develop information that led to the arrests, according to a department press release. Investigators allege they were able to make purchases of marijuana from the employees at the liquor store several times.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A 28-year-old San Francisco man was sentenced Thursday in Sacramento federal court to three years and one month in prison for depriving an African American man of his civil rights by assaulting the man in a Chico bar, and for an unrelated mail fraud conviction.

On March 24, at the close of a three-day trial, a jury found Eric Clawson, a former mixed martial arts fighter, guilty of the 2008 hate crime.

Clawson later pleaded guilty to the fraud charge, admitting that he purchased two properties in Chico in 2007 with loan applications containing false employment histories and inflated income. In connection with that conviction, he was ordered to pay $92,804 in restitution to the lender.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

By Miranda Simon
msimon@sacbee.com

Chico film producer James Thomas Flocker, 70, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for trading child pornography, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento said.

Flocker was found guilty of transporting, distributing and possessing child pornography by a jury on Feb. 26, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner.

U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez said that the defendant's involvement in child pornography was "serious as it represent(ed) an ongoing harm to the minor children who were used in (the images possessed and traded by the defendant.)"

Posing as a 19-year-old from Southern California, Flocker was trading pictures of prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts with an 18-year-old man in South Carolina, Wagner said.

The evidence presented in court - including testimonies from FBI agents and a Yahoo records custodian - showed Flocker sent pictures of minor boys, including one of a 4-year-old toddler in Texas. The boy's picture had been taken by his uncle, who was later convicted of molesting him.

Flocker also uploaded four pictures of nude teenage boys to a Yahoo group, where its members were allowed download them into their private pornography collections and to redistribute them, Wagner said.

Nearly two-dozen images of child pornography were found on Flocker's computer following a search of his DVD production business on Oct. 27, 2004.

The images included a picture of a young man from Kentucky who was molested by a foster-care provider between the ages of 12 and 14, Wagner said.

This case came out of an investigation by the FBI's Chico Safe Streets Task Force, which included Special Agents from the FBI and members of the California State University, Chico Police Department.

Flocker produced, wrote and directed adventure movies for television. The most recent one was "The Ghost Ship," was released in 1992, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Call The Bee's Miranda Simon, (916) 321-1119.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

An 18-day crackdown on impaired drivers in Yuba, Sutter and Colusa counties resulted in the arrest of 73 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The 2010 Summer/Labor Day Holiday campaign was conducted Aug. 20-Sept. 6. Officers with law enforcement agencies throughout the three-county area made the arrests during sobriety checkpoints, special saturation patrols and routine patrols. Officials reported that 94 DUI arrests occurred during the same period in 2009.

This year's campaign included the arrest of an 18-year-old driver on suspicion of felony DUI after the driver led police on a high-speed chase through residential and rural areas.

At 11:58 p.m. Saturday, a Marysville police officer who was working a DUI saturation patrol attempted to stop a speeding motorist. When the driver failed to yield, a pursuit began.

The driver, later identified a Cody Henry Smith of Marysville, ran nine stop signs as several officers gave chase, according to a Marysville Police Department news release. He is accused of traveling more than 100 mph in a residential area and 140 mph on a rural highway before crashing his vehicle.

Police said Smith and two passengers left the scene on foot. One passenger suffered moderate injuries.

A Marysville police officer suffered minor injuries while trying to subdue Smith and one passenger, the news release says. The second passenger was not caught but has been identified, police said.

Smith was booked into the Yuba County Jail on suspicion of felony DUI causing injury and felony evading a peace officer causing injury. He is being held on $100,000 bail.

Officials said similar anti-DUI efforts are planned for Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve and the December holiday period.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

From the Modesto Bee:

Police arrested a Sacramento man Wednesday as part of an investigation into a 2008 gang-related homicide that took place in south Modesto.

George Sanchez, 33, was arrested at his home in the 3300 block of Broken Branch Court in Sacramento on suspicion of helping the men who allegedly killed Victor Gaona in September 2008 escape police.

One other man -- Alex Mares, 23, of Modesto -- was arrested on suspicion of killing Gaona, and is awaiting a court hearing. He was apprehended in November 2008.

Police are seeking three other Modesto men on suspicion of killing Gaona, who was 35 when he was shot to death. The suspects are Javier Gomez, 24; Armando Pulido, 27; and Alexander Morfin, 21.

Gaona was shot to death in the area of Dezzani Lane and Ustick Road in south Modesto on Sept. 3, 2008. Police initially called the shooting a gang-related fight.

His killers allegedly fled the scene in a Honda Accord that was discovered by police in Sacramento.

Police are seeking information that could help them find Gomez, Pulido and Morfin. All are known to police as Norteno gang members, and each is considered armed and dangerous.

Police ask anyone who may have information regarding this incident to please call Stanislaus County District Attorney Investigator Froilan Mariscal at (209) 525-5550 or Crime Stoppers toll free at (209) 521-4636. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward. Tipsters can also text information to Crime Stoppers by sending a text message to 274637. Just type "TIP704" along with your message.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A teenager died after she was hit by a car while crossing a freeway frontage road near Lodi this morning.

Two sisters were walking along the frontage road of eastbound Highway 99 north of Woodbridge Road about 6 a.m. when the accident occurred, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The girls began to cross the roadway but failed to notice a northbound sport utility vehicle.

The younger of the two girls stepped into the path of the SUV and suffered fatal injuries, according to the CHP.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bee Staff

A foundation established in honor of a slain Fairfield city councilman will conduct a gun buyback on Saturday where gun owners will receive at least a $100 gift certificate.

The Matt Garcia Foundation, named after the councilman who was shot to death in 2008, will operate the gun buy back at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to a news release.

The public may bring guns, unloaded, and in the trunks of their vehicles, the release states. The Fairfield Police Department will remove guns from vehicles, assess each weapon, and the person will be presented with at least $100 in gift cards from Westfield Mall, Grocery Outlet, Target or Walmart while supplies last.

The event is the second gun buy back sponsored by the foundation.

A Solano Superior Court judge last month sentenced a Fairfield man sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for killing Garcia.

Henry Don Williams, 33, was fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to the state, city of Fairfield and Garcia's family.

Williams was found guilty in May of first-degree murder for fatally shooting 22-year-old Garcia on Sept. 1, 2008.

Prosecutors say Garcia was killed outside a friend's home in Cordelia when Williams and Gene Combs mistook him for a drug dealer who reneged on a $50 drug deal.

The 46-year-old Combs was found guilty of second-degree murder in June. His attorney has requested that Combs' sentencing date be delayed as he prepares a motion seeking a new trial.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Dixon man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for bank fraud and identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. sentenced Jonah Hanneke Nelson, 31, to four years and 10 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Nelson pleaded guilty to the charges in November.

Nelson was arrested in April 2009 after passing counterfeit checks drawn on victims' bank accounts, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Nelson was found with extensive lists of victims' names and bank account numbers as well as falsified identification documents.

He was taken into federal custody after being indicted on multiple counts of bank fraud, access device fraud, counterfeiting and aggravated identity theft.

In court papers filed by the government, victims described sleepless nights, destroyed credit, missed mortgage payments and nervous breakdowns as a result of Nelson's conduct.

In imposing the sentence, Judge England noted that this was a sophisticated offense that victimized 97 individuals and five banks throughout Northern California, and resulted in a loss of $87,957 over a four-month period.

The case resulted from a joint investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Solano County Sheriff's Department.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Last week's bust of a Mexican-based drug trafficking operation appears to be the largest seizure of methamphetamine - more than 600 pounds - ever recorded in the country's history, according to authorities.

Flanked by local, state and federal authorities, Sacramento County sheriff's authorities marveled today at the magnitude of Thursday's bust, which culminated a year-long investigation that began with a street-level transaction in Sacramento.

The methamphetamine, discovered in various stages of production in a Gilroy home, is so concentrated that it could be diluted three- to four times before being sold on the street, said sheriff's Lt. Fred Links, commander of the department's multiagency task forces.

That would mean more than 2,500 pounds of diluted dope worth upward of $200 million on the street had the raid not occurred, he said.

"These are alarming numbers, I assure you," Links said.

Authorities arrested eight men, all Mexican nationals, in connection with the operation, which processed and distributed drugs supplied from Mexico throughout the United States, according to officials.

An average of $250,000 was sent back to ringleaders in Mexico daily. On one particularly lucrative day, $650,000 was sent, Links said.

The arrested men will be prosecuted in Sacramento, where the case began. They face life in prison based on the allegations, Links said.

"I tell you that is rewarding for me," he said.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A former Department of Motor Vehicle employee has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for issuing driver's licenses with false identities.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. on Monday sentenced Denny Russell Gomes, 36, of Lodi to two years and three months in prison for creating false identification documents and committing aggravated identity theft.

According to his guilty plea, entered in June, Gomes had been a motor vehicle field representative for the DMV in Stockton. His duties included processing customers' requests for changes to driving records and issue new California driver's licenses reflecting these changes.

On at least 12 occasions between April 2007 and March 2008, Gomes made changes to official driving records and caused the issuance of official driver's licenses or identification cards with false information, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Gomes admitted that in return for money, he provided people with driver's licenses with their photos and true information concerning their appearance but with someone else's name and driver's license number.

The case resulted from an investigation by the Department of Motor Vehicles, Office of Internal Affairs.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A 63-year-old man, whom officials describe as a transient, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending anthrax-hoax letters threatening President Barack Obama and for failing to register as a sex offender.

Timothy Cloud pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb.

According to Cloud's plea agreement, he admitted sending hoax mailings addressed to Social Security Administration offices in Baltimore, Kansas City and New York City. Each contained a white powdery substance to simulate anthrax and an index card with the words "you stole my money" and "die." As a result of the mailing to the New York office, all employees were evacuated and four were quarantined.

Cloud also admitted to sending a letter to President Obama that contained a white powder and an index card with the words, "You are just another lying politision (sic)," with cross hairs between "not this time" and "maybe next time," as well as a newspaper photo of President Obama with cross hairs drawn over his face.

Cloud also admitted that, because of a conviction in Texas, he was required to register as a sex offender in California and that he did not do so, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

In addition to the 20-year prison sentence, Cloud was ordered to serve a 10-year period of supervised parole following his release from prison.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Calaveras County sheriff's deputies are reporting that a man was killed in pit bull mauling.

Deputies responding at 5:20 p.m. Sunday to a call for the 6900 block of Doster Road in Mountain Ranch found Jerry Yates, 69, of Mountain Ranch dead from an apparent mauling by possibly two pit bull dogs, a news release shows.

An investigation revealed that the dogs belonged to Sheryl Sellers, 49, of Mountain Ranch, deputies said. Sellers was arrested on suspicion of "allowing vicious animals at large."

One of the pit bulls was impounded by animal services.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bee Staff

San Jose firefighters today showed their mettle as rescuers when they rescued a man and his pet parrot who were both stuck in a tree.

According to a San Jose FD news release, Truck Company 13 responded to a report of a man stuck in a tree.

However, the firefighters found the man had been trying to rescue his pet parrot by having his friend winch him up into the tree with his jeep. The winch cable cut into the tree and got stuck, leaving the man stranded, according to the release. (Photo below courtesy of the San Jose FD.)

Firefighter Asha Wagner climbed the aerial ladder, put a harness on the stranded man and brought him down safely, the release states.

"The aerial was then repositioned and (firefighter) Mike Murray, aka "the bird whisperer," climbed the ladder and retrieved the frightened parrot," the release states.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A man suspected of drunk driving crashed his speeding motorcycle in Sutter County, causing major road rash injuries to his niece -- and bringing Boy Scouts to the rescue.

Garrett Charles Lee, 24, of the community of Sutter, Sutter County, was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment.

His niece, Hope Heaven Gage, 14, of Yuba City, suffered a broken left foot and skin abrasions caused by the road surface to her arms, stomach and legs.

The CHP gave this account of the incident:

Lee was speeding eastbound on Butte House Road near North Humphrey Road west Yuba City about 9 p.m. Monday on a 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 550. His niece was seated on the rear of the motorcycle.

Witnesses said he was passing vehicles in a series of turns over a double yellow line. During one pass he drifted onto the road shoulder and lost control.

The motorcycle went down on its side and Lee was ejected and thrown into a water-filled drainage ditch.

He was found clinging to the bank of the ditch by Boy Scouts who stopped to help. The Boy Scouts aided Lee, who suffered moderate road rash, before fire department and ambulance personnel arrived.

Passenger Gage was thrown to the ground. Both were transported to Rideout Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man wanted for allegedly causing the death of a motorcyclist and a 4-month-old child last week.

Thomas M. Roberts, 50, of Newark is wanted on two counts of second-degree murder, drunken driving and drug charges, the CHP states.

The CHP gave this account of the events leading to the fatal crash:

The collisions began at about 10 p.m. Tuesday on Interstate 505 near Winters when a southbound car driven by Roberts struck the median. The car then went out of control and hit a guardrail at the Putah Creek bridge abutment.

The car spun back into the traffic lanes and was hit from behind by another southbound car. The two cars came to rest blocking two lanes and one of the vehicles was struck by a third car.

A southbound motorcyclist, Oscar Alfaro, 48, of Antioch attempted to avoid the smashup by passing on the freeway's right shoulder, but he lost control, hit the bridge abutment and was thrown into the creek, said CHP Officer Phil Gruidl.

Alfaro died at the scene, the CHP said. The 4-month-old child, identified by the CHP as Roberts' grandson, Daniel Roberts, died Friday the UC Davis Medical Center from his injuries.

Roberts was initially arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, the CHP said. He suffered minor injuries.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Miranda Simon
msimon@sacbee.com

Sacramento police are investigating the homicide of a 50-year-old man whose mutilated body was found in an apartment fire in the 900 block of North Avenue early Saturday.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Arun Kumar Singh.

Neighbors and friends of the victim's 23-year-old daughter said the man's arms and legs had been cut off, and his chest set on fire.

Police would not confirm that Singh was dismembered, saying only that there was "some mutilation," and said two set fires in the building were linked to the homicide.

In a news release, police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said: "Detectives believe that the male was murdered. The cause of death and the motive for the murder has yet to be determined."

Erika Knight, 20, who lives in a unit upstairs at the North Avenue Apartments, made the gruesome discovery, with others in the building.

"I see the smoke coming out the door, a neighbor of mine opened the door, and we discovered his body was laying there and a heck of a lot of smoke. It was just a disaster," she said.

"The body was laying there burning," Knight said.

The Sacramento Fire Department arrived at the apartment fire in Del Paso Heights at 2:46 a.m. Police were called for assistance.

A second, small stairwell fire was reported while police and firefighters were on the scene. "We believe both fires are arsons and are related to the homicide," said Leong. "Obviously, the big question is why," he said.

Knight and her sister, Rocshell Daughton, 21, as well as another neighbor and a maintenance worker, came out when the fire alarm went off.

"We didn't know it was that apartment. We just saw smoke coming out," said Daughton, who was visiting her sister.

The neighbor in the unit facing the fire kicked in the door and found the body, said Daughton.

"The man's chest was on fire so we tried to get the fire extinguishers, but they weren't working, so the maintenance guy went to get the water hose and put the fire out."

Singh didn't live in the apartment, but regularly visited his daughter, who lives there with her child, her roommate and the roommate's two children, Knight said.

She said the daughter was not at the apartment Friday night and that she called to notify the woman that her father was dead.

"I spoke to him a few times," Knight said of Singh. "He's cool, he's a sweet guy, he wouldn't harm anything or anybody."

She said Singh fixed radios and VCRs and also cleaned apartments around the complex, even though "it was not his job."

"He visits his daughter, he visits his granddaughter, takes his granddaughter for walks.

"He's just a regular guy, and I don't understand why anybody would do something like that to him," Knight said.

Sacramento fire officials said fire sprinklers limited the damage to one apartment. There were no reported injuries to firefighters or the residents who entered the apartment.

Homicide detectives, crime scene investigators and arson investigators are working to gather more evidence, Leong said.

The Sacramento Police Department asks anyone with information to contact Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP or text in a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter SACTIP followed by the tip information.

Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

Call The Bee's Miranda Simon, (916) 321-1119.

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By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A man accused of paving scams in several counties statewide has been extradited to California, where he faces multiple charges of fraud, theft and failure to appear in court.

Police in Duncan, Okla., arrested Richard John Williams, 65, June 28, when they were tipped to his whereabouts, according to a California Contractors State License Board news release. Williams was wanted on three outstanding Lake County warrants.

He pleaded not guilty July 30, and a preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 27 in Lake County Superior Court.

The $750,000 arrest warrant was issued for Williams in March 2009 for attempted elder abuse and petty theft. In April 2009, a no-bail warrant was issued because he failed to appear in court to answer charges of grand theft and contracting without a license, which stemmed from a contractors license board sting. A $10,000 warrant was issued in June 2009 when Williams failed to appear for sentencing on his January 2009 no-contest plea to grand theft.

Williams is suspected of conning consumers in Butte, Colusa, Mendocino, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma and Yolo counties since 2005, according to the news release. In early 2009, officials say, Williams was operating throughout Lake County and surrounding regions under the business name "Seal Coat Contractor."

During that time, he is accused of attempting to scam for a second time an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The man was among the victims in the cases to which Williams had previously pleaded no contest.

On March 19, 2009, the Contractors State License Board and Lake County District Attorney's investigators set up a sting operation and arrested Williams in Kelseyville for bidding $3,500 on a paving job. California law requires a state contractor's license to legally bid on home improvement work valued at $500 or more for combined materials and labor.

Williams fled the state soon after the sting, earning him a spot on the license board's "most wanted" list.

Anyone who thinks they have been scammed by Williams may contact the Contractors State License Board's Intake/Mediation Center at (916) 255-4777.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The California Highway Patrol has reported that a portion of Highway 20 near Parks Bar Bridge east of Marysville is closed this afternoon following a collision involving a big rig truck and another vehicle.

According to the CHP's website the big rig caught fire and another vehicle appeared to be trapped beneath the truck and burning also.

One victim was being taken to a hospital by air ambulance.

The accident was reported shortly after 3 p.m.

Further details were not available.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Four people, including a registered sex offender, have received notices to appear in court in Nevada County following a sting operation in Grass Valley on Wednesday designed to curb unlicensed contracting in the foothills.

The operation was carried out by the Contractors State License Board's Statewide Investigative Fraud Team and the Nevada County District Attorney and Sheriff's offices.

Accused of contracting without a license and illegal advertising are:

- Roger Martin Michaels, 56, of Grass Valley, who is engaged in earthwork and paving

- Donald Herman Engberson of Grass Valley, 68, landscaping

- Yong Woo Chong of Folsom, 55, painting

- Andrew K. McRobbie of Grass Valley, 43, painting. McRobbie is a registered sex offender, according to a Contractors State License Board news release.

"Consumers may not realize the risks of bringing a person into their home who is unlicensed and who has not been qualified in their trade or undergone a background check," Steve Sands, the state license board's registrar, said in a written statement.

Since 2005, the board has required new applicants and licensees changing or adding classifications to submit fingerprints that are screened by the state Department of Justice before a license is issued.

Fraud team investigators posed as homeowners soliciting bids for paving, landscaping and painting at a home near Grass Valley. Suspects who bid more than $500 for labor and materials received notices to appear.

The California Business and Professions Code requires all home improvement jobs valued at more than $500 to be undertaken by a licensed contractor.

Contractors also must place their state contractor's license number in all advertisements. Unlicensed individuals may advertise and do jobs valued at less than $500, but their ads must state that they are not a state-licensed contractor.

Arraignment dates for the individuals will be scheduled in Nevada County Superior Court.

The Contractors State License Board also urges property owners to beware of individuals who do not carry worker's compensation insurance for their employees or the contractor license bond that is required by California law.

Without these, a homeowner could be liable and without recourse if a worker is hurt on their property, their property is damaged or the construction project is abandoned.

When hiring a contractor, consumers are advised to:

- Verify the contractor's license by checking online at www.cslb.ca.gov, or via the state license board's automated phone system at (800) 321-2752.

- Ask to see the person's identification to make sure you are dealing with the correct individual.

- Don't pay more than 10 percent down or $1,000, whichever is less. There is an exception for about two dozen contractors who purchase special bonds that are noted on the State License Board's website.

- Don't pay in cash, and don't let the payments get ahead of the work.

- Check references, and get at least three bids and a written contract before the project begins.

- Make sure the contractor obtains the necessary building permits for any project. If you are unsure of the requirements, contact your local building department.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

An Oroville man pleaded guilty in federal court today to robbing banks in Grass Valley, Chico, Lincoln and Yuba City.

Shawn Victor Webber, 35, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr.

According to court documents, Webber robbed three Wells Fargo Bank branches: at 692 Freeman Lane, Grass Valley, March 4; 2485 Notre Dame Blvd., Chico, March 16; and 1286 Stabler Lane, Yuba City, April 1. He also robbed the Tri-Counties Bank, 765 South Highway 65, Lincoln, on March 24.

Webber is to be sentenced Oct. 18. According to a federal Department of Justice news release, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each bank robbery offense.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

An El Dorado County jury has convicted a man of molesting children and giving alcohol to juveniles, according to the District Attorney's office.

The jury returned Thursday to say jurors had found Howard Martin Harmless II guilty of nine counts of child molestation and two counts of providing alcohol to juveniles, a news release states.

Harmless faces 25 years to life in prison, according to the release. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2.

The trial lasted about two weeks.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Sutter County Sheriff's officials arrested a person of interest Saturday in connection with the homicide of a couple in the small town of Sutter, west of Yuba City.

Responding crews found the pair of bodies Friday while investigating a report of shots fired and a subsequent garage fire.

One of the victims has been positively identified as Jack Martin. The other is believed to be his wife, Susan Martin, but she has not been positively identified, said Sheriff's Capt. Lewis McElfresh.

The deaths are being investigated as homicides and officers have arrested Joseph Hayden Simlick, 21, in connection with the crimes. He was jailed on suspicion of burglary and false imprisonment. Simlick (photo right) was an acquaintance of the couple, officials believe.

After more than 24 hours of around-the-clock work on the crime, which took place Friday, investigators took a break with plans to resume Sunday, McElfresh said.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

California Highway Patrol officers have arrested a Marysville woman accused of using Caltrans credit cards to steal gasoline.

Officials at the Caltrans facility on B Street in Marysville reported noticing irregularities in quantities of gas pumped compared with gas receipts for an employee.

After a supervisor monitored the employee's activities, Caltrans told CHP the woman was entering the facility after hours, picking up state credit cards and using them to buy gasoline for her personal vehicle before returning the cards.

Caltrans notified CHP of the suspected embezzlement Wednesday and Christy Winona, 41, was arrested Thursday at the facility.

She was booked at Yuba County Jail on suspicion of grand theft, embezzlement and burglary.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

An elementary school teacher jogging along a road near Chico was hit and killed by an SUV driven by a motorist police suspect was stoned.

The jogger was identified as Carrie Jean Holiman, 56, a fifth-grade teacher at Corning Union Elementary School.

The California Highway Patrol arrested Jimmy Candido Flores, 25, of Chico on suspicion of driving under the influence causing injury and gross vehicular manslaughter.

CHP officer Tony Nunes said today that Holiman was jogging along the shoulder of the Oroville-Chico Highway about 9 a.m. Thursday. Flores was driving west when he allowed his 2001 BMW X5 sports utility vehicle to drift off the road and hit Holiman, throwing the woman about 100 feet and killing her instantly, Nunes said.

Nunes said Candido claimed that one of two dogs in his SUV jumped on him while he was driving, causing him to veer off the road and hit Holiman.

Nunes said Flores has a medical marijuana garden in Butte County and that the suspect exhibited symptoms of intoxication in a field sobriety test.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Placer County animal control officers are investigating an incident in which it appears a donkey was sprayed with acid in a Penryn-area pasture.

The animal's owner, Shannon McClurg, said this is the second time in five years that the 22-year-old donkey has been the target of such an attack. The latest incident occurred last weekend.

McClurg said she keeps two donkeys in a pasture off Butler Road. She speculated that the assailant used a high-powered squirt gun. She said the substance burned the animal's fur and skin, starting at the lower shoulder and extending down the leg.

The same donkey also was attacked in June 2005.

Placer County spokeswoman Anita Yoder confirmed that animal control officers are investigating the incident, but said she did not know whether the agency had received other reports of such attacks.

McClurg said she is installing motion-sensor lights around her property and has moved the donkeys into a smaller corral away from the road.

She is eager to see the perpetrator caught.

"People that have this kind of disregard for animals don't have any regard for people, either," McClurg said.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

Donkey targeted in acid attack

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

An Olivehurst man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for possession of child pornography.

Douglas William Howay, 31, pleaded guilty March 19. Friday, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia sentenced him to eight years and two months in prison followed by a 10-year term of supervised probation, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, in 2008, undercover detectives in Chesterfield County, Va., posed as a 13-year-old girl and communicated online with Howay through a Yahoo chat room. At the time, Howay was an airman stationed at Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County. He was arrested Sept. 12, 2008 while he was online with the Virginia detectives.

A forensic search of Howay's computer and other computer equipment found 399 visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the news release says. The forensic search also discovered that Howay had communicated in explicit sexual terms with people who identified themselves as minors.

Howay separated from the military following his arrest and is no longer a member of the armed forces, according to the news release.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke and Kim Minugh
clocke@sacbee.com

The man sought in a kidnapping that generated an Amber Alert this morning has been taken into custody after a California Highway Patrol officer spotted the suspect's vehicle at the Honey Lake rest stop near Susanville.

Sacramento Sheriff's Department spokesman Tim Curran said Leon Cuahutemoc, 27, was arrested about 1:30 p.m. He allegedly had kidnapped an 18-year-old woman, believed to be his girlfriend, from her apartment at 8740 Fair Oaks Blvd. shortly before 10 a.m. She was with Cuahutemoc when he was caught and was reported to be in good condition.

Curran said a report that a 3-year-old girl had been kidnapped along with the woman turned out to be false. He said both Cuahutemoc and the woman will be returned to Sacramento County.

Cuahutemoc is accused of kidnapping the woman at gunpoint. He allegedly fired several shots, although deputies do not believe he was targeting the woman, before forcing her into a car described as a pink Lincoln Cadillac.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Deia de Brito
ddebrito@sacbee.com

A minimum-security inmate escaped from a Nevada County correctional facility last night, according to a news release from the state department of corrections and rehabilitation.

Jeffery Shook, 36, was last seen at Washington Ridge, a conservation camp in Nevada City.

Staff searched the area around the camp for Shook, and notified local law enforcement agencies and the California Highway Patrol, who are also looking for the escapee.

Anyone having information about or knowledge of Shook's whereabouts should contact the California Correctional Center Watch Commander at (530) 257-2181, extension 4173, or Washington Ridge Conservation Camp at (530) 265-4623.

Call The Bee's Deia de Brito, (916) 321-1087.

By Barbara Barte Osborn
Bee correspondent

Fourteen Grass Valley residents were arrested for investigation of drug and other charges Tuesday following an investigation and sting operation.

The arrests followed a search by Nevada County Sheriff's officers at a home in the 300 block of First Street in Grass Valley.

The search turned up approximately 20 grams of methamphetamine, scales, packaging materials, morphine tablets, drug paraphernalia, $900 and a "Whizzinator," a device used to provide drug-free urine samples utilizing someone else's urine, according to a news release from Sheriff Keith Royal.

Arrested at the home for investigation of possession of a controlled substance and maintaining a residence for the use or sale of a controlled substance were Timothy Blankenship (top photo), 30; William Folden (bottom photo), 45; Christopher Wilson, 22, and Angelina Sinclair, 20.

Blankenship, Folden and Wilson were also arrested for investigation of possession of a controlled substance for sale.

Blankenship's arrest charges also included allegations of violation of probation and parole. Folden's included alleged violation of parole and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

During the search of the apartment, both Blankenship's and Folden's cellular phones continued to ring, Royal said in the release.

Ten of the callers were subsequently arrested after they arrived at the home, allegedly to make drug purchases.

"Due to the search warrant allowing officers to answer phones, an undercover officer spoke to numerous subjects who wanted to purchase methamphetamine," Royal said.

Arrested for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance were Devon Howell, 22; Patricia Atkinson, 38; Kenneth Greer, 30; Steven Spreadbury, 42; Dirk Schriner, 30; Don Lewis, 44; Millington Hendren, 53; and Jack Pepple, 59.

Greer was also arrested for investigation of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

Schriner's arrest charges included allegedly being out of compliance as a registered sex offender.

Lewis' charges additionally included allegedly being in possession of drug paraphernalia and destruction of evidence. Hendren also allegedly possessed drug paraphernalia.

Additionally, Donald Webb, 55, and April Heaton, 40, were arrested for alleged possession of a controlled substance and child endangerment.

Webb's and Heaton's 14-year-old son was turned over to Child Protective Services after witnessing his parents purchase methamphetamine from an undercover officer, Royal said.

On Wednesday afternoon, nine of those arrested remained in custody at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Grass Valley and the others had been released on bail pending arraignment, said Donna Nelson of the Sheriff's Department.

Still in custody are Blankenship, Folden, Greer, Heaton, Lewis, Schriner, Sinclair, Webb and Wilson.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A man characterized by the California's Contractors State License Board as a notorious traveling con artist and two members of his extended family have pleaded no contest in Butte County Superior Court to multiple felony and misdemeanor counts related to a paving scam.

George Joseph Stanley (photo left below) and his cousins George and Kevin Snow (photos centr and right below) entered pleas Tuesday following a yearlong investigation by the Contractors State License Board and the Butte County District Attorney's Office.

The three men were arrested June 24, 2009 at a Chico motel by investigators from the CSLB's State Investigative Fraud Team, along with officers from the California Highway Patrol, Butte County District Attorney's Office and the Chico Police Department. While based at the motel, they are believed to have scammed at least a dozen home and business owners in Butte, Tehama and Glenn counties, according to a CSLB news release.

Officials said the operation uses professional looking equipment as part of a roving scam. They often claim to have left-over material that they will use to fix pot holes, or pave driveway and parking lots for a "good deal." Then they either do more work than initially agreed to or claim they need more material to finish the job and the "bargain rate" ends up being a rip-off, officials said.

In many cases, victims are out thousands of dollars with nothing to show for it but asphalt that they can pick apart with their hands, officials said.

In the Butte County case, Stanley, 30, of Moosup, Conn., pleaded to five felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

George Charles Snow, 20, of Salisbury, Mass., pleaded to four felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

Kevin Patrick Snow Jr., 22, also of Salisbury, Mass., pleaded to two felony counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

As part of the plea agreement, the three must post a bond for $130,000 by July 8 to guarantee full payment of the $130,000 by their sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 20. Failure to do so will negate the plea agreement and a trial date will be set, according to the news release. They also must pay the storage fees for paving equipment and other vehicles that were impounded as evidence in the case.

Stanley previously pleaded guilty or no contest for his involvement in 2008 paving scams in Tulare, San Joaquin and Yuba counties. He faces deadlines this month to pay $160,500 in restitution including $23,400 by July 12 in Tulare County, $102,000 by July 15 in San Joaquin County and $35,000 by July 16 to Yuba County.

Officials say Stanley and his cousins are believed to have operated throughout the continental United States and Hawaii for the past two years. Victims have identified the men in Colorado, Idaho, Pennsylvania and Washington.

"While these three are big operators, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to paving scams," CSLB Registrar Steve Sands said in the news release. "Consumers should never rush into a construction job just because they think they're getting a good deal or a special that day."

In California, any paving job or other home improvement project that totals $500 or more in materials and labor must be done by someone with a state license.

To avoid being conned the CSLB recommends that consumers:

- Verify the contractor's license at www.cslb.ca.gov or www.CheckTheLicenseFirst.com or by calling (800) 321-2752.

- Ask to see the contractor's plastic pocket license card, and ask for photo identification to make sure it's the same person.

- Don't rush into repairs, no matter how badly they're needed or just because you'll et a "good deal" that day.

- Don't pay more than 10 percent or $1,000, whichever is less, as a down payment. Solicitation of a down payment greater than this amount is a violation of the California Business and Professions Code. There is an exception for about two dozen contractors that purchase special bonds for consumer protection, and these exceptions are noted on the CSLB website.

- Get at least three bids, check references and get a written contract.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A white, middle-aged couple were each sentenced Tuesday in Sacramento to 18 months in federal prison in connection with their brutal beating of a man at a South Lake Tahoe beach because of his ethnicity and the color of his skin.

Georgia Silva, 52, and her husband, Joseph Silva, 56, were found guilty in March by a jury of violating the civil rights of Vishal Wadhwa, a 40-year-old native of India, by interfering with his right to be in a public area.

Wadhwa testified the Silvas set upon him in a picnic area adjacent to the beach on July 14, 2007, after he questioned them about a racial slur allegedly hurled by Georgia Silva at Ayesha Matthews, then Wadhwa's fiancé and now his wife.

In addition to the prison terms, U. S. District Judge John A. Mendez ordered that the Silvas, who he said are alcoholics, undergo outpatient treatment for substance abuse and "mental health issues" as part of three years on probation after their release. He also ordered that the mental health treatment include "counseling on race relations and tolerance of other races."

"Frankly, my biggest concern is their intolerance of people who don't look like them," Mendez said.

At one point during the hearing, the judge mused that the Silvas' crime, which he said was one of violence, is at least as serious as many drug-related crimes, "and yet, here we are talking about months instead of life" in prison.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Lodi woman was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to two years in prison for possession of counterfeit money.

Tami Kishi Deanda, 43, pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2009. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb Jr. sentenced her to three years of supervised release.

She is the final defendant to be sentenced in this case, which involved creation and distribution of counterfeit $100 bills, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento.

Between January 2006 and July 2008, Deanda, along with co-defendants Clinton Earl Irons, Holly Armada Haworth and others made and passed the bills throughout the Central Valley, according to court documents. To manufacture the bills, they used degreaser and other tools to "wash" the ink off crisp $5 bills. Then they used a laser printer to print images of $100 bills onto the washed $5 bills.

The counterfeit bills looked authentic except for various security features that remained on the washed bills, including the $5 embedded strip and the watermark of Abraham Lincoln.

Since the first counterfeit bills in this case appeared, more than $277,000 in counterfeit currency has been recovered. Bills from the series were recovered outside the United States, including one in Mexico and three in Iraq. The bills recovered in Iraq were passed by codefendant Joseph Deanda, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

In all, Tami Deanda produced at least $30,000 bills, the news release says.

Among other defendants, Irons was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison, Joseph Deanda to 1-1/2 years and Haworth to one year in prison.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A 26-year-old woman was killed this morning in a crash on Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada.

The 5:30 a.m. accident occurred on westbound I-80 just west of Eagle Lakes Road and east of Emigrant Gap.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman at Gold Run said the driver of the car, who was not immediately identified, was ejected from her car when the vehicle rolled in the dirt center divider area.

The victim was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected 75 feet from the car, the CHP said. Her male passenger was buckled in and suffered only moderate injuries.

Witnesses said the car swerved several times before leaving the roadway. The CHP is looking into whether the woman might have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Lodi man has been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for producing and attempting to pass counterfeit money.

U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb Jr. today also sentenced Clinton Earl Irons, 33, to a 36-month term of supervised release, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Irons pleaded guilty Feb. 8 to attempted passing and uttering a counterfeit United States obligation and possession of a counterfeit United States obligation.

According to court documents, between January 2006 and July 2008, Irons, along with co-defendants Tami Kishi Deanda, Holly Armada Haworth, Shelie Radotic and others made and passed counterfeit $100 bills throughout the Central Valley.

To manufacture the bills, Irons and others used a degreaser along with other tools to "wash" the ink off crisp $5 bills. Irons then used a laser printer to print images of $100 bills onto the washed $5 bills. The counterfeit bills looked authentic except for various security features that remained on the washed bills, including the $5 embedded strip and the watermark of Abraham Lincoln, the news release said.

Irons possessed computer hardware and software that allowed him to manipulate digital images of United States currency to produce realistic looking counterfeit $100 bills. Irons sold and gave these digital images to others so that they could counterfeit their own currency.

Between January 2006 and July 2008, Irons counterfeited a series of bills with serial numbers that were passed throughout the Central Valley. Since the first counterfeit bills in this case appeared, more the $277,000 in counterfeit currency has been recovered, the news release says. Some was in Mexico and Iraq.

The bills recovered in Iraq were passed by Joseph Deanda, who acquired them from Tami Kishi Deanda.

Joseph Deanda pleaded guilty on April 27, 2009, to passing counterfeit currency and was later sentenced to 18 months imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Tami Kishi Deanda pleaded guilty Nov. 9, 2009, also to possessing counterfeit currency, and is to be sentenced on June 28.

Co-defendant Holly Haworth pleaded guilty on June 1, 2009, to passing counterfeit currency and was later sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

An Oroville man has been sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison for drug trafficking crimes, including an incident in which he dressed up as a law-enforcement officer.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on Tuesday sentenced Eric Keith Sills to 10 years and 10 months in prison for drug trafficking and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. Sills pleaded guilty on Feb. 2.

According to court documents, Sills and three other men dressed up as law enforcement officers to rob a marijuana growing operation in Butte County. The men, armed with shotguns and semiautomatic pistols, detained a man guarding the site at gunpoint.

Law enforcement officers later searched Sills' house and found more than 120 pounds of processed marijuana, a MAC-10 machine pistol, a .357 revolver, a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a Panther stun gun, police badges, gun cases, shirts with Sheriff's or police insignia, night vision goggles, two sets of handcuffs, body armor and a radio on a tactical police sling.

The cases resulted from a joint investigation by the Butte County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Union City man is the latest of several people to be sentenced for their involvement in a large-scale conspiracy to distribute cocaine from Mexico to the Sacramento area.

Jose Maria Meza-Portillo, 44, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton to 19 years and seven months in prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. He pleaded guilty Nov. 4, 2009.

During the investigation, federal agents learned that Meza-Portillo was directing the payment of money from the sales of cocaine back to the suppliers in Mexico. On Mary 3, 2006, officers stopped a vehicle they believed was carrying money bound for Mexico and discovered nearly $1 million in cash hidden inside, the news release said.

Co-conspirators previously sentenced in the case include:

• Luis Manuel Sanchez-Aceves, 29, of Richmond, sentenced on May 25 to 13 years in prison

• Cristobal Navarro, 46, of Richmond, sentenced June 2 to 12 years and seven months in prison

• Daniel Rosales, 26, or San Francisco, sentenced Sept. 29, 2009 to eight years in prison

• Darius Louis, 38, of Richmond, sentenced May 25 to four years in prison.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Peak fire season officially began today in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit.

Seasonal firefighters have been rehired and trained, and fire response facilities are open around-the-clock, according to a Cal Fire news release.

Fire officials urge homeowners to prepare for wildfires by reducing or removing vegetation around homes to create a defensible space.

"Homeowners play a key role in determining the survivability of their homes," Chief Brad Harris of the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit said in the news release. "The most important person in protecting a home from a wildfire is not the firefighter during the actual emergency, but the property owner and their actions in the weeks and months before."

To help make homes fire safe, fire officials advise property owners to:

• Remove all flammable vegetation within 30 feet of structures.

• In an additional 70 feet, space trees and plants away from each other.

• Clear all needles and leaves from roofs, eaves and rain gutters.

• Trim branches 6 feet from the ground.

• Use trimming, mowing and power equipment before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

• Landscape with fire-resistant plants.

• Use ignition-resistant building materials.

For more information on defensible space, see the Cal Fire website at www.fire.ca.gov.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Kim Minugh and Hudson Sangree
kminugh@sacbee.com

Famed Placerville-raised painter Thomas Kinkade has been arrested for allegedly driving drunk outside Carmel, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A Monterey County sheriff's deputy initially pulled over Kinkade's Mercedes Benz for a vehicle code violation Friday night, said CHP Officer Robert Lehman. After making contact with the 52-year-old Kinkade, the deputy suspected that he was drunk, Lehman said.

The deputy called the CHP to assist, and an officer performed tests to determine that Kinkade was impaired, Lehman said. The CHP officer arrested Kinkade just after 10 p.m., Lehman said.

Kinkade was booked into the Monterey County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving, Lehman said.

The arresting officer reported that Kinkade was "very polite" during the exchange, Lehman said.

Kinkade did submit to a blood test, Lehman said; however, the CHP is not releasing his blood-alcohol level.

Kinkade, dubbed the "Painter of Light," is the most-collected artist of modern times and likely the best-selling in history. Millions of his paintings are displayed in homes across the nation.

His specialties are light-filled scenes of cottages, lighthouses and chapels, and seaside and pastoral landscapes.

A nationwide network of art galleries specializes in his brand, and officially endorsed Web sites sell Kinkade-themed goods.

Kinkade was born in Sacramento and grew up in Placerville.

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

A Citrus Heights woman accused of attempting to drown her baby daughter in 2008 is mentally incompetent to stand trial, a Sacramento Superior Court judge has found.

Judge Marjorie Koller ordered Fotini Huntley committed to the Napa State Hospital for involuntary treatment until she is deemed capable of understanding court proceedings and assisting her attorneys.

Huntley was arrested and charged with attempted murder in September 2008 after she told police that she had drowned her 2-year-old daughter Antonia. The girl suffered serious brain injury and paralysis, according to court records.

Family members have previously told The Bee that Huntley had delusions and other symptoms of schizophrenia but had never been violent toward her daughter until the night the girl got hurt.

Koller sent Huntley, who has been incarcerated at the Sacramento County Main Jail, to the state hospital "pending restoration of competency." The judge based her decision on confidential reports from doctors who examined Huntley.

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Glenn County man has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Jesus Rodriguez, 42, of Butte City was sentenced today by United States District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to 19 years and 7 months in prison, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. After a six-day trial in March, a federal grand jury found Rodriguez guilty of two counts of possession of 50 grams or more of methamphetamine with intent to distribute the drug.

Evidence introduced during the trial showed that Rodriguez delivered a half pound of crystal methamphetamine on two occasions in 2004 to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration informant. The second transaction took place inside Rodriguez's place of business, the Afton General Store, in Glenn County.

When officers attempted to arrest Rodriguez, he led them on a high-speed chase. During the chase, he threw three-quarters of a pound of crystal methamphetamine out of the car window.

Rodriguez also called his sister during the chase. She was apprehended as she fled the rear of the store carrying a box containing four handguns and used drug packaging material, the news release says. In searching the store, agents found a digital scale and approximately $30,000 in U.S. currency, much of it in heat-sealed plastic. Agents also discovered DEA prerecorded "buy funds" among the sealed currency.

The jury rejected Rodriguez's claim during the trial that he had been entrapped.

In sentencing Rodriguez, Judge England noted the large amounts of highly pure crystal methamphetamine involved, calling Rodriguez "high level" drug trafficker. The judge said this was one of the largest methamphetamine trafficking cases in Northern California.

A total of 30 defendants were convicted of drug charges arising out of the investigations, the news release says.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

With sunny weather predicted for the Memorial Day weekend, officials are renewing their warnings about the dangers of entering the regions rivers and waterways without a life jacket.

A new facet of California law requires anyone under 13 on a boat to wear a life jacket, replacing the old law that required it for anyone under 12.

California had 520 boating accidents resulting in 45 deaths in 2008, the National Safe Boating Council said in its annual warning to boaters and others to use life jackets.

Along the American River Parkway, other warnings already have been posted by county parks officials alerting people that during this holiday weekend no alcohol is allowed on the beaches or parks or on the water.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento jury today awarded $380,000 to a woman who was injured when her car was crushed by the counterweight on the Walnut Grove Bridge.

Total damages for past and future medical expenses plus future pain and suffering amounted to $844,000, but the jury found that plaintiff Shannon Raymond was 45 percent responsible for the Aug. 8, 2006 mishap. The bridge tender was found 10 percent responsible for the accident while the county's liability also was put at 45 percent.

Joseph J. Babich, the attorney for the 38-year-old woman, said the bridge tender advised her to stop on an area of the bridge below the counterweight after she'd turned onto the bridge amid the the flashing of alarm bells.

Defense attorney Brad Thomas said the jury's award was within the range of the county's pre-trial settlement offer. Thomas said he the county will wait for the outcome of post-verdict hearings on the award before deciding whether to appeal.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Kevin William Ridenour of Westwood, Lassen County, was sentenced Monday by U. S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. to an additional year and four months behind bars for violating the terms of his supervised release.

Ridenour, 24, pleaded guilty in April 2007 to felony interference with the housing rights of the Rev. Bernardin Mugabowakigeri, a native of Rwanda, because of Ridenour's hatred of black people.

According to court papers filed by Assistant U. S. Attorney Jared Dolan, has since been in constant hot water with probation authorities, violating the terms of his release three times since his Jan. 25, 2009 release.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

An Orland man has pleaded guilty in federal court to interfering with an aircraft by pointing a laser beam at a California Highway Patrol helicopter.

Duane Nighswander, 44, entered the guilty plea today before United States District Court John A. Mendez, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

On Oct. 21, 2009, the CHP conducted a felony traffic stop near Nighswander's home, according to court documents. Two CHP officers, both licensed pilots, were providing aerial support in a helicopter approximately 700 feet above the ground.

A laser beam was pointed from the ground at the helicopter at least four times, affecting the pilots' vision and ability to control the aircraft, the news release said. Both pilots reported being unable to see during portions of their flight, and one reported a lingering headache severe enough that he was unable to pilot an aircraft for several hours after the incident.

The pilots suffered the effects at different times so were able to work together to keep the helicopter in the air and to identify the source of the laser.

Officers on the ground confronted Nighswander, who eventually admitted pointing a laser at the helicopter and directed officers to where he had hidden the device in his garage.

Nighswander had researched powerful green laser devices and purchased one with a range of up to seven miles, the news release said. When he heard the helicopter near his house, he decided to see whether he could make the pilot "react" to the laser.

Nighswander is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 3. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a three-year term of supervised release.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Lodi police said they have arrested a man they suspect was involved in a dangerous situation involving officers during a traffic stop last week.

Leon Garcia (photo left) was arrested on suspicion of evading police, possession of methamphetamine, auto theft, resisting arrest, possessing a firearm and exhibiting a firearm in the presence of a peace officer.

On May 4, police said that they stopped Garcia for a minor traffic violation at about 1:30 a.m. After receiving Garcia's driver's license information, the officer returned to his patrol car to write a ticket.

Police said that another officer drove up but neither Garcia nor his two passengers were aware of the second officer's arrival. It was then that the second officer allegedly saw Garcia take a handgun from between the seats and begin laughing.

Garcia also began holding the gun in a way that suggested he was waiting for the first officer to return, police said.

In defense of his fellow officer, the later-arriving police officer took a defensive position and ordered Garcia to drop the gun. Startled to see the second officer, Garcia drove away.

Lodi police and California Highway Patrol officers chased Garcia for 23 miles, a pursuit that ended in the town of Thornton, San Joaquin County. Garcia abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot, eluding capture.

Police said Tuesday that Garcia was was eventually located at a home in Wallace, Calaveras County by Lodi police, officers of the Delta Ratt Auto Theft Task Force and the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department.

He was arrested without incident. A search of the home in the 5900 block of Haskell Street in Wallace turned up a handgun that authorities believe Garcia handled on May 4.

Two other stolen weapons and a stolen tractor were also recovered.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Two men have been convicted in a marijuana growing case that involved a gun battle last year between suspects and law enforcement officers in which one suspect was killed and two Lassen County sheriff's officers were wounded.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced Friday that a federal jury convicted Jose Alfredo Zepeda, 20, of East Palo Alto, and Clemente Ferrias Arroyo, 63, of Morgan Hill, of conspiring to manufacture at least 1,000 marijuana plants, manufacturing at least 1,000 marijuana plants and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.

The charges stem from an investigation of a large outdoor marijuana garden on federal land in northern Lassen County by two Bureau of Land Management rangers, two Lassen County sheriff's officers and a Susanville police officer.

On June 16, 2009, the officers encountered three suspected marijuana growers. Suspect Juan Carlos Herrera-Chavez engaged the officers in a gun battle using an AK-47 rifle, a Department of Justice news release states. The two sheriff's deputies were wounded, and Herrera-Chavez was killed when officers returned fire, officials said. Both Lassen County sheriff's officers survived.

Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Herrera-Chavez, his brother-in-law, Zepeda, and Arroyo started the marijuana garden in May 2009, the release says. Herrera-Chavez carried an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle, Zepeda was armed with an SKS semiautomatic rifle, and Arroyo carried a Smith & Wesson 9 mm semiautomatic pistol to protect the growing operation.

Zepeda and Arroyo are scheduled for sentencing July 20 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Each man faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, a $4 million fine and five years to life of supervised release on the marijuana charges, the news release states. The charge of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes carries an additional mandatory consecutive five-years-to-life sentence, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Marc McMain Keyser, the Sacramento man who perpetrated a nationwide anthrax hoax in 2008, was sentenced today to four years and three months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said Keyser "may be dangerous to himself and others," and ordered him taken into custody immediately.

Basing his remarks on the content of Keyser's Internet blog since his conviction last year, the judge said, "He thinks he's a martyr and a messenger of God and a person above the law."

Keyser was found guilty in September by a jury on five counts involving packages with packets of sugar accompanied by ominous messages that he mailed to the Modesto office of Congressman George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, and to a Starbucks coffee house and McDonald's fast food restaurant, both in Sacramento.

Keyser admitted at his trial that he sprayed the country with more than 100 packages containing fake anthrax packets directed to media organizations, politicians and retail businesses.

He insisted, however, that he acted only to demonstrate how vulnerable and ill-prepared the United States is for such an attack, and that he did not intend to terrorize.

The government sought five years in prison for Keyser, a 67-year-old retired elementary school teacher and Army veteran with no prior criminal record.

His defense attorney asked that he be placed on probation for five years and ordered to do 2,000 hours of community service.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

Previous coverage:

Sacramentan convicted for sending anthrax hoax messages - Sept. 18, 2009

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

One person died and another faces serious charges after a police chase that ended in the Sacramento River.

At 11:47 p.m. Sacramento police tried to pull over a car at San Juan Road and Binghampton Drive in the Northgate area. The officer sought to stop the car because the driver was speeding and it matched a similar stolen car police had chased several weeks ago.

A pursuit began and the chase reached speeds of up to 90 mph, police said. The car sped southbound on Powerline Road to where the road intersects with the Garden Highway.

At that point the car went over the bank into the river. By the time officers could get to the shore, the driver, Jose Gonzales, 20, was out of the car and in the water.

Gonzales said there was a second person in the car, which was submerged. A rescue dive team was called to the scene.

Divers succeeded in getting a tow line onto the car and the vehicle was pulled out of the water about 6 a.m. A man, identified as Elias Esparza Sicher, 39, of Sacramento, was found dead in front passenger seat.

Gonzales, who had been booked earlier for evading police officers, faces vehicular manslaughter charges, said police spokesman Norm Leong.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

Two male teenagers were hit by gunfire in south Sacramento on Saturday night after two uninvited groups arrived at a party and fighting broke out, city police said.

Sacramento Police said a 15-year-old boy was taken to Kaiser South with gunshot wounds to his upper body and his leg. A 16-year-old boy was taken to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento after being shot in his upper body.

Police said parents at the 4000 block of Evalita Way home held a party for their teenage daughter, and about 60 to 70 teens were in attendance. Fighting broke out around 10:30 p.m., after the uninvited groups arrived.

Police said one of the groups left, returned with a pistol and began firing at people in the front yard.

Police described a suspect in the shooting as African American, with a black hoodie and dreadlocks. He was accompanied by three or four others. The group left in a late 1980s or early 1990s grayish green Buick.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

A motorcyclist who evaded Oroville police died after crashing into a school bus loaded with children, California Highway Patrol officials reported. A dog riding with the motorcyclist also was killed.

An Oroville Police Department officer attempted to make a traffic stop on the motorcyclist, whose identity has not yet been released, about 3:30 p.m. Friday on northbound State Route 70 near Montgomery Street.

Rather than stopping, the black Harley-Davidson motorcycle exited the highway, sped through a gas station and turned onto Grand Avenue, accelerating to more than 60 mph, the officer reported.

The officer stopped pursuit, but the motorcyclist reportedly continued speeding onto Table Mountain Boulevard, where he drifted across a double yellow line and hit the school bus, loaded with about 30 kids.

Neither the bus driver nor the children reported injuries, but the motorcyclist was killed instantly, as was a chihuaha riding with him. "He might've had it stuffed in his jacket," said CHP Sgt. Steve Dubravetz.

Officials believe alcohol or drugs were a factor. The collision is still under investigation.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcala, (916) 321-1987.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

The Citrus Heights Police Department is seeking public help in identifying a man captured on video robbing a pharmacy on Sunrise Boulevard on Saturday afternoon.

Police said the suspect walked into a Walgreens store in the 6100 block of Sunrise Boulevard around 2 p.m., warned that he had a weapon, and demanded narcotics from the store pharmacy. Then he fled.

Authorities described the suspect as white, between the ages of 25 to 35 years old and 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall. He has brown hair, a receding hairline, facial hair and a pockmarked face. He was wearing a green "Members Only" style jacket, white shirt and burgundy shorts with cargo pockets.

Anyone with information about the crime or the suspect is asked to call the department's anonymous tip line at (916) 727-5524. Police said the man is deemed to be armed and dangerous.

The Citrus Heights Police Department is seeking assistance in identifying the subject who should be considered armed and dangerous. Video of this incident is available upon request.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

A single-car accident early this morning killed Jeremy Bryson, 25, of Oroville, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The accident occurred about 2 a.m. along the Oroville-Quincy Highway, just west of State Route 162.

Investigators say a 1999 Honda Accord driven by Zachary Johnson, 24, of Oroville, was eastbound on the highway when it veered sharply and went into a high-speed skid.

The car's wheels hit a curb, causing it to launch into the air, flip and shear off a power pole. Bryson, who was a passenger in the car, suffered fatal injuries.

Johnson was treated for moderate injuries and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter involving a DUI. He was booked at Butte County Jail.

The road was closed temporarily to replace the power pole.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcala, (916) 321-1987.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The murder trial of former Sacramento County sheriff's deputy Chu Vue has been delayed until May 7, because the prosecutor has another murder trial scheduled ahead of it.

Superior Court Judge Steve White today agreed to the delay to accommodate Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall who is slated to work a three-defendant trial scheduled to begin Monday.

Vue's trial had been scheduled for March 30. He is accused of arranging the killing of state correctional officer Steve Lo. Police and prosecutors say Vue had Lo killed because the correctional officer was having an affair with the former deputy's wife.

Vue will stand trial in the case with co-defendant Lang Vue, who is no relation. Lang Vue is accused of aiding and abetting the Lo killing by renting motel rooms and buying a car for Chu Vue's two younger brothers, who are accused of actually carrying out the slaying.

White today officially severed the murder trial of the younger brothers, Gary Vue and Chong Vue. Their court proceedings in Sacramento had been delayed because of charges they faced in a separate murder in Minnesota. Both have since been convicted and transported to Sacramento.

Gary Vue and Chong Vue are scheduled to return to court Friday for a readiness conference for their separate trial.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Sacramento judge reschedules ex-cop's murder trial - Jan. 7, 2010

Suspect in California prison guard's killing is convicted of Minnesota murder - Dec. 12, 2009

Death penalty ruled out in ex-Sacramento deputy's murder trial - Nov. 21, 2009

Fired Sacramento County sheriff's deputy to face murder trial - Sept. 24, 2009

Elaborate scheme to kill correctional officer, judge told - Sept. 23, 2009

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A Florida man has been arrested on suspicion of three federal crimes related to the disappearance of a 14-year-old Bakersfield girl who was found Tuesday in Sacramento.

David Charles Zastrow, 51, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., is accused of traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in elicit sexual conduct, enticing a minor and kidnapping, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. Zastrow's son, Christopher Zastrow, 21, also was arrested and booked into Sacramento County Jail accused of child concealment.

The complaint affidavit alleges that David Zastrow befriended the victim's family and shared an apartment with the girl and her mother in Florida. The alleged victim and her mother moved to Bakersfield in February. Shortly thereafter, David and Christopher Zastrow put their belongings in storage and arranged to take the girl from her mother in Bakersfield, according to the news release. Officials said the plan included smuggling a cell phone to the girl so she could have unlimited communication with David Zastrow.

On March 17, the girl disappeared from her Bakersfield home and was found at a hotel in the Sacramento area late Tuesday, the news release says. She is now in the care of Child Protective Services, and is being interviewed and evaluated.

Tuesday's arrests followed an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the FBI's Violent Crime Squad and Task, Force, with assistance from the Kern County Sheriff's Office, Sacramento Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida.

If convicted, David Zastrow faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for crossing state lines with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, according to the news release. Enticing a minor carries a mandatory minimum term of 10 years and maximum of life with a fine of up to $250,00, and kidnapping has a potential life sentence and fine of up to $250,000.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A man was shot in his buttocks today during a dispute in a home in Rio Linda.

A sheriff's spokesman said two men argued at a home in the 700 block of Dabney Avenue around 11 a.m.

A 20-year-old man shot another young man, age 22, in the buttocks. The victim, who was not cooperative with deputies, suffered a non life-threatening wound and was taken to the hospital.

The suspect fled and deputies were searching for him.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Barbara Barte Osborne
Bee correspondent

NEVADA CITY -- A Grass Valley man, Louis Riley James, was arrested Tuesday for investigation of homicide in connection with the death of Kenneth William Painter of Nevada City.

James, 35, had been under surveillance as a "person of interest" in the case and was arrested in a traffic stop shortly after he was seen leaving his home, according to a news release from Sheriff Keith Royal.

A search of the home resulted in evidence, including a large quantity of marijuana and a handgun, implicating James' involvement in the homicide, as did statements obtained during the investigation, the release said.

"Based upon information developed, it appears Mr. Painter's death was the result of a marijuana transaction gone bad," Royal said in the release.

Painter, 53, was reported missing April 7. His vehicle, with evidence officers said indicated foul play, was discovered April 8 and a search team found his body in a remote area of Nevada City April 9.

James is being held without bail at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City pending arraignment.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

California state Sen. Roy Ashburn entered a no-contest plea to drunken driving charges today in Sacramento Superior Court and was immediately sentenced to two days in jail and three years probation.

Ashburn, who was not present for the brief plea and sentencing hearing in front of Judge Russell L. Hom, received credit for one day in custody and will serve the remaining day on the sheriff's work project.

The Republican from Bakersfield also was fined $480 and received additional fee assessments amounting to $2,000.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Clancey said that Ashburn "received no less than anybody else" for a first-time drunken driving conviction.

Prosecutors said Ashburn's blood alcohol content tested at .14, nearly double the legal limit of .08.

Under the terms of his probation, Hom ordered Ashburn not to drive a vehicle with any measurable amounts of alcohol in his system, to obey all laws, to not refuse a chemical test, to not drive unless validly licensed and to attend a first-time DUI program. Clancey said the program will likely be for 30 days.

Ashburn also faces a 30-day suspension of his driver's license, pending a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing. His license also will be restricted for six months after that, allowing him only to drive to and from work.

"It's a tough hit to take, but given the public safety considerations, it's appropriate," Clancey said.

Ashburn, 55, was pulled over March 4 in downtown Sacramento when a police officer noticed his car weaving on L Street near 13th street around 2 o'clock in the morning.

The senator later admitted that he had been at Faces, the popular midtown gay bar. Ashburn later acknowledged that he was gay, despite opposing gay rights measures over the course of his 14-year career in the Legislature.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Sen. Roy Ashburn in firestorm over DUI arrest, sexual orientation - March 6, 2010

State senator arrested on DUI charge in Sacramento - March 4, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Aaron Norman Dunn was convicted today in Sacramento Superior Court of first-degree murder with special circumstances in a shooting spree that killed two people and wounded another man in Elk Grove four years ago.

Read the full story.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916), 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Jury deliberating fate of double-murder defendant Aaron Norman Dunn - April 13, 2010

Prosecutor, doctor spar over Elk Grove murder defendant's actions - April 8, 2010

Prosecutor eager to attack psychiatrist in Elk Grove shooting spree trial - April 7, 2010

Meth psychosis cited in killings; defendant's words cast doubt - April 6, 2010

Elk Grove cop testifies how she and partner stopped deadly rampage - March 17, 2010

Witnesses tell of lives shattered in deadly Elk Grove shooting spree - March 12, 2010

Prosecutor, defense attorneys agree suspect killed two people in Elk Grove - March 10, 2010

Elk Grove residents eligible for murder case jury - Dec. 11, 2009

Prosecutor's bid for Placer DA could stall trial for double killing - Dec. 2, 2009

Homicide suspect's lawyers don't want any Elk Grove jurors - Aug. 11, 2009

By Chelsea Phua
cphua@sacbee.com

Sacramento County sheriff's officials described as "brazen" a midday shooting Monday that killed a man and a woman, whose car then crashed into the yard of a house along a well-traveled thoroughfare.

Curious onlookers stood in the rain at the edges of yellow crime scene tapes surrounding Howe Avenue near Bluebird Lane, as sheriff's investigators worked to determine what prompted the drive-by shooting.

Witnesses reported the gunfire and crash at about 2:40 p.m., less than two hours before the end of a school day for a daycare center across the street from the crime scene.

"We heard a little pop, pop, and at first I thought it was a flat tire," said Celia Ramos, a teacher at Only Love Children's Center. The daycare facility on Howe Avenue at Tallac Street caters to infants, toddlers, pre-school and school-age children, according to its Web site.

Ramos said about two dozen 4- to 5-year-olds were inside the facility when they heard the gunshots. Teachers moved the children to the back rooms, but no one was in a panic, Ramos said. The children were excited when they heard the sirens and wanted to see the fire engines, Ramos said.

Staff also informed parents to pick up their children early.

Solomon Welsh, who came to pick up his 4-year-old son, said parents were asked to enter the school from its rear, away from the crime scene.

He described feeling alarmed and bothered when he learned about the shooting.

Witnesses told authorities that two cars - one a green BMW coupe - were southbound on Howe Avenue, with one car behind the other, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said.

Somewhere near Red Robin Lane, the car behind pulled alongside the coupe, which was traveling in the right lane. Someone from inside the car on the left lane then fired multiple shots into the coupe, striking its male driver several times in the chest and the woman passenger at least once in her head.

The coupe careened off the road and into the yard of a house on the northwest corner of Howe Avenue and Bluebird Lane, tearing off its wrought iron and brick fence and coming to a stop in front of a tree.

Owners of the house were not at home at that time, sheriff's officials said.

Curran said the driver stepped out of the coupe, but collapsed next to car where paramedics found him on the ground. The woman remained inside the car, and was slumped over in the front passenger seat, Curran said.

Paramedics pronounced both of them dead at the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff's homicide detectives at (916) 874-5057, Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP, or send a tip by texting to 274637 (CRIMES). Enter SACTIP followed by the information. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Call The Bee's Chelsea Phua, (916) 321-1132.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

Authorities say they have booked into jail two Sacramento gang members suspected of a drive-by shooting, firing a semi-automatic rifle at a CHP officer and injuring a 4-year-old child in a nearby vehicle.

They face multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, according to sheriff's spokesman, Sgt. Tim Curran.

The suspects fired at the California Highway Patrol officers on Highway 99 during a pursuit early today, Curran said. The child, a passenger in a minivan on the highway near Florin Road, had a minor injury from flying debris caused by a bullet, the Sheriff's Department said.

Paramedics treated the child at the scene after the 1:30 a.m. episode. The child was not hospitalized.

The case began a short time earlier when Sacramento County deputies responded to a report of a drive-by shooting at an apartment complex in the 6600 block of Sunnyslope Drive in south Sacramento.

No one at the complex was hit by gunfire.

A CHP officer also responded to the call and saw a vehicle matching the description of the car involved in the drive-by shooting. When the officer tried to stop the vehicle, the driver pulled into a mobile home park in the 7400 block of Stockton Boulevard, police said.

Sheriff's officials said the driver of the car refused to stop and the passenger fired what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle at the CHP officer.

The suspects then left the mobile home park and drove onto Highway 99, with the CHP officer in pursuit.

During the chase, the officer was fired at again, missing the pursuer but hitting the minivan carrying the child.

A short time later, officers from the Sacramento Police Department saw the vehicle in the parking lot of a motel on Massie Court. They also found 23-year-old Pedro Pantoja of Sacramento, who was armed with a handgun, authorities said. A semi-automatic rifle was found inside the vehicle.

Several other people were detained from a room at the motel. One suspect, Jesus Montano, 26, of Elk Grove, was identified as the driver, according to the sheriff's department.

Both men were arrested.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran described the men as validated gang members. They were being booked today in the Sacramento County main jail on multiple felony charges, including attempted murder.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A couple who found out they couldn't get any cash from their account also were the victims of robbery this morning.

Police responded at 3:30 a.m. today to a bank in the 1300 block of Exposition Boulevard where a man and woman said they were robbed at gunpoint by a masked man.

They told police that they had attempted to use an automatic teller machine but were unable to receive any cash. They were then approached by a man with a gun who demanded their money.

When they told the gunman they had no cash, he took their wallets and other personal property, police said.

The suspect was described as a white man with a tattoo of a tear drop next to his left eye. He was wearing a dark blue bandana over his face, a dark-colored baseball cap, tan shirt and a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A woman who helped plan a robbery that turned into murder and then assisted in cleaning up the mess afterwards was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Marjorie Koller imposed the term on Tammy Renee Turney, 49, for the Nov. 26, 2006, shooting death of Vallejo tattoo artist David Barreda Jr.,33, at a residence on Mendocino Boulevard, east of Highway 99 near Fruitridge Boulevard.

Turney pleaded no contest to the murder charge Feb. 26.

Her son, Richard Antonio Hundley, and triggerman Curtis Level Chapman both have already been convicted in the case and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today found Carolyn Marie Simmons guilty of second-degree murder in the June 16, 1991, bludgeon murder of Richard Jackson in his south area apartment.

Simmons, 54, is scheduled to be sentenced May 7 by Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard.

Police and prosecutors said Simmons killed the 66-year-old Jackson when he didn't promptly pay her after she performed an act of prostitution.

Investigators did not break the case until January 2009, when Simmons' son came forward to police and told them he had information about the bludgeon killing of Jackson.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Sacramento County jury gets '91 murder case - March 30, 2010

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

Two men, one of whom gallantly opened a car door for a woman in the Pocket area at 3 a.m. today, apparently used the gesture as a ruse so he could get close to snatch her purse, Sacramento Police Officer Konrad Von Schoech said.

The two African American men, one reported to be wearing a blue baseball cap and a plaid button-down shirt, approached the unidentified woman as she returned to her car at a gas station in the 8900 block of Pocket Road, immediately east of Interstate 5.

Von Schoech said one of the men held open the driver's door as the woman got into the seat.

The other man pushed her and grabbed for her purse, which was on the passenger seat. The woman tried to grab the purse back, but the man holding the handbag pulled up his shirt to display a gun in his waistband.Both men fled, Van Schoech said.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

A Sacramento woman was being held on suspicion of felony robbery today after she allegedly took jewelry from a 9-year-old girl playing in her fenced backyard.

Gloria McKaufman, 42, persuaded the girl to come to the fence of a home in the 2200 block of Grove Avenue in the North Sacramento area shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday.

The two began talking about jewelry, Sacramento Police Officer Konrad Von Schoech said.

The girl had been playing there with her 14-year-old brother. When the girl took off her ring during the discussion and dropped it, the woman was able to pick it up.

The girl alerted her guardian, who reportedly asked McKaufman to return the ring, Von Schoech said.

Instead, the woman began fighting, police said. During the fight, the woman apparently grabbed the guardian's necklace and ran away.

McKaufman was arrested a short time later at nearby Arden Way and Del Paso Boulevard, the police spokesman said.

Sacramento County Sheriff's records show McKaufman was held in lieu of $66,500 bail and had been sought in connection with previous failures to appear in court on other alleged offenses.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

The Roseville Police Department is offering residents access to a number of services on the Internet via a new information kiosk in the department's public lobby.

People who don't have a computer and Internet access at home can use the kiosk to file a non-emergency, uncomplicated police report; look up recent crimes in their neighborhood at www.crimemapping.com; pay a parking citation; or look up other information on the city of Roseville's Web site.

Roseville Police headquarters are at 1051 Junction Blvd.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 773-6866.

By Cathy Locke and Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Two suspects were arrested early Saturday morning after an exchange of gunfire with Sacramento County sheriff's deputies in the North Highlands area.

Deputies were called to the Days Inn on Watt Avenue, near Interstate 80, about 12:30 a.m. after a report of gunshots. While they were investigating, deputies heard several more shots, according to Sheriff's Department officials.

After being informed about two vehicles that might have been involved, deputies located and stopped two vehicles nearby.

As deputies pulled over the first vehicle, a man jumped from the car with a gun in his waistband and ran. That man was later identified as 20-year-old Anthony Zeigler (photo left), said sheriff's Capt. Scott Jones.

When another patrol car stopped the second car, a second suspect jumped from that vehicle and fired several rounds at officers, according to the release. The two deputies in that patrol car returned fire, and the suspect fled in the same general area as the first man, Jones said.

That suspect later was identified as a teenage boy, whose name is not released because he is a juvenile, Jones said.

Deputies and law enforcement officers from neighboring jurisdictions established a perimeter, and police canines and members of the department's SWAT team joined in the search for the suspects.

Zeigler, the first suspect, was quickly taken into custody without incident. The second was located about 2 1/2 hours later and also was arrested without incident, Jones said.

The juvenile appeared to have suffered a minor gunshot wound to the shoulder and was taken to a hospital for treatment, Jones said. No law enforcement officers were injured.

Zeigler was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of one count each of possessing and carrying a concealed firearm as a convicted felon; receiving stolen property and resisting arrest, according to booking records. He also is being held for violating parole, and therefore is ineligible for bail.

Jones said it's unclear whether the two suspects knew each other or whether they were responsible for the reported gunshots at the Days Inn. The investigation continues.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 773-6866.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

Police have identified the woman who Placerville police killed after she commandeered an ambulance on Sunday morning as Linda Carol Clark, 39, of Folsom.

Officers shot Clark to death after she led them on a brief low-speed chase, then rammed patrol cars and aimed the ambulance toward police in the driveway of a Placerville home, Placerville Police Chief George Nielsen said.

Clark was a mental patient who was "on hold" at Marshall Hospital in Placerville when she escaped in an ambulance parked outside the emergency room, Nielsen said.

The case has sparked a debate about whether officers were justified in fatally shooting the unarmed woman.

Previous coverage:

Many questions in wake of woman's fatal shooting by Placerville police - March 30, 2010

Placerville woman shot dead by police after ambulance theft, chase - March 29, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A former correctional officer has pleaded guilty to bringing marijuana and a gun into California State Prison, Sacramento, and to conspiracy to distribute cell phones to inmates.

Domingo Gardea Garcia, 40, entered the plea Wednesday in Sacramento Superior Court. He will be sentenced April 26 by Judge Gary E. Ransom.

Under the terms of his plea, Garcia will not be sentenced to state prison and will get no more than a year in county jail.

Garcia, left, was placed on administrative leave following his arrest in November. A nine-year veteran, he resigned on Jan. 26, after he had been served with dismissal papers a week earlier.

In his plea, the officer admitted to furnishing marijuana to an inmate and to bringing a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun along with 50 rounds of ammo and two knives onto the prison grounds in Folsom.

Garcia pleaded guilty in the conspiracy count to receiving $1,500 from an inmate to bring in a cell phone for another convict. He also received $1,300 from a woman through a Western Union money transfer, possessed 19 pieces of inmate correspondence that included pay and owe sheets, and he had nine cell phones at his residence, according to the criminal complaint's outline of the cell phone conspiracy.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Secrest said Garcia told investigators he got involved in the illegal activity to make ends meet after his pay was cut through the state furlough program.

It was an inmate who told authorities about the officer's involvement in the ring, Secrest said. According to the prosecutor, an inmate identified as Ken Hanks got caught with a cell phone and marijuana, then came forward with the information about Garcia.

The officer could not be reached for comment and his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Addie Louise Young, declined to comment.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Garcia's misconduct is rare.

"It doesn't happen very often," she said. "We have more than 60,000 employees in the department and nearly all of them do a very good job at what they do. However, the department has zero tolerance of staff misconduct, and all allegations of staff misconduct are investigated. We take this very seriously."

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A 28-year-old Sacramento man convicted of the murder of an American River College fashion student three years ago has been sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.

Dominick Theado West, left, received the term Friday in Sacramento Superior Court from Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard for the June 2, 2007, shooting death of Mary Ourk, 21.

According to prosecutors, West shot and killed Ourk at 12th and W streets in midtown Sacramento at 1:30 a.m. as she drove home from a night out with friends.

Witnesses testified that West had flashed a gun at a man earlier in the evening and that he then chased down Ourk's car and shot her in the mistaken belief she was involved in his earlier confrontation.

In his statements to the probation officer who prepared West's pre-sentencing report, the defendant maintained his innocence, saying, "I am such a good person. If I had done it, I would have turned myself in."

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Sacramento jury convicts man in 2007 shooting death of ARC student - Feb. 4, 2010

Defendant tells murder trial he didn't do it and ex-girlfriends lied - Jan. 28, 2010

Ex-girlfriend testifies defendant talked about killing woman - Jan. 22, 2010

Victim's friend recalls gunshot - Jan. 12, 2010

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

Sacramento police are asking for help in finding a man suspected of robbing three banks.

The robber usually makes his escape on a bike and is partial to wearing caps with sports logos. He also might have a missing top front tooth.

Police said he held up the Wells Fargo Bank, 5660 Freeport Blvd., on March 16, the Chase Bank, 1331 Florin Road, on March 18 and the Wells Fargo Bank, 1 Park Center Drive, on March 19.

In all three robberies he showed the teller a note demanding cash. After being handed the money, he fled the bank and in two of the robberies he made his getaway on a mountain bike.

The robber is described as an African American man in his late 30s or early 40s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a slim build.

In each robbery he wore sunglasses and a hat. One hat had a 49ers logo, another a USA logo and the third a Kings logo.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357. Tipsters may remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Placerville police say they shot and killed a patient who stole an ambulance from a local hospital this morning and may have tried to ram a police car following a short pursuit.

Placerville Police Chief George Nielsen issued a written statement describing the incident:

According to the statement, police received a call at about 10:12 a.m. reporting that a El Dorado County ambulance had been stolen from Marshall Hospital, 1080 Marshall Way, in Placerville.

The caller said a patient had stolen the ambulance.

Three officers pursued the suspect to the top of a driveway in the 3000 block of Cedar Ravine Road, the statement said.

There were "preliminary indications" that the suspect rammed the officers' vehicle, it said.

"There was an officer involved shooting at the termination of the pursuit," the chief's statement said. "The suspect is deceased as a result of the shooting."

A multi-agency investigation into the shooting was under way, Nielsen said in the statement.

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Authorities are investigating the homicide of a 19-year-old Sacramento man who was shot in the head early today in the parking lot of a popular all-night bowling alley near the intersection of Watt and El Camino avenues.

Sacramento sheriff's deputies found Joe Melvin Tyes shortly after 4 a.m. next to Country Club Lanes at 2600 Watt Avenue.

Spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said people inside the bowling alley heard multiple gunshots, went outside and found the man lying in the parking lot.

Dozens of shell casings littered the parking lot, Curran said, though the victim appeared to have been struck only once.

A motive isn't known, or even if Tyes was the intended target, authorities said.

No witnesses who saw the shooting have come forward, and detectives have no description of suspects or vehicles involved, Curran said.

Tyes was a validated gang member, the sheriff's spokesman said.

Court records show he was due in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday for a hearing on an alleged probation violation.

Tyes had a 2009 felony conviction for fleeing a police officer and driving with a disregard for the safety of others.

Anyone with information regarding this murder is urged to call Sheriff's Homicide detectives at (916) 874-5057, or Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP; or send a text message tip by texting to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter SACTIP followed by the tip information.

Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.

By Ed Fletcher and Bill Lindelof
efletcher@sacbee.com

The on-call Sacramento County sheriff's deputy accused of picking up a 13-year-old girl he met on duty and having sex with her in a Lincoln hotel has pleaded guilty.

With the plea, Eric Cephus (left), who could have been sentenced to life in prison, will serve 18 years in state prison and will be required to register as a sex offender.

"I want to say I'm sorry," Cephus said. "I've destroyed my life."

Lincoln police arrested Cephus, 39, on March 2 at his San Jose home. He was arraigned two days later on one felony count each of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 and transporting a person for a sex act.

Cephus was working a contract shift for a north Sacramento County parks district -- meaning he was in uniform and driving a marked patrol car, but his work was paid for by the parks district -- the night of Feb. 26 when he allegedly met his victim.

After his shift ended, Cephus and the girl allegedly drove to a Lincoln hotel and had sex. Police have not said if the sex was forced or if Cephus paid the victim.

Cephus is no longer employed by the sheriff's department, authorities said.

Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269.

Previous coverage:

Woman's call to police on teen girl at Lincoln salon led to deputy's arrest - March 10, 2010

Sacramento on-call deputy accused of sexual assault of 13-year-old - March 4, 2010

A 33-year-old man was shot to death late Saturday in west Del Paso Heights after an apparent argument in his home with two other men in their 20s, Sacramento police said today.

The Sacramento Fire Department declared the man dead at the scene of the homicide in the 600 block of Lindsay Ave., police Sgt. Norm Leong reported. Police are investigating the shooting, which occurred at 11:51 p.m. No arrests have been made.

Sacramento County coroner's officials identified the shooting victim as Dennis Nelson of Sacramento.

The police department has scant description of the two suspects, saying they were African-American males, in their 20s, who were wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP or text a tip to 274637. Enter SACTIP and then the tip information.

Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Lawyers and a Sacramento federal judge agreed Monday to reconvene next fall for arguments on defense motions in the prosecution of 12 men who allegedly plotted the violent overthrow of the government in communist Laos.

It is anticipated that, at the least, the defense will renew an earlier motion to dismiss the case and, failing that, will move to suppress the evidence. Both motions will be largely based on the conduct of an undercover firearms agent who posed as an arms dealer anxious to sell weapons to the defendants.

James Brosnahan, a San Francisco lawyer who did most of the talking for the defense, told U. S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. that he and his colleagues still do not have all the material they want from the government.

He said there is "warehouse of material" and the defense has asked prosecutors for an "inventory of what they have in there" to help locate and categorize relevant evidence. So far, he said, that has not been forthcoming.

Lead prosecutor S. Robert Tice-Raskin responded that "there is no item-by-item inventory" and the government has met its legal obligation to make the material "available for inspection and copying."

Tice-Raskin said the prosecution has produced for the defense 86,000 pages of documents and hundreds of recordings of electronically intercepted conversations, many of them in a foreign language.

Eleven of the defendants are Hmong, and the Hmong language presents more of a challenge than others because it is only spoken, not written.

Federal Defender Daniel Broderick told Damrell that defense lawyers are trying to get the prosecutors to let them have the software used by the government to translate and transcribe the recordings.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

Previous coverage:

Hundreds gather to protest federal trial of accused Laos plotters - March 15, 2010