blindelof@sacbee.com

Sacramento fire authorities say the cause of a blaze that swept through a south-area Sikh temple is suspicious.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District firefighters responded to the blaze at the Sikh house of worship about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

The temple, originally built as a house and later converted into a Sikh temple is on the 7600 block of Rangeview Lane, near Highway 99 and Stockton Boulevard.

Two rooms in the structure were burning when firefighters arrived.

Firefighters searched the building after quickly extinguishing the blaze. The lone occupant escaped after being awakened by a smoke detector, said fire district spokesman Capt. Rusty Dupray.

The fire remains under investigation, and an arson investigator has determined that the fire is suspicious, officials said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been notified.

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

The suspect is described as age 27, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 165 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

He was last known to live in the 4000 block of 43rd Street in Sacramento.

Woodland police arrested a 13-year-old Lee Middle School student after the boy allegedly detonated a homemade destructive device in a school restroom Thursday afternoon.

The restroom was unoccupied and no one was injured, authorities said.

Police said the boy allegedly had detonated two other devices in previous incidents, which were not reported. One detonation allegedly happened in the rear of the Big Lots store on West Court Street and the other near the Franciscan Apartments on West Cross Street.

Thursday's event unfolded when firefighters were called to the school at about 1:20 p.m. for what was believed to be the detonation of fireworks inside a bathroom. Police officers later interviewed students and found out that the 13-year-old had detonated the homemade device in a restroom while school was in session.

Officers also later found materials to make the device inside the student's backpack, police said.

The boy was booked into Yolo County Juvenile Hall, where he is being held on three felony counts of possession of a destruction device while at school and while in a place open to the public.

kminugh@sacbee.com

Lake County authorities said today that a couple whose bodies were found at the bottom of a roadside embankment last week had been shot, but the final cause of death still remains unclear until further test results are returned.

Autopsies on Frank and Yvette Maddox were performed Wednesday. The condition of their bodies, which authorities believed had been at the bottom of the embankment for several weeks, kept authorities from making further findings about the cause and manner of their death, according to a Lake County Sheriff's Department news release.

The Maddoxes are from Maine but moved to Lake County several months ago to assist their employer, 29-year-old Robby Alan Beasley, with a marijuana operation, according to authorities.

Beasley remains a "person of interest" in their deaths and is in custody for an unrelated warrant out of Maine, where he also is from.

According to the release, authorities have learned that Frank Maddox's pickup, which has been missing, might have been dismantled for parts. They are in the process of recovering what parts they can, the release states.

A white, middle-aged couple were found guilty Thursday in Sacramento federal court of interfering with the right of an east Indian man to be in a public area at South Lake Tahoe because of his ethnic origin and the color of his skin.

A jury deliberated approximately 90 minutes before delivering its verdict against Georgia Silva, 52, and husband Joseph Silva, 56.

Vishal Wadhwa, 40, a naturalized U. S. citizen and bank executive from San Francisco, testified the Silvas beat him viciously in a picnic area 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.

Wadhwa said Matthews, 31, told him Georgia Silva said "Indian sluts" and another derogatory comment as Matthews and her teenage cousin, both of east Indian descent, walked by where the Silvas were sitting on a Lake Tahoe beach.

When he confronted the couple, Wadhwa said, Joseph Silva exploded in expletives, and said, "I'll put you down."

Wadhwa retreated to the picnic area above the beach and was phoning police when the couple caught up with him and the dispute turned into a physical altercation, with the Silvas uttering racial epithets even as they beat him, he told the jury. According to the testimony of Wadhwa, Matthews, and other witnesses, Wadhwa was pinned to the ground by Georgia Silva while her husband administered several hard kicks to his head.

He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and suffered lasting damage to his head, Wadhwa testified.

The jury acquitted the Silvas of interfering with Matthews' right to be at the public beach and picnic grounds.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested a man who allegedly secretly videotaped the lower half of the body of a woman in a grocery store, according to a crime summary released this week.

Dwaine Harris was booked in jail on suspicion of violating a section of the penal code that prohibits secretly videotaping someone without their consent, deputies said.

Here's how deputies said events unfolded:

On March 6 at about 2:46 p.m., deputies were called to a supermarket in the 4100 block Elverta Road on a report of male adult secretly videotaping women.

Deputies spotted a man resembling the suspect's description leaving the store and detained him. Store employees also identified the man as the suspect, the report states.

Deputies reported that they found on the suspect a "small camcorder slung under his shoulder under his shirt."

Deputies played the video and it showed the suspect following a woman and videotaping the lower half of her body, according to the summary.

"The woman was not aware of the video and did not give her consent to being videotaped," the deputies reported.

kminugh@sacbee.com

The 55-year-old sexually violent predator arrested Wednesday after allegedly twice visiting Del Campo High School was released today on bail, online jail records indicate.

Hugh Levell Stewart, left, was being held on $5,000 bail. He has a criminal record dating back to when he was 11 and has a history of rapes, sexual assaults and stays in two of California's mental hospitals for sex offenders, a prosecutor told The Bee today.

Stewart, a 5-foot, 7-inch, 150-pound registered sex offender, had been sent to Atascadero State Hospital in June 1979 as a mentally disordered sex offender after he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in Alameda County in 1978, said Stephen Taylor, a veteran prosecutor with the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, who has handled Stewart's cases for years.

That was one of numerous rape or sexual assault cases involving Stewart as he bounced from prison to hospital to prison and, eventually, won his freedom after two Stockton juries were unable to agree on whether he remained a threat to the public.

In a jailhouse interview with The Bee, Stewart said today he never stepped foot on the Del Campo High School campus. He said he doesn't even know where it is.

"I haven't got a clue about what happened at that school," he said.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, on which he had drawn a cross over his left breast, Stewart said he's been a law-abiding citizen since his release from state hospital. He said he tries to find work where he can, hasn't touched alcohol or drugs since the 1990s and keeps to himself. He said he hasn't run afoul of anybody.

"I'm courteous even in my driving," he said.

Stewart was living with his sister in a Fair Oaks apartment without restrictions, other than a requirement that he register as a sex offender every 90 days.

Stockton prosecutors ended their efforts to keep Stewart held at the Coalinga State Hospital after the two hung juries, and he had no recent run-ins with the law until his arrest Wednesday.

Sheriff's officials say Stewart had been seen twice on the Del Campo campus, which was under scrutiny because of a series of recent attacks on students in the area. Stewart is not believed to be connected to those attacks but was arrested on charges of being on school grounds without lawful business and providing false information on his sex offender registry, both misdemeanors.

Stewart was at Atascadero and, later, Coalinga State Hospital, since 1999 and had sought his release through court hearings every two years. Before 2006, SVPs were allowed such regular hearings, which Taylor said allowed offenders to learn how to behave in front of juries.

"As time went on, of course, they got better and better and better," he said. "It was classroom work for them, so they learned and learned and learned."

State officials said Stewart's release from Coalinga came without restrictions on where he could live or go, although a state Supreme Court decision in February indicated that the 2,000-foot limit that keeps offenders away from schools and other areas with children -- Jessica's Law, approved by voters in 2006 -- could be applied retroactively to include Stewart and others with convictions pre-dating the law.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

Criminal history highlights

Hugh Levell Stewart, 55, has a long criminal history dating back to when he was 11. San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said court records show Stewart's first arrest was for burglary and that he was sent to the California Youth Authority as a ward of the court.

Since then, court records and officials say his offenses include:

• A petty theft arrest at age 13.

• An April 1970 charge of sodomy on a 9-year-old boy.

• A 1975 case in Alameda County where he forced his way into a home and tried to sexually assault a 24-year-old babysitter. She resisted and ran away, and Stewart was convicted of burglary.

• A May 1978 case in Alameda County where he assaulted an 11-year-old girl in an apartment complex carport. He was convicted and sent to Atascadero State Hospital in June 1979 as a mentally disordered sex offender. He was sent to prison from Atascadero in 1982 after doctors said he was not cooperating with treatment and was a danger to society.

• An April 1985 Alameda County case where he raped a 16-year-old babysitter who was watching four small children. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and paroled in 1991.

• A 1994 arrest on petty theft and traffic violations.

• A 1997 conviction for shoplifting a $2 item from a drug store across the street from the Stockton courthouse. That sent him to prison, and as he was being evaluated for release in 1999, he was deemed to be a sexually violent predator and sent to Atascadero.

Stewart later was transferred to Coalinga, winning release in recent years after two juries failed to agree on whether he remained a danger. (Dates of those trials were not immediately available today.)

- Sam Stanton and Kim Minugh

Adam Wheeler testified today that he couldn't believe what he was seeing four years ago when he saw a man hanging out of his car with a shotgun and then open fire on a police car in Elk Grove.

Wheeler's experience became even more surreal after the gunman rear-ended a truck, dropped his weapon, then got out, picked it up and pointed it in the witness's direction.

"He put a hood over his head - he was wearing a hooded sweater - picked up the gun and aimed it at our vehicle," said Wheeler, who was out on a date with his girlfriend, Stephanie Cartwright.

"I grabbed Stephanie's head and pulled it down, and the shot goes off, and I told her to punch it and take off," Wheeler said.

The blast shattered their windshield and sent a shard cutting into Wheeler's cornea. Wheeler has since recovered.

Police and prosecutors identified the gunman as Aaron Norman Dunn, 33, the defendant in the Sacramento Superior Court murder trial now under way in which he is accused of killing cameraman Johnie Ray Johnson, 46, and Xerox salesman Michael John Daly, 45.

Dunn also is accused of eight counts of attempted murder in the March 25, 2006, shooting spree on Laguna Boulevard in Elk Grove. Two of the counts are for the attack on Wheeler and his girlfriend.

The defendant's attorneys have conceded that he is responsible for the shooting deaths, but they contend he was delusional as a result of methamphetamine ingestion and that he's only guilty of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case.

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

Previous coverage:

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

Davis police said that a man was stabbed Wednesday night, possibly while walking in the area of East Covell Boulevard and Pole Line Road.

The man was not certain of the exact location of the attack because he is unfamiliar with Davis. However, he might have been walking on Chestnut Lane, police said.

The victim suffered wounds to his back, neck and chin that were not life-threatening. He told police three people attacked him, but he was unable to identify them.

The victim phoned a friend to take him to the hospital after he was attacked, police said.

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

A contractor who claimed he hadn't been paid properly for repair work was arrested after he tore an air conditioning unit from a homeowner's roof with a crane, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department crime summary released this week.

George Wallace, the contractor, was placed on a parole hold after the incident, the summary states.

Here is how deputies reported the incident unfolded:

Wallace said he had been dispute for months with a homeowner in the 1800 block of Elkhorn Boulevard over payment for repair work.

On March 5 at about 7:30 a.m., Wallace waited for the homeowner to leave and then used a crane service to remove a "fully functioning/installed air conditioning unit from the roof."

The process damaged the house's roof and connections to the unit, deputies reported.

Wallace was later arrested at his residence where a search found a .177 caliber BB/pellet rifle in his closet, a possible violation of the terms of his parole, deputies said.

In addition to the parole hold, deputies said they booked Wallace into jail on suspicion of grand theft and vandalism.

A 66-year-old Sacramento man who died after being struck by a vehicle in the Robla area of Sacramento has been identified by coroner's deputies.

The man, Allen M. Robinson, who was in a motorized wheelchair, was crossing east on Norwood north of Jessie outside of the crosswalk about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when the collision happened.

A 67-year-old motorist driving a white Subaru Outback was northbound on Norwood and struck the wheelchair, police said.

Robinson was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center where he died.

Police said the driver is cooperating with the investigation.

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

A 25-year-old woman was killed in a crash after making a U-turn on Interstate 80 in Auburn early this morning.

She was identified by the California Highway Patrol as Sandra A. Hauser of Newcastle.

Hauser was traveling west on eastbound I-80 near Maple Street about 2:30 a.m., the California Highway Patrol says.

She then made a U-turn and headed east, but her vehicle began to swerve, went off the road, hit a rock embankment and overturned.

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

A young man was shot on Mack Road this evening after a family fight over cash and a gun, according to police.

The man, in his early 20s, was shot three times in the groin, but his injuries are not life-threatening, said police Sgt. Norm Leong. The victim was taken to Kaiser Permanente's South Sacramento Medical Center for treatment.

About a week ago, police arrested the victim after finding him with a gun, Leong said. The man told officers it was his cousin's weapon and that he was trying to sell it for him.

Officers confiscated that gun, Leong said.

Today, the victim told police, he was confronted by his cousin and a friend, who were looking for money from selling the gun.

When he told them he did not have any money for them, one of them shot the victim, Leong said.

Officers are searching for the shooter.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

Sacramento police honored two residents today for what department leaders called their "brave actions" and "exemplary commitment to their community and to public safety."

Chief Rick Braziel presented a certificate to Steven Ueltzen and Ralph Martinez during a brief ceremony at department headquarters this afternoon.

Both men were recognized for actions they took last September.

According to police, Ueltzen was inside his home on the evening of Sept. 10 when he heard a woman screaming. He went outside to find a woman who had just been robbed of her purse.

The woman described her attackers, and Ueltzen found them, police said. He chased the suspects, who eventually escaped into an apartment complex.

Ueltzen then passed the information on to responding officers, who eventually located and arrested the suspects.

Five days later, Martinez was outside of his workplace, taking a break, when he saw a police officer attempting to arrest a suspect.

With handcuffs on one hand, the suspect became combative and, while attempting to flee, struck the officer in the face, police said.

The officer was knocked to the ground. He began wrestling the suspect, but the suspect was able to get on top of the officer, according to police.

Martinez ran to the officer to help, and got the suspect in a head lock. The three men ended up in a struggle, but Martinez continued fighting until other officers arrived, police said.

Braziel said in a prepared statement that his department is "proud and honored to have citizens like (Ueltzen and Martinez) in our community."

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

The man considered a "person of interest" in the deaths of a Maine couple whose bodies were found in Lake County last week now faces charges in connection with the marijuana operation he employed the couple to help him with, according to authorities.

Robby Alan Beasley, 29, is now facing charges of cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and maintaining a place for the unlawful sale of marijuana, according to a news release from the Lake County Sheriff's Department.

Beasley has been in custody since Saturday, when authorities arrested him on an unrelated, outstanding warrant out of Maine, where he is from, sheriff's Capt. Jim Bauman told The Bee earlier this week. He is ineligible for bail.

Beasley also remains a "person of interest" in the deaths of Frank and Yvette Maddox, whose bodies were found 20 feet down a roadside embankment by two motorists who stopped to take a break in Lake County, according to authorities.

The couple had moved from Maine several months ago to help Beasley with his marijuana operation in Lake County, Bauman said. Yvette Maddox was reported missing in late January, and Frank Maddox was reported missing in early February.

Authorities are asking for the public's help in finding Frank Maddox's pickup truck, which authorities suspect might have played a role in the couple's death.

Detectives have learned that a truck believed to be Frank Maddox's was reported to county code enforcers on Jan. 25, and has been seen several times since, the release states.

Most recently, the truck was seen parked on Spruce Grove Road near Noble Ranch Road on Feb. 23. It has since been moved.

The missing truck is described as a 1982 Toyota pick-up, either tan, beige, or pale yellow in color, with a black camper shell. Code enforcement photos further reveal that primer paint is exposed on the hood and roof areas and that the truck has oversized tires with chrome and gold wheels, a chrome brush guard on the front, and had California license plates of 1MHV850 at the time the photos were taken.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Unit at (707) 262-4200.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.

Previous coverage:

Maine man center of slaying investigation of couple in Lake County - March 9, 2010