A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Joseph Raheem Williams of voluntary manslaughter in the Feb. 10, 2008, shooting death of Alex Hunter outside the DoubleTree Hotel on Arden Way.

Williams, now 27, a reputed Sacramento street gang member, had been charged with murder in the death of Hunter, who was celebrating his 21st birthday.

Williams is facing a prison term of more than 22 years as a result of the voluntary manslaughter conviction and the sentencing enhancement that he personally used the gun to kill Hunter.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A man who ran a woman's car into a freeway center divider in a traffic confrontation last year was sentenced today to nine years in state prison.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury last month convicted Jesse Kenneth Oran, 33, of gross vehicular manslaughter, Judge Gerrit W. Wood imposed the prison term on him for the May 2, 2010, traffic fatality that killed 22-year-old Tessa Canavarro.

Canavarro had been scheduled to begin her honeymoon the next day.

Authorities said Oran tailgated Canavarro's vehicle and flashed his headlights at her for several miles after an incident on westbound Interstate 80.

Oran was sober at the time of the crash. Canvarro's blood-alcohol level registered at .23 percent.

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 Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

In a trial that got under way today in U.S. District Court, plaintiff Drake Jones seeks monetary damages from the Sacramento County for what he called excessive force used against him as he was being held in Sacramento County Main Jail in 2008.

Jones, who was never charged with any crimes from the incident for which he was arrested, alleges that he was forced by deputies to lie face down in raw sewage, including human excrement, while he was handcuffed and prepared to be moved to another cell.

His arrest stemmed from an exchange of words with a locksmith on Aug. 4, 2008, as Jones helped a friend move. Jones allegedly was uncooperative with deputies during the booking process at the jail and was placed in what is called a "sobering" cell.

A jury was chosen and testimony started today in Sacramento before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd.

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

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Jury selection is getting underway today in the murder trial of former Sacramento County sheriff's deputy Chu Vue, who is accused of arranging the love-triangle killing of state correctional officer Steve Lo.

Vue, 45, is charged with setting up the Oct. 15, 2008, shooting death of Lo in the garage of the 39-year-old officer's south area home because Lo was having an affair with the former deputy's wife.

Lang Vue, 27, who is no relation to Chu Vue, also is charged in the case. He is accused of aiding and abetting the murder by renting motel rooms for the gunmen who are charged with carrying out the killing.

The accused gunmen, Gary Vue, 29, and Chong Vue, 31, are Chu Vue's younger brothers. They will be tried separately from Chu Vue and Lang Vue.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White will preside over the case. Jury selection is expected to run well into next week. Opening statements have tentatively been scheduled for Aug. 9.

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

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A judge has suspended criminal proceedings of a woman accused of murder in the shooting death of a man outside a Rancho Cordova convenience store.

According to Sacramento Superior Court records, Lizbeth Colon, 27, pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and blasted Rene Mejia Cruz, 25, in the upper torso in the early-morning hours of Sept. 28, 2008, apparently in a disagreement over cigarette money.

Judge Joseph Orr on Monday suspended criminal proceedings against Colon and ordered her committed to Patton State Hospital for the rest of her life or until she is able to understand her case and assist in its defense.

The judge's decision came after Colon had been examined by three doctors, the court records said.

Defense attorney Linda Parisi had sought the doctors' evaluations.

"The proceedings are so serious that it's really not fair for the person who, as a result of psychological issues, can't concentrate on their case and can't help their lawyer in preparing for their defense," Parisi said today.

Deputy District attorney Shari Greco did not object to the defense request or the judge's ruling.

If Colon is restored to competency, she will be returned to Sacramento to stand trial.

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

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A judge today postponed a hearing for Phillip and Nancy Garrido until next month, with officials saying a psychiatrist who treated him in the 1990s was delivering her medical records to court as ordered.

The records had not been sent in time for a hearing last month, which sparked today's court session.

Both Garridos were in court briefly today and Nancy Garrido attorney Stephen Tapson said later that the two had taken advantage of a five-minute phone call the court had allowed in May. Tapson said he assumed they spoke about God because "that's what they're into."

They are allowed another five-minute call in June.

The hearing in El Dorado Superior Court in Placerville was yet another procedural matter in a case that has crawled through the justice system since the Garridos were arrested last August and charged in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard when she was 11.

Both have pleaded not guilty to charges that could send them to prison for life, and since August eight hearings have been held involving Phillip Garrido and nine involving his wife, Nancy.

The judge has set Oct. 7 as the date for the start of the preliminary hearing for the two, who are both being held in the El Dorado County Jail and allowed only limited contact with each through five-minute, monthly phone calls that are monitored by authorities.

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

By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
dwalsh@sacbee.com

When you're a multimillionaire Titan of Tomatoes, getting used to the rules of the Sacramento County Jail may be a real drag.

Frederick Scott Salyer, the 54-year-old former head of SK Foods LP who is awaiting trial in the jail on federal charges of corruption, bribery and of trying to corner the market on tomato paste, already has learned the hard way that telephone conversations there are recorded and may be used as evidence by prosecutors.

The next step in his education has been learning how mail is handled.

Court papers filed by prosecutors say that last week a defense paralegal "brought a handful of personal letters directly to the Defendant in the lineup room."

One of the letters was from one of Salyer's girlfriends, prosecutors said in their filing, and was marked "Atty Client."

Among the items inside was an emery board, some personal notes and a head shot of the woman. Perhaps the most interesting "Atty Client" item was "a picture of her naked, holding two tomatoes in front of her body," the court documents state.

"This conduct violated a number of reasonable jail policies," the prosecutors wrote. "For example, the jail advises that an emery board can be used to reshape other objects in prohibited ways."

The documents do not indicate what policies, if any, the photo of the tomatoes may have violated, but it and the other items were confiscated.

Salyer's attorney, Malcolm Segal, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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

Previous coverage:

Grand jury adds new federal charges against tomato baron - April 30, 2010

Grand jury to add charges to Salyer case - April 28, 2010

Jailed tomato mogul's recorded phone calls full of venom for ex-wife - April 14, 2010

Judge in Sacramento rescinds tomato magnate's bail order - March 31, 2010

Defense says diabetes should get tomato exec out of Sacramento jail - March 25, 2010

Lawyer for tomato exec Salyer cites fraud case's complexity in urging bail - March 19, 2010

Indicted tomato businessman again seeks release on bail - March 17, 2010

Tomato king sees his empire crumble - March 14, 2010

Key players in the Salyer case - March 14, 2010

Food executive Salyer denied bail in Sacramento federal court - March 4, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer hears charges in racketeering case - Feb. 27, 2010

Arrested tomato magnate to appear in Sacramento court - Feb. 26, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer indicted on racketeering charges - Feb. 19, 2010

Judge orders SK Foods magnate sent to capital - Feb. 6, 2010

FBI arrests SK Foods owner on fraud charges - Feb. 5, 2010

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

The woman accused of killing little Sandra Cantu of Tracy has pleaded guilty today to murder and kidnapping.

Melissa Chantel Huckaby pleaded guilty in the packed San Joaquin County Superior courtroom of Judge Linda Lofthus to killing the 8-year-old in April 2009.

Huckaby's plea allows her to avoid the death penalty. She will be sentenced June 14 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors had come to court expecting to set hearings. However, Huckaby, a former Sunday school teacher, chose instead to plead guilty to the two most serious charges facing her in the murder of the Tracy girl last March.

Huckaby avoids a jury trial, and several counts were dismissed against her, including a poisoning charge and lewd act on a minor.

Cantu disappeared last year from her mobile home park after leaving her home to play. After a search, the girl's body was found inside a suitcase in a irrigation ditch several miles from her home.

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

Previous coverage:

Cantu slaying defendant charged with drugging others - May 23, 2009

Fox 40 coverage:

By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Indicted tomato executive Frederick Scott Salyer returned to court yet again today and pleaded not guilty to a new set of charges by the government, but he appears no closer to winning release from the Sacramento County Jail.

The 54-year-old multimillionaire shuffled into the 15th floor courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence K. Karlton in an orange "Sac. Co. Prisoner" jumpsuit and a chain around his waist.

He has made more than half a dozen appearances in the case so far, and Karlton has made it clear that he is frustrated over the contention of Salyer's attorneys that they cannot adequately defend him in a case as complex as this one while he remains jailed.

Karlton's frustration was freshly evident today as two Justice Department anti-trust lawyers made their appearance. They joined Sacramento-based prosecutors in fashioning a new 65-page indictment handed up last Thursday.

"You got nothing to do but kill trees," the judge muttered at them. "Never mind..."

A few moments later, to no one in particular, he added, "This is going to drive me to ... never mind."

The indictment incorporates already-pending charges of racketeering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice, adds new anti-trust counts, and replaces an earlier one returned Feb. 18 against the former owner and chief executive officer of now-defunct SK Foods LP.

The case features one of the most sweeping corruption scandals ever to hit the food industry. Ten former executives and employees of Salyer's company and its customers have pleaded guilty to one or more federal felonies in connection with the schemes.

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

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Jimmy Siackasorn of first-degree murder in the shooting death of sheriff's deputy Vu Nguyen during a Dec. 19, 2007, foot pursuit.

The panel deliberated a little more than three and a half days before returning its verdict against the 19-year-old defendant in front of Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan.

Nguyen, 37, was shot and killed on top of a chicken coop in a south area back yard after giving chase to Siackasorn after the defendant took off running when he saw the undercover gang task force deputy and his partner approach him in an unmarked car.

Prosecutors filed a special-circumstance allegation in the case that Siackasorn murdered Nguyen in the course of the deputy's duties.

An admitted member of a south Sacramento street gang, Siackasorn did not dispute during his Sacramento Superior Court trial that he shot and killed the deputy during a foot chase on the cold and rainy afternoon.

His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Sue Karlton, argued that Siackasorn did not know Nguyen was a law enforcement officer and that the defendant shot and killed the deputy in the mistaken belief that he was a rival gang member.

Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard told jurors that Siackasorn had a long-standing hatred for law enforcement personnel that spanned his 26 arrests and several extended-stay incarcerations, dating back to when he was 12 years old. The prosecutor said in his closing argument that Siackasorn "ambushed" Nguyen.

Norgaard called the self-defense argument "ludicrous."

Siackasorn had threatened several probation officers and members of other agencies over the years, according to testimony at the trial in which 78 witnesses took the stand over 13 court days.

He continued to threaten officers even after his arrest in the Nguyen killing, telling one of them that the slain detective "deserved it."

Sixteen years old at the time he killed Nguyen, Siackasorn was standing on the corner in front of a house that police considered a gang hangout at 37th Street and 42nd Avenue waiting to buy some marijuana when Nguyen and his partner drove up on him, witnesses said.

Nguyen's partner, Ed Yee, said Siackasorn at first began to walk away when he saw the deputies, assigned to the sheriff's gang task force, approach in their silver Nissan Maxima. When they swerved across the street to have a conversation with him, Siackasorn took off in a full sprint, Yee testified.

At the time of the chase, Siackasorn had a warrant pending for his arrest for running away from a group home. He also was carrying a .22-caliber handgun he was holding for a fellow member of his "TRG" set. The other gang member had asked Siackasorn to hold the gun because he was about to take a ride in a stolen car.

According to Yee's testimony, Nguyen got out of the car and gave chase as Siackasorn circled the house and jumped a fence into the back yard. Yee said he saw Nguyen follow over the fence and that he then saw his partner standing on what turned out to be a chicken coop, looking for Siackasorn.

Yee said he drove to the next block over to try and block Siackasorn's escape. He said he heard a couple of "faint noises," then back-tracked to 42nd Street after he saw Siackasorn double back. Yee then hopped the fence and found Nguyen bleeding profusely on top of the chicken coop.

Siackasorn was arrested shortly after midnight in a house in the Meadowview area.

Photo credit: Jimmy Siackasorn listens as the guilty verdict is read in Sacramento Superior Court on Wednesday. Photo by Bryan Patrick / bpatrick@sacbee.com

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

Previous coverage:

Prosecutor: Detective's alleged killer knew he was shooting cop - April 20, 2010

Dead officer's partner in Sacramento sheriff's gang unit testifies in Jimmy Siackasorn's murder trial - March 16, 2010

Judge quotes shooting suspect as saying deputy deserved to die - Feb. 25, 2010

By John Parker
jparker@sacbee.com

The molestation case against former Christian Brothers teacher and volleyball coach Minh Nguyen appears headed for a jury trial.

A trial date of July 12 was set following a pretrial hearing on Monday in Santa Ana. The pretrial hearing will continue June 14.

Nguyen, 36, is accused of having inappropriate contact with a 17-year-old varsity girls volleyball player stemming from an incident at a Santa Ana hotel last December. It is alleged that shortly after 10 p.m. Dec. 4, Nguyen, an assistant varsity volleyball coach, entered the room a student-athlete under the guise of giving her an athletic massage.

The Christian Brothers team was staying at the Embassy Suites on Dyer Road in Santa Ana the night before competing in the California Interscholastic Federation Division IV championship at UC Irvine. The Falcons were swept in that match by La Jolla Country Day.

Nguyen taught world history and coached volleyball and track for five years before the school terminated his employment Dec. 8.

Nyugen, who is represented by Costa Mesa-based attorney Susan Regeimbal, faces up to a year in Orange County jail and would have to register as a sex offender.

Call The Bee's John Parker, (916) 321-5519.

Previous coverage:

Coach accused of wrongly touching student athlete - Dec. 15, 2009.

By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A federal judge this morning postponed deciding whether indicted tomato executive Frederick Scott Salyer can be released on bail, calling the impending decision one of the most difficult he has faced in decades on the federal bench.

"I have been thinking since last night of how to solve this problem, and I have no idea," U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence K. Karlton said as Salyer sat at the defense table in an orange Sacramento County Jail jumpsuit.

Karlton said that if Salyer remains in jail it could take years for the defendant to review the million pages of documents prosecutors have amassed to use against him.

But he also said he has concerns about the risk of the multimillionaire Salyer deciding to flee prosecution rather than face the prospect of spending 20 years in prison.

Prosecutor Sean Flynn argued that Salyer could be moved to a place such as the Nevada County Jail, where a room might be available for him to confer with his attorneys and review evidence.

But Salyer defense attorney Malcolm Segal said he would need a 20-foot-by-40-foot "war" room to store documents, put up wall charts, set up video equipment and view computer hard drives.

He said restrictions at the Sacramento jail make it impossible to mount a defense for the 54-year-old Salyer, who faces seven counts of racketeering, conspiracy, bribery and obstruction of justice.

"I can mount a defense," Segal said. "There's a defense here, and I can mount it, but I can't mount it in jail."

Segal suggested Salyer could be placed under house arrest in his Pebble Beach mansion and guarded at all times, even offering to hire a private security firm for the task, but Karlton finally decided he wanted the opposing sides to file written plans and return to court to resume oral argument about what facilities might be available where Salyer could be detained and still review the evidence against him.

"I find it extraordinarily difficult -- and I've been in this business 33 years on the federal bench -- and I've never had anything like this," Karlton said.

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

Previous coverage:

Indicted tomato businessman again seeks release on bail - March 17, 2010

Tomato king sees his empire crumble - March 14, 2010

Key players in the Salyer case - March 14, 2010

Food executive Salyer denied bail in Sacramento federal court - March 4, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer hears charges in racketeering case - Feb. 27, 2010

Arrested tomato magnate to appear in Sacramento court - Feb. 26, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer indicted on racketeering charges - Feb. 19, 2010

Judge orders SK Foods magnate sent to capital - Feb. 6, 2010

FBI arrests SK Foods owner on fraud charges - Feb. 5, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Elk Grove police Officer Tisha Smith told a jury today how she finally shot down a gunman who had already killed two people and was going for more during a methamphetamine-fueled rampage almost four years ago.

Smith testified that she had already been stunned by "probably the loudest thing I've ever heard" when murder defendant Aaron Norman Dunn shot out the rear passenger window in her patrol car during his March 25, 2006, shooting spree on Laguna Boulevard.

The officer said that she and her partner, Janell Bestpitch, sped away to safety then circled back to where their car had been blasted. When she got out of the car, Smith said people yelled warnings that the man holding a shotgun at his hip was approaching her from behind.

Smith said she turned, told Dunn to drop the weapon, then fired twice when he didn't. She testified she thinks she hit the 33-year-old Dunn, but that the defendant kept moving toward the patrol car and chased Bestpitch around it twice.

The two ultimately faced off across the trunk area of the car. Smith said Bestpitch fired twice and that Dunn crouched toward the ground. Then, Smith said, Dunn turned and aimed the shotgun at her.

"He lays out in a prone position, on his stomach, with the gun pointed outward," facing her, Smith told the Sacramento Superior Court jury. "I asked him to show me his hands. He raised the shotgun toward my direction."

Smith said she told Bestpitch over the radio to get out of the way. Then, "I fired two more shots in his direction."

Dunn "finally put the gun toward the ground and slumped over," Smith said. Several other officers who had just arrived at the shooting site ran up and handcuffed him.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett's timeline showed that Dunn already had shot and killed Johnie Ray Johnson and Michael John Daly by the time Smith and Bestpitch stopped him with a total of six shots that hit their mark and critically wounded the defendant.

The two officers, who were employees of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department at the time, were awarded with the Medal of Valor for bringing the rampage to an end.

Dunn is charged with two counts of murder in the case and faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted on the first-degree murder charges.

Defense lawyers Amy Rogers and Hayes Gable III have conceded that their client shot and killed Johnson, 46, and Daly, 46, who were out having family dinners at popular Elk Grove restaurants when they were gunned down. The attorneys, however, say that Dunn's mental capacity had been diminished by the methamphetamine consumption and that he is only guilty of second-degree murder.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1079.

Previous coverage:

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 Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Frederick Scott Salyer, the indicted tomato businessman accused of racketeering and bribery, on Thursday again will attempt to win his release on bail while awaiting trial in federal court.

Salyer's attorneys have asked U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence K. Karlton to approve Salyer's request to be released from the Sacramento County Jail, and have offered to have him remain under virtual house arrest at his Pebble Beach mansion, subject to GPS monitoring and to have someone present to physically ensure he remains on the property.

They also have offered to have him post a large bail amount and have said he has no plans to flee but wants to be able to assist in preparing his defense against a seven-count indictment that could send him to prison for 20 years.

Two U.S. magistrate judges have rejected his request for release, and prosecutors plan to oppose the latest effort before Karlton on Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. The government contends Salyer has moved millions of dollars overseas and was seeking to relocate to a country from which he could not be extradited.

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

Previous coverage:

Tomato king sees his empire crumble - March 14, 2010

Key players in the Salyer case - March 14, 2010

Food executive Salyer denied bail in Sacramento federal court - March 4, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer hears charges in racketeering case - Feb. 27, 2010

Arrested tomato magnate to appear in Sacramento court - Feb. 26, 2010

SK Foods magnate Salyer indicted on racketeering charges - Feb. 19, 2010

Judge orders SK Foods magnate sent to capital - Feb. 6, 2010

FBI arrests SK Foods owner on fraud charges - Feb. 5, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Jimmy Siackasorn was "a very angry and hostile young man" when he allegedly shot and killed a Sacramento County sheriff's detective in 2007, a prosecutor said today.

At the time of the killing, Siackasorn, 19, held a "hatred" for law enforcement and had a long history of threatening to kill police and probation officers, a Sacramento Superior Court jury was told.

Siackasorn, 19, is on trial for murder in the death of sheriff's gang Det. Vu Nguyen on Dec. 19, 2007. The defendant is charged with killing the 37-year-old Nguyen during a foot pursuit that took place in a gang-infested area of unincorporated south Sacramento called "The Avenues," Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard said in his opening remarks.

Defense attorney Sue Karlton said in her opening statements that her client shot Nguyen but that the shooting was in self defense and Siackasorn didn't know Nguyen was a detective.

Norgaard said Nguyen and his partner drove up on Siackasorn while the defendant was standing on the corner of 42nd Avenue and 37th Street waiting to buy marijuana. Siackasorn then took off running and shot and killed Nguyen during a chase that took them into a back yard.

The prosecutor said that Siackasorn had 26 arrests going back to when the defendant was 12 years old and that over the years he made his hatred for law enforcement known.

"I'm going to blast staff in the face when I'm on the outs," Siackasorn once told a probation officer at the Sacramento County Boys Ranch, Norgaard told the jury.

Siackasorn told a probation officer during another contact at his residence, "You're lucky I didn't know you guys were coming, because we would have shot it out," the prosecutor said.

Siackasorn also admitted to shooting the deputy in several conversations he had with people in the hours after the shooting.

Norgaard said Siackasorn knew through his many contacts with law enforcement, including plainclothes officers such as Nguyen, what kind of cars they drove and that he knew the detective and his partner were gang detectives when they pulled up to talk to him.

Karlton, however, said the detectives who drove up to her client didn't say anything and did not identify themselves as law enforcement officers.

"Jimmy Siackasorn didn't know Vu Nguyen was a police officer, and he shot in self defense," Karlton said.

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

Previous coverage:

Judge quotes shooting suspect as saying deputy deserved to die - Feb. 25, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A couple of big murder trials are about to take off in Sacramento Superior Court.

Jury selection is underway in the Aaron Norman Dunn case. The 32-year-old defendant is accused in the shooting deaths of television cameraman Johnie Ray Johnson, 46, and Xerox salesman Michael John Daly, 45, in a March 25, 2006, shotgun spree in Elk Grove.

Both victims had been eating dinner with their families at popular restaurants on Laguna Boulevard. Police and prosecutors say Dunn drove down from Yuba City and cut loose with his shotgun in a revenge attack that was aimed at police officers because his estranged wife purportedly had taken up with a cop.

Dunn also is charged with attempted murder on two police officers in the case. He faces the death penalty if he is convicted. The trial will take place in front of Judge Michael W. Sweet.

In the other case, pretrial motions are scheduled to resume Wednesday in front of Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan in the case of defendant Jimmy Siackasorn. He is accused in the Dec. 19, 2007, shooting death of Sacramento sheriff's Det. Vu Nguyen.

According to testimony at Siackasorn's October 2008 preliminary hearing the defendant was standing outside a house in south Sacramento waiting to buy marijuana when Vu, an anti-gang detective, drove up on him with a partner. When Nguyen got out of the car to make contact with Siackasorn, a suspected member of the Tiny Rascals Gangster, the defendant ran. The detective was shot and killed in the ensuing foot pursuit that took him into neighboring back yards.

Testimony also started today in the murder trial of Daniel James Norman, 43. Norman is accused of aiding and abetting David Kenneth Hamilton in the April 20, 2008, robbery murder of Wilbur Reynolds, 76, in the Foothill Farms area.

Hamilton, 39, was shot and killed by a Sacramento sheriff's detective who was looking for him after the Reynolds slaying. Authorities said Hamilton had refused the detective's order to stop and then made a move for what the officer thought was a weapon. It turned out that Hamilton was unarmed.

Judge Steve White is presiding over the Norman trial.

Pretrial motions also are scheduled to continue Thursday in the murder trial of Carolyn Marie Simmons, 53. She is accused in the June 17, 1991, stabbing death of Richard Jackson, 66, in an apartment near Stockton Boulevard and Fruitridge Road. Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard will preside.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The prosecutor suggested today that Joseph Skates lost his temper when 3-year-old Manuel "Manny" Maciel had a potty training accident and that's why the man hit, kicked or slammed the boy so hard that he killed him.

In closing arguments in Skates' second-degree murder, trial, the defendant's lawyer countered that his client didn't do anything to hurt the boy, whom he considered his own, and that the district attorney was speculating about what happened inside a North Natomas apartment the day Manny was fatally injured on Nov. 7, 2008. Manny was taken to UC Davis Medical Center where he died two days later.

Arguments were scheduled to continue this afternoon before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley sends the jury away to deliberate.

Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet told jurors that a coroner's autopsy determined that Manny died of blunt-force injuries to the head and that his internal organs were "crushed" against his spine from an additional abdominal injury he suffered.

Bladet said it took "an adult man, using his hands, fist, and foot, who is frustrated, angry, and out of control" to "create that force." There was another adult male in the house at the time the boy is believed to have been injured, but Bladet said that Skates, testifying in his own defense last week, said that the other man was asleep.

Holding up the blue one-piece pajamas Manny wore the day he was hurt, Bladet said that the clothing was soaked in urine when authorities found it in a bedroom in the Zurlo Way apartment where the defendant was staying with his girlfriend and her three sons.

The prosecutor said that potty-training accidents are "the kind of thing that make people lose it."

Bladet also hammered on the 30 minutes it took for the 25-year-old defendant to call anybody from the time he discovered that the boy was hurt. Skates never called 911.

In his argument, defense attorney Jesse Ortiz told the jury, "You're being asked to speculate. You're being asked to guess about what might have happened because (prosecutors) say it happened."

Ortiz said that Skates loved Manny and his brothers and that he became attached to them. He showed the jury pictures that Skates and his girlfriend, Rosalie Uribe, took of the three smiling boys in a pumpkin patch less than two weeks before Manny died and another one of the boys dressed in Halloween costumes a week before the death.

"Those were Joseph's boys," Ortiz said. "He got them ready. He got them their costumes."

The defense lawyer said Skates "panicked" after he found the injured Manny on the floor of the apartment and that he "had no idea what to do."

"He wishes he could tell you why he didn't do more, but that's what happened," Ortiz said.

Ortiz has previously suggested that Manny sustained his head injuries by falling off a couch or that they were inflicted by somebody else. He argued today that it was a California Highway Patrol officer in his efforts to administer aid to Manny the morning he was hurt who inflicted the crushing abdominal injuries.

The officer "didn't know what he was doing," Ortiz argued.

Previous coverage:

Failure to call 911 cited at trial in death - Feb. 5, 2010

Mom of slain boy testifies at boyfriend's murder trial - Feb. 2, 2010

Sacramento man goes on trial in death of boy, 3 - Jan. 29, 2010

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Jurors began deliberations today in the murder trial of the man accused in the midtown shooting death of a woman who was driving home with her girlfriend after a night on the town.

Dominick Theado West is the defendant in the case involving the June 2, 2007, killing of Mary Ourk on 12th and W streets. Ourk, 21, was acting as the designated driver after her group of friends left the Empire night club.

Authorities say that West, 28, pulled up next to Ourk's car and shot her in the neck. They said that earlier in the evening, he brandished a weapon at a man outside another club.

Two ex-girlfriends testified against West in the Sacramento Superior Court trial. Both said he admitted to them that he did the shooting.

West testified in the trial that the two women lied and that he didn't do it.

Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard gave the jury its instructions today after Deputy District Attorney Jeff Ritschard and defense lawyer Michael Long completed their closing arguments Monday.

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

Previous coverage:

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

From Hudson Sangree

A couple of dead deer could buy two Sacramento men up to the three years in prison each in a poaching case.

Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig today announced the Oct. 1 convictions of Andrew Thao and Ernest Lytell for deer poaching and other crimes.

The crimes occurred in November 2007, when the men led Yolo County Sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase to West Sacramento, according to a statement by the prosecutor's office.

When the truck was finally stopped, the occupants fled, the statement said. Deputies found two large buck deer in the back along with rifles, ammunition and a spotlight.

Three out of four suspects were quickly caught. One was a juvenile; a fourth remains at large, prosecutors said.

Jurors convicted Thao and Lytell of fish-and-game violations, resisting arrest and other crimes, according to Reisig's office.

They each face a maximum of three years in prison when they are sentenced later this month.

"Crimes against wildlife are taken seriously in Yolo County," Clinton Parish, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said in the statement. "This is a matter of public safety as well as protecting our environment."

From Andy Furillo:

A Sacramento jury today found a second defendant guilty in last year's south area robbery murder of a 33-year-old Vallejo man.

Prosecutors identified Curtis Level Chapman, 21, as the gunman in the Nov. 26 shooting death of David Joshua Barreda, whose body was found in the trunk of his car on 40th Street.

A separate jury last week convicted Chapman's co-defendant, Richard Antonio Hundley, 20, of murder for being an accomplice to the robbery slaying.

Hundley's mother, Tammy Renee Turney, 49, is awaiting trial in the case.

According to evidence at trial, Barreda was enticed to a party at Chapman's house on Mendocino Avenue the night before he was shot and killed. Prosecutors said the suspects took Barreda's car keys so he couldn't leave, then shot him the next morning as part of the robbery before putting his body in the trunk of his car and driving it a few blocks away where it was later discovered.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette set an Oct. 16 sentencing date on Hundley and Chapman.

From Andy Furillo:

Closing arguments got under way today in the case of two men accused of murder in the beating death of a 90-year-old woman three years ago in North Sacramento.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene said that the victim, Marie Oliver, had lived a good life, "and when you live a good life, your life shouldn't come to a brutal, tortuous end."

He characterized the defendants charged with her April 15, 2006, killing as "downright evil."

At one point in his closing argument for defendant Daniel Alan Russell, Greene took the woman's cane that he said the defendants used in their attack on her and demonstrated how they beat her with it.

"Whack, whack, whack," Greene said. "This is what they did, simply because they could."

Russell, 19, and his co-defendant, Calvin Eugene Pearson, 20, also are charged with burglary and robbery. The two counts also comprise special circumstance allegations against the defendants that could put them in jail for life with no chance of parole if they are convicted.

Greene ridiculed Russell's testimony that he admitted to police homicide investigators that he participated in the attack in order to protect an older brother.

"Please," Greene said. "The reason the defendant got on the stand and came up with that ridiculous story is because he's got nothing to lose."

Defense attorney Jo Ann Harris in turn argued that Russell's testimony was plausible and unrebutted by the prosecution.

She also implored the jury to accept Russell's testimony that his DNA was found inside gloves discovered at the murder scene because he had worn them during an aborted burglary attempt at Oliver's residence four days before she was killed.

She said the victim's blood was found on Russell's clothing because he had lent it to his brother before the attack on Oliver. Russell testified that his brother later returned the clothing to him.

Harris told the jury to discount the passion expressed by the prosecutor in his description of the victim and the injuries she suffered on the night she was killed.

"Every person in this room has a grandmother," Harris said. "I can understand the passion (Greene) feels. But any passion Mr. Greene projects to you is not a passion that the laws permits you to take on as your own."

From Andy Furillo:

Closing arguments got under way today in the case of two men accused of murder in the beating death of a 90-year-old woman three years ago in North Sacramento.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene said that the victim, Marie Oliver, had lived a good life, "and when you live a good life, your life shouldn't come to a brutal, tortuous end."

He characterized the defendants charged with her April 15, 2006, killing as "downright evil."

At one point in his closing argument for defendant Daniel Alan Russell, Greene took the woman's cane that he said the defendants used in their attack on her and demonstrated how they beat her with it.

"Whack, whack, whack," Greene said. "This is what they did, simply because they could."

Russell, 19, and his co-defendant, Calvin Eugene Pearson, 20, also are charged with burglary and robbery. The two counts also comprise special circumstance allegations against the defendants that could put them in jail for life with no chance of parole if they are convicted.

Greene ridiculed Russell's testimony that he admitted to police homicide investigators that he participated in the attack in order to protect an older brother.

"Please," Greene said. "The reason the defendant got on the stand and came up with that ridiculous story is because he's got nothing to lose."

Defense attorney Jo Ann Harris in turn argued that Russell's testimony was plausible and unrebutted by the prosecution.

She also implored the jury to accept Russell's testimony that his DNA was found inside gloves discovered at the murder scene because he had worn them during an aborted burglary attempt at Oliver's residence four days before she was killed.

She said the victim's blood was found on Russell's clothing because he had lent it to his brother before the attack on Oliver. Russell testified that his brother later returned the clothing to him.

Harris told the jury to discount the passion expressed by the prosecutor in his description of the victim and the injuries she suffered on the night she was killed.

"Every person in this room has a grandmother," Harris said. "I can understand the passion (Greene) feels. But any passion Mr. Greene projects to you is not a passion that the laws permits you to take on as your own."

From Andy Furillo:

Accused murderer Daniel Alan Russell took the witness stand in his own defense today and tried to throw responsibility for the beating death of a 90-year-old woman three years ago onto his half-brother.

Russell, 19, testified that he lent the shoes that criminalists have linked to the murder scene to Steven Bedal, a half-brother of the defendant. According to court documents, Bedal told police shortly after the April 15, 2006, homicide of Marie Oliver on Ellen Street in North Sacramento that Russell and his co-defendant, Calvin Eugene Pearson, also 19, told him the day of the killing that they planned to rob the woman. Russell and Pearson have separate juries.

In his Sacramento Superior Court testimony today, Russell said Bedal had been living at times "on the street" and that he "wasn't doing financially well" when he approached him the day Oliver was killed on the Saturday before Easter.

"He asked me for some clothes," Russell testified.

Russell said he lent Bedal a sweater, some blue jeans, and a pair of basketball shoes. Criminalists said they lifted treads similar to those shoes from the crime scene, and that they also found the victim's blood on the same footwear.

Bedal gave the clothing back to him "before dawn on Sunday."

Bedal has not testified in the case.

Prosecutors say Russell and Pearson beat Oliver to death during the course of a robbery and burglary of the woman's home. Besides the forensic evidence, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene also presented videotape to Pearson's jury where the two defendants described to investigators how they killed Oliver.

Russell's jury did not hear the statements, but did view a portion of the videotape where Russell and Pearson discussed what the consequences might be for the crime. Russell told Pearson in that portion of the tape, "We should have been smarter about it."

Russell testified today that he and a person he did not identify went to Oliver's house the Tuesday before the homicide with the intent to burglarize it. He said that the two of them left after they couldn't get inside the residence. He said they decided that "for us to do this was not the right thing, and it felt bad, so we left."

He told the two juries that he met Oliver the previous year and cut her grass about four or five times. His face reddened and he sniffled slightly on the stand when Russell testified that on the days he and a friend worked in her yard, "Miss Oliver offered me and my friend something to drink, and she allowed me to use the restroom."

"She was nice," Russell said.

From Andy Furillo:

"They didn't have to kill her," Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene told the first of two juries he addressed in his opening statements today in the murder trials of two Sacramento teenagers accused of beating 90-year-old Marie Oliver to death three years ago with her own cane.

The prosecutors delivered his brief but dramatic remarks in front of a backdrop of autopsy photos on the courtroom screen of Oliver, who was killed by blunt force trauma in a burglary-robbery attack that authorities say was administered by Calvin Eugene Pearson, 20, and Daniel Alan Russell, 19.

The defendants were both 16 at the time of Oliver's April 15, 2006, death inside her home in the 2700 block of Ellen Street.

"The evidence will show they did not have to kill her," Greene told the Russell jury. The prosecutor said "they killed Miss Oliver for one reason and one reason only: because they could. Simply because they could. They beat her, they beat her and they beat her....They beat her to death simply because they could. Simple case, simple facts, first-degree murder."

Greene told the Pearson jury, "They beat her with her own cane." Then he said it again, "They beat her with her own cane. They punched her. They kicked her, and killed her."

The prosecutor said the defendants planned the killing "a few days before" they executed it.

"They took her money, her jewelry and her briefcase," Greene said. "They laugh about it, talk about it, how they should have been more careful. They do everything but say they're sorry for what they did."

Russell's lawyer, Jo Ann Harris, asked her jury to "keep an open mind" in the case and to "listen closely to the evidence." She said she will ask the panel to acquit her client at the end of trial.

Pearson's attorney, Russell W. Miller, withheld his opening statement.

The Sacramento Superior Court case is being held in front of Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard.

From Cynthia Hubert:

A judge today has ordered a Feb. 1 trial date in San Joaquin Superior Court in the case of four people accused of ritualistically torturing a teenage boy.

Michael Schumacher and his wife, Kelly Lau, are accused of chaining, beating, burning and otherwise abusing the teen known publicly only as Kyle Doe while he lived in their home in Tracy.

Also facing charges are the couple's neighbor, Anthony Waiters; and Caren Ramirez, with whom the youth previously lived in the Sacramento area.

In a 1,000-page grand jury transcript released in June, dozens of witnesses described horrific neglect and abuse inflicted on the teen.

The boy freed himself in early December and, with a shackle still dangling from his leg, ran to a nearby Tracy health club, where employees phoned authorities.

From Bill Lindelof:

Prosecutors filed a motion today to try 14-year-old Tylar Marie Witt as an adult in the homicide of her mother in El Dorado County.

"We have filed a fitness petition for her to be deemed not fit for juvenile court," said El Dorado Chief Assistant District Attorney Bill Clark.

The motion on whether she will be tried as an adult or a juvenile is scheduled to be heard Aug. 24. The juvenile court appearance in Placerville by Witt today took only about 15 minutes.

Witt and her 19-year-old boyfriend, Steven Paul Colver, are suspects in the killing of Joanne M. Witt.

From Chelsea Phua:

Jurors were unable to reach a conclusion today in the case of an off-duty Sacramento sheriff sergeant accused of driving drunk when he was pulled over by a Roseville police officer in 2007.

The deliberation continues Thursday in Placer County Superior Court.

Christopher D. Guerrero, 42, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or higher.

Guerrero's case sparked a public outcry because he was allowed a ride home the night of Oct. 4, 2007, without being arrested or cited.

He was charged days later, after news of the incident leaked to the media. Two sheriff's officers following Guerrero in another vehicle reportedly yelled at the Roseville officer not to arrest Guerrero and threatened a "war" if he did.

A sheriff's department spokesman said Guerrero and the two officers are still employed at the agency.

From Sandy Louey:

A 31-year-old Sacramento man has been convicted of carjacking a man sitting in his truck at the Merritt Landing boat ramp south of Clarksburg.

Miguel Angel Castillo was convicted March 13 of carjacking with a firearm and faces a maximum of 19 years in state prison, according to a press release from the Yolo County District Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 13.

During the jury trial, the victim testified that he was sitting in his truck on July 30, 2007 when Castillo approached him with a sawed-off shotgun, the release said. Castillo put the shotgun barrel through the driver's door window and told the man to get out of the truck if he didn't want to die, the release said.

The victim exited the vehicle and Castillo drove away, the release said. The victim waved down two fishermen nearby and used their cell phone to call police.

Officers with the Sacramento Police Department responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle on Aug. 8 and saw Castillo running from the stolen truck, the release said. Officers didn't catch Castillo until Aug. 10 when he was arrested in Sacramento after being contacted in another stolen vehicle, the release said.

A Yolo County jury has convicted a 33-year-old Woodland man in connection with the 2005 murder of his mother-in-law.

Eric Joseph Hudson was convicted Tuesday on second-degree murder, personal use of a weapon in the commission of a felony and first-degree burglary for the slaying of his mother-in-law, Yvonne Powell, according to a press release from the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.

Hudson faces a maximum of 22 years to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 22, the release said.

On July 14, 2005, Hudson went to her home on Fourth Street. He and the victim argued and he used an expandable baton to club her several times in the head, the release said. He then locked the door and left her to die, the release said.

Hudson and his wife, Amy, had been living in a house Powell owned until a few weeks before the murder.

The Hudsons had moved out of the home because of a strained relationship with Powell and they were living out of their car, the release said.

In the week after the murder, Amy Hudson disposed of the clothing that her husband was wearing at the time of the murder by tossing it into trash bins and along the highway between Woodland and Yuba City. She also disassembled the weapon and threw it into irrigation canals, the release said.

Powell's body wasn't found until a week later on July 21 when officers performed a welfare check. Eric Joseph Hudson was at the Woodland Memorial Hospital where he had been treated since July 18 for self-inflicted wounds from apparent suicide attempts, the release said.

Amy Hudson was sentenced Oct. 10 to three years of probation and one year in county jail for her conviction of being an accessory after the fact, the release said.

From Andy Furillo:

The man who was with Jesse Reiter just before the Woodland resident was shot dead on a Sacramento street testified today that he heard a skirmish and a demand for money before the sound of a shotgun blast sent him into a "panic."

Michael Boyd told a Sacramento Superior Court jury that he and Reiter had gone down to Valley Lark Drive in search of "strippers" after a night of drinking and snorting cocaine.

He said they were seated in his Jeep just before 5 a.m. on March 24, 2007, when they saw a car pull up behind them. He testified that Reiter got out of the Jeep to talk to the people who drove up to arrange the meeting between the strippers and the two men.

Then, Boyd testified, somebody snatched the keys out of the ignition of his car, just seconds before the shooting.

"I was saying, 'This is not good, this is going to end badly,'" Boyd, 33, a former high school teacher, testified under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet.

In the next instant, "I heard, 'Give me all your money;' then I heard a skirmish, and then a gunshot go off," Boyd testified.

Boyd testified in the murder trial of Rashad Delrico Mack, 22, the alleged gunman in the shooting death of Reiter, and Ulysses Peter Walker, 21, the defendant who prosecutors say set up the robbery.

Although Boyd said he did not see the shooter, he identified Walker as the man who grabbed the keys out of the car.

He testified that Reiter, 36, had met Walker earlier in the evening, outside the Club Fantasy strip club on Richards Boulevard, which Boyd said that he and the victim had frequented.

After the shooting, Boyd said he got out of his car and ran up the driveway of a house, looking to keep from getting shot himself. He then ran into a backyard before coming back to where Reiter had been shot and calling 911 on his cell phone.

"It all happened so fast," Boyd testified. "I was in shock at the time."

He said he came back to the car after the gunmen left and that "Jesse was screaming, 'They shot me, they shot me.'"

Boyd said he took off his sweatshirt and applied it to Reiter's right thigh, where he had been shot in the femoral artery. He said he took off his belt and tried to apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He said authorities arrived within five to ten minutes of his 911 call to take Reiter to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:59 a.m.

Click here to read previous story.

From Andy Furillo:

One jury is out and two more are deep into the testimony in three murder trials that resume today in Sacramento Superior Court.

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday in the case of Robert Ray Hon, who is accused in the Jan. 30, 2003, asphyxiation death of Vicki Jo Harris.

Meanwhile, the panel in the Kier Leelani Anderson trial will begin hearing its seventh day of testimony.

Anderson is accused of killing his wife, Jennifer Anderson, in February 2005 and trying to make it look like a suicide.

The Roland Gallego jury will go into its 18th day of work in his murder trial.

Gallego is accused in the 1991 slaying of his aunt, Leticia Estores.