Sex offender: Woman 'had to die'

Posted in Related Deaths

4-3-2012 California:

A self-described Satanist who drove his dead girlfriend to the Lake Elsinore sheriff's station last week admitted in a jailhouse interview Monday to strangling the woman.

Jason Richard Budrow, 30, a registered sex offender who lives in the unincorporated Good Hope area near Lake Elsinore, said he feared the 48-year-old woman was a police informant.

"She had to die," Budrow said.

Budrow is jailed on suspicion of murder at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley.

Resting his heavily tattooed arms on the counter in front of him and gazing through the glass divider into the visitors' room, Budrow spoke calmly as he described how he killed the woman.

She came over to his trailer behind a liquor store off Highway 74, he said. The woman, with whom he said he had a sexual relationship, got scared after realizing that he had "discovered her." She was on her way to her car when he strangled her about 2 or 3 a.m. Friday, Budrow said.

"I desecrated her body," he said, declining to elaborate.

Budrow said he shoved her body into the trunk of her white Chrysler Sebring convertible, then napped until his "curfew" -- an apparent reference to a parole requirement -- expired at 5 a.m.

Budrow said he drove away in the Sebring and at some point cut off the GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet that he must wear as a registered sex offender on parole.

"I murdered her while I was wearing that bracelet," he said.

Budrow declined to say what else he did in the hours before he arrived at the sheriff's station. If he had access to a gun, he said, he would have killed several other people. He did not explain why.

After pulling into the station parking lot and flagging someone down about 7:25 a.m., Budrow said he knelt on the pavement and put his hands in the air.

"I told them I had a body in my trunk," he said.

At first, he said, sheriff's officials were incredulous and asked if he was "playing games." He said they thought the trunk might have been booby trapped.

Budrow said he believed undercover law enforcement officers had been watching his every move and that he turned himself in because he was convinced they would eventually catch him.

The woman, Budrow said, knew he was involved in drug dealing and pimping and he thought she was going to reveal the names of "important people."

Sheriff's officials have said Budrow showed up at the sheriff's station and told a sergeant there was a body in the trunk. They declined to comment Monday on Budrow's statements.

Coroner's officials have not released the woman's name. Sheriff's officials said only that she was dating Budrow.

Capt. Dave Fontneau said that, so far, there is no indication the woman was sexually assaulted. He declined to say how she was killed.

Fontneau said an autopsy is scheduled for today.

'666'

Budrow said he has worked various jobs, including a stint selling time shares by phone. Riverside County court records show he served in the Army years ago but was discharged after testing positive for drugs.

The numbers "666" are tattooed above his right brow because he is a "Satanist," he said. At one point, Budrow lifted up his orange jail shirt to display a scar on his chest that he said was from ritual bloodletting.

While he hopes to spend the rest of his life leading an "Ozzie and Harriet" existence in a prison cell, Budrow said he's sure that he will be sentenced to death.

Budrow said he doesn't fear execution. He doesn't believe in an afterlife.

Though Budrow is on parole and a registered sex offender, his name, photo and other information did not appear Friday on the Megan's Law online database of registered sex offenders. By Monday, after sheriff's officials pointed out the omission, an entry was added. State Department of Justice officials could not explain Monday why Budrow was not listed.

Until Friday, sheriff's officials said Budrow had complied with his registration requirements. He had been checking in at the Lake Elsinore station since June 2006.

Budrow said he had been sent back to prison for parole violations, including a "rampage" at a halfway house. Terry Thornton, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman, declined to release details, saying the department gave the information to the Sheriff's Department. It was up to them to decide whether to disclose it, she said. Fontneau declined to do so on Monday.

Riverside County court records show Budrow pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexual penetration by force and was sentenced to three years in prison.

A probation officer's report says Budrow was staying with his grandparents in 2003 at a property they managed in Lakeland Village, near Lake Elsinore. He slipped into the bedroom of a 14-year-old neighbor one night and performed sex acts on the girl, court records say. The girl said she told him to stop but did not yell or resist out of fear for her safety, the report says.

Budrow told authorities he had been intoxicated from beer and marijuana, that he thought the girl was 17 and the encounter was consensual.

"He said if he did not confess, he could not live with himself, or run from the truth," the report says.

The probation officer wrote that Budrow would have been suitable for probation had he been eligible. He had no prior convictions and "demonstrated what appeared to be sincere remorse for his offense," the report says.

At the property where the sex assault occurred, his uncle, Eric Sisneros, said Monday he hasn't seen much of Budrow since his nephew got out of prison. Still, he couldn't believe he was capable of murder.

"He was always a gentle, kind person," Sisneros said. "Timid." ..Source.. by SARAH BURGE | The Press-Enterprise

Killings of 2 men based on 'total bogus lie,' Sacramento prosecutor tells jury

Posted in Related Deaths

4-13-2011 California:

Priscilla Ramirez did have a bruise on her eye, police and prosecutors said, and she did cry with conviction when she called her cousin on the phone and asked him to pick her up near Florin Road.

She told Philip Perez Gonzales Jr. and his pal, Michael Lee Armstrong, that her boyfriend had raped her and beat her, according to authorities.

Now she wanted Gonzales and Armstrong to deliver a little payback, they said, and she got in the car and took them to her boyfriend's place at the Seavey Circle housing project.

There was one big problem with Ramirez's rape story.

It was "a complete and total bogus lie," Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall told a Sacramento Superior Court jury Tuesday.

Kindall's comment came in his closing argument in the Gonzales-Armstrong murder trial.

Desert Hot Springs man sentenced to life in prison in rape rumor case

8-15-2011 California:

A Desert Hot Springs man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Monday for gunning down a friend over what turned out to be a false rape rumor.

Concepcion Rodriguez, 35, was convicted April 28 of the 2006 killing of Anastacio “Taquito” Torres, with a special circumstance allegation of murder in the commission of a kidnapping.

Co-defendant Mingus Chavarria, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in May to 15 years to life in prison.

Several of the victim's family members were on hand for Rodriguez's sentencing at Larson Justice Center in Indio.

“On behalf of my family, I want to thank the court for bringing us justice,” said Ernest Torres Jr., the victim's brother. “And we pray to God he has mercy on Mr. Rodriguez. We pray he finds the Lord in prison.”

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Richard A. Erwood denied defense attorney Demitra Tolbert's new trial and acquittal motions, and a request that Rodriguez not be required to pay restitution to the victim's family.

Man allegedly kills neighbor with MS

This is another case of "death by sexual circumstances."

10-6-2010 California:

A Fullerton man strangled his neighbor, who had muscular sclerosis, because he caught his 18-year-old son in bed with the 43- year-old woman, and then dumped her body in San Bernardino County nearly three years ago, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

However, Guillermo Rodriguez's attorney told jurors in opening statements of the 43-year-old man's murder trial that the evidence will not show his client killed Donna Dutton, and that a more likely suspect could be the defendant's son.

Guillermo Rodriguez Sr. is charged with murder, criminal threats and dissuading a witness from testifying.

Rodriguez threw a party Oct. 15 at the Streams apartment complex at 1251 Deerpark Drive where he worked as a maintenance man and lived with his two sons, including Guillermo Rodriguez Jr., and his girlfriend at the time, Deena Derouchey, Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy said.

Rodriguez was dating Derouchey while he was still married to Christina Rodriguez, whom he had previously lived with in Victorville near where Dutton's body was dumped, McGreevy said.

Dutton and Rodriguez were friends and the victim brought along her daughter, who was 12 at the time, to the party, McGreevy said.

Rodriguez's attorney, Associate Public Defender Hector Chaparro, said Rodriguez was celebrating because after years of effort he had won back custody of his sons. The attorney did not say why the boys were in protective custody.

Dutton, who had been smoking medical marijuana that night and was drinking, got drunk at the party but didn't stay for dinner, McGreevy said. About 10 p.m., she got into an argument with her husband, Daniel, and went back to Rodriguez's party, the prosecutor said.
The Fullerton police were called sometime after midnight because the party grew so rowdy. Still, about 1 a.m., Rodriguez and his girlfriend went to a nearby liquor store to get more beer, McGreevy said.

They weren't able to get any more liquor at the store, but when they returned Rodriguez saw his son coming out of the bedroom zipping up his pants, McGreevy said. Dutton was in the bedroom nude, the prosecutor added.

"Donna argued with him and said she was going to call protective services," McGreevy said, adding that's when Rodriguez told his son and girlfriend to leave the room.

Dutton could be heard screaming for help and saying, "I just want to go home," McGreevy said.

"The defendant took off his belt, wrapped it around her neck and strangled her until she died," McGreevy said, adding Rodriguez warned the others not to say anything.

The next day when Derouchey returned from work, Rodriguez made his son and girlfriend help put the body in the car, McGreevy said. Then Rodriguez and Derouchey drove up to the Victorville area with body where it was dumped, McGreevy said.

Five days later, hunters found Dutton's body next to Highway 138 in rural Devore in San Bernardino County, McGreevy said.

Fullerton police interviewed Rodriguez, his son and Derouchey multiple times from October through March 2007, McGreevy said. In December 2006 Rodriguez allegedly confessed to his wife at a Fullerton Laundromat, and she went to authorities in March 2007, the prosecutor said.

Rodriguez is also charged with trying to persuade his wife to not cooperate with authorities, and a phone call the prosecutor said will prove that will be played for the jury, McGreevy said.

In May 2007, Derouchey agreed to testify for the prosecution when she was granted immunity from being charged as an accessory to the murder, McGreevy said. Rodriguez was arrested May 31, 2007, and his son pleaded guilty Jan. 8, 2008, to being an accessory to the murder and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of formal probation.

Chaparro told jurors they cannot depend on the testimony of Derouchey and Rodriguez Jr. because they both cut deals with prosecutors. He suggested that after several interviews with police, the two just told investigators what they wanted to hear to escape murder charges.

Chaparro said Dutton was prone to mood swings and explosions of anger because of her disease and her drinking and drug use. The defense attorney said she seduced Rodriguez Jr. as they smoked "a bowl or two" of marijuana.

Rodriguez Jr. did not tell police initially that he had sex with Dutton because he was afraid they'd view him as a suspect, Chaparro said. The defense attorney said police threatened him with a rape charge if he didn't cooperate.

Derouchey's testimony is equally suspect, Chaparro said.

"She didn't go to police and say she had a change of heart, I lied," Chaparro said.

Instead, she went to an attorney, composed a statement to police and then regurgitated investigators' theory of what happened when Dutton was killed, Chaparro said.

Jurors should be skeptical of Christina Rodriguez as well because she wasn't a witness to the slaying and she had an unusual relationship with her husband and his girlfriend Derouchey.

Before the murder, Christina Rodriguez left the Fullerton apartment with her two daughters when she learned of her husband's affair, Chaparro said.

"She was not happy about this -- upset, jealous," Chaparro said.

After Dutton's murder, Derouchey, who was a rental agent at the apartment complex, was fired from her job along with Rodriguez because they violated rules against co-workers dating, the defense attorney said.

The two then went to live elsewhere in Fullerton and for some reason Christina Rodriguez went to live with them and Rodriguez's four sons, Chaparro said.

Rodriguez told his wife about the murder because he was attempting to woo back Christina, who wanted Derouchey out, and Rodriguez wanted to protect his son, Chaparro said.

"He was so very intent on not letting them get taken away that he would do whatever it took to protect his sons," Chaparro said.

"At the end of the day, the question is going to be, `Is the right person on trial?' " Chaparro said. ..Source.. Contra Costa Times

Ex-locals charged in slayings of Augusta pair

Posted in Related Deaths

12-16-2010 California:

Two former central Maine men jailed on drug charges in California now are facing charges of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of an Augusta couple who reportedly moved there to help with a marijuana operation.

Robby Alan Beasley, 30, formerly of Augusta, and Elijah Bae McKay, 28, a former state champion wrestler from Gardiner Area High School, are charged with murdering Frank Maddox, 32, and his wife, Yvette Colon Maddox, 40, according to information from Capt. James Bauman of California's Lake County Sheriff's Department.

A conviction on first-degree murder in California carries a sentence of 25 years to life.

The partially decomposed bodies of the Maddoxes were found March 4 at the bottom of an embankment in a rural area of northern California. The medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides, saying that the two suffered gunshots wounds before dying.

The couple had been staying in Clearlake, Calif., for several months.

One of Yvette Maddox's Maine relatives reported her missing on Jan. 28, and Frank Maddox was reported missing on Feb. 11.

Early in the investigation, Bauman said detectives learned that Beasley had hired the two and brought them to Lake County to work in a marijuana operation.

Beasley, who had moved to Clearlake, Calif., and lists his occupation as a painter, was arraigned on the murder charges Wednesday morning in Lake County; and McKay is to be arraigned today.

Beasley is scheduled to appear in court again Dec. 20.

Bauman indicated additional arrests are anticipated and that police are continuing the nine-month investigation.

Beasley was arrested March 6 in California on a Maine warrant charging him with violating probation by leaving the state without permission. He had been convicted of criminal threatening and felony assault in Kennebec County in June 2007 and remained on probation for those offenses.

He was questioned in connection with the Maddoxes' deaths, according to Bauman, and later charged with marijuana cultivation.

Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle later said that a second warrant was issued from Kennebec County, charging Beasley with violating probation by committing new criminal conduct.

A statement from Bauman on Wednesday says McKay became a person of interest about a week into the Maddox murder investigation.

McKay was arrested March 11 in Lake County, Calif., on marijuana cultivation, possession for sales and weapons charges and released the same day on $10,000 bail. He allegedly fled to Georgia and was brought back to the Lake County, Calif., jail where his bail was increased to $2 million.

The Lake County jail records show McKay was born in Santa Rosa, Calif., but he graduated from Gardiner Area High School in 2001.

In his senior year there, his 116 wins were the most ever by a Gardiner Area High School wrestler, and he was named wrestler of the year by Kennebec Journal sports writers.

In Bauman's statement about the murder charges, he gave no indication whether authorities had located Frank Maddox's 1982 pickup truck. They said earlier the vehicle was important to the investigation and had published two photographs of the truck taken by a local code enforcement officer on Feb. 2, when it was reported as an abandoned vehicle. The rusted, beige truck was to be towed, but it disappeared before the wrecker arrived.

The Maddoxes and Beasley have criminal records in central Maine dating back several years.

Published records show members of the Maine State Police tactical team arrested Beasley at his Pittston home in December 2002 after he allegedly fired several shots out of his home and at a guest's vehicle. A 17-year-old girl was injured in the incident.

He also was arrested in October 2005 after a standoff with police in Augusta.

Beasley was indicted in January 2007 on charges of threatening a woman with an AK-47 assault rifle in Vassalboro. He pleaded guilty to criminal threatening and assault and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 10 months suspended and two years' probation.

Beasley also was accused of trafficking in marijuana in 1999 in Gardiner.

Frank Maddox has convictions for unlawful sexual contact in 2001, possession of scheduled drugs and failing to comply with notification requirements of the Maine Sex Offender Registry, according to Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle. Maddox and Beasley were both sent to the Maine Correctional Center in Windham in 2007, and Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty indicated the men were in the prison at the same time.

Yvette Maddox served time in Kennebec County jail after pleading guilty to unlawful drug possession, Fowle said. She was sentenced in September 2005 to three years in jail, with all but 90 days suspended and two years' probation.

Published records show only one criminal conviction for McKay, for operating under the influence May 21, 2004, in Gardiner. McKay was fined $400 for the offense. ..Source.. by Betty Adams

Man fatally stabbed in Bell Gardens after fight involving teen girl

Posted in Related Deaths

5-11-2008 California:

Officials say the man was stabbed during a confrontation with the father and brother of the girl, 15, who said he had made sexual advances toward her.

A man was fatally stabbed Friday afternoon after he was confronted by the father and brother of a teenage girl who told them he had made sexual advances as she walked on a busy Bell Gardens street, authorities said today.

The stabbing took place about 3:43 p.m. in the 7700 block of Eastern Avenue near Clara Street shortly after the 15-year-old girl ran home and told her family she had just been accosted, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

Shortly after, they said, the girl's father and brother went out in search of the man. They apparently located him quickly and a fight broke out. During the fight the man was stabbed, authorities said.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro said no arrests had been made. Investigators have not determined who stabbed the man, he said. Bell Gardens police officers initially responded to the scene, Castro said.

The name of the man was not released pending notification of next of kin, county coroner's investigator Betsy Magdaleno said today.

It was unknown how the father and brother had identified the man as the one who allegedly accosted the teenager. Bell Gardens police declined to answer questions about the incident. A sheriff's deputy in the department's media relations office said she did not have more details to release. ..more.. by Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

---

The Homicide Report

Ricardo Cortez, 40, a Latino man, was stabbed in the 7715 Eastern Ave. in Bell Gardens about 3:45 p.m. Friday, May 9. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said Cortez was stabbed after he was confronted by the father and son of a teenage girl who told them that he had allegedly accosted her. Authorities said the 15-year-old girl was walking on Eastern Avenue when the man made "sexual advances." The girl ran home and told her family.

The father and son found Cortez and a fight ensued, during which Cortez was stabbed, authorities said. It was unclear how the father and son identified Cortez as the one who accosted the girl. Deputy Luis Castro said no arrests were made because investigators had not determined who stabbed Cortez. Bell Gardens police officers were the first on scene, Castro said. ..News Source.. by LA Times

CA- Trial begins for second defendant in Palermo slaying

Please note: These are copies of news articles, not opinions of this website. This news article reports, exactly what the police reported when the incident took place. The police reported "Dixon mistakenly thought Dills was a child molester." That is why we have this story tagged "Mistaken ID" which means the deceased IS NOT a child molester!

8-8-2008 California:

OROVILLE — Jurors Thursday began hearing evidence against a second man accused in a fatal shooting nearly two years ago of an Oroville teenager inside a moving car.

In opening statements, the prosecutor asked the seven-woman, five-man Butte County Superior Court jury to find Anthony Dean Dixon III, 23, guilty of the "senseless" and premeditated murder of Marlin John Dills, 18.

Dixon was quoted as admitting to sheriff's detectives that he suspected the teen of being a thief and a child molester and shot him several times as he lay asleep in the back seat of a car being driven by Freeman Kellison, 21, also of Oroville.

The teenager was shot eight times in the head, chest and one hand on Sept. 5, 2006, and his body was dumped along the side of a dirt road south of Palermo, where it was discovered the next morning by children on their way to school.

The defense contends it was Kellison who committed the murder and convinced Dixon, who he considered "a simpleton and a dummy," to take responsibility for the crime.

Dixon's lawyer, Jesus Rodriguez, pointed out to the jury it was Kellison who borrowed his grandmother's pistol the night of the fatal shooting, and tried to cover up the blood stains from the back seat of his vehicle and hide other evidence on her property the next day.

"Mr. Kellison had the motive, means and opportunity to kill John Dills," Dixon's attorney told the jury Thursday.

Last year, a separate Butte County jury hearing an identical first-degree murder charge against Kellison, hung 11-1 for acquittal.

Facing an unknown retrial, Kellison elected to plead no contest to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, for which he is now serving a three-year prison term.

Deputy district attorney Corie Caraway said she intends to call Kellison to testify against his co-defendant when Dixon's trial resumes today.

On the witness stand Thursday, sheriff's detective Daniel Angel said when questioned, Kellison admitted having discussed shooting Dills with Dixon the night of the killing.

Kellison claimed he asked his grandmother for her .22-caliber handgun for protection, after seeing several men clad in black garb pointing "laser weapons" at them earlier on her property, said the detective.

Kellison claimed Dixon, who he'd known since grade school, told him he was worried that if "something wasn't done" about the Oroville teen, those who were after him might hurt them or members of their family.

In her opening remarks to the jury, the prosecutor noted that when questioned about the killing, Dixon confessed to shooting the victim inside the moving vehicle and continued to fire several more times "to put him out of his misery like you would an animal."

But Dixon's attorney asserted Kellison took advantage of his client's lesser intelligence and drugged condition to "weave" that story for the authorities.

During his opening remarks to the jury Thursday, the defense attorney replayed a segment of Kellison's videotaped police interrogation.

After the subject of gunshot residue came up, the detective left the room for several minutes, Rodriguez said.

Dixon's lawyer contends Kellison could clearly be seen staring at his right hand and using his left to "wipe it off."

Saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words," Dixon's attorney assured the jury that before the trial ends, "you'll know who the real killer is." ..News Source.. by TERRY VAU DELL-Staff Writer

---

Gunman convicted of first-degree murder

8-13-2008 California:

OROVILLE -- It took a little over four hours Wednesday for a Butte County jury to convict a Palermo man of the premeditated, first-degree murder of a teenager in 2006.

Anthony Dean Dixon III, 23, could face two separate 25-to-life life terms when he is sentenced next month for shooting Marlin John Dills, 18, of Oroville, eight times while the victim was riding in the back seat of a moving car.

Although a juror said they rejected defense arguments the driver, Freeman Kellison, 21, committed the murder, they believed he was equally involved with Dixon in planning and carrying out the Sept. 5, 2006, execution-style slaying.

Kellison is currently serving a three-year prison term as part of plea bargain to voluntary manslaughter, after a separate jury last year hung 11-1 for acquittal on an identical first-degree murder charge.

Following Dixon's murder conviction Wednesday, deputy district attorney Corie Caraway, who prosecuted the case, said she was pleased for the victim's family, who she noted, had to endure two separate jury trials.

"I think it was the right verdict and I hope this offers some sort of resolution for the family," said the prosecutor.

Dixon's attorney, Jesus Rodriguez, said he was disappointed with how quickly the verdict was reached.

"I believe that Freeman Kellison committed this killing," the defense attorney said.

Following the verdict, the jury foreman told a reporter outside of court the defendant's videotaped confession to sheriff's detectives the day after the murder was pivotal.

"The fact also that he did not take the stand and say anything differently from his confession was also very important," the jury foreman added.

The jury foreman said his fellow jurors believed that although Dixon alone shot the victim, both he and Kellison were equally involved in planning and carrying out the teen's murder.

"It was a mutual thing; personally I believe he (Kellison) was as guilty of pulling the trigger as Mr. Dixon," the Paradise juror said.

Called as a prosecution witness at Dixon's trial, Kellison admitted borrowing his grandmother's .22-caliber pistol for protection against some prowlers that night and giving it to Dixon because he was more familiar with firearms.

He testified he never thought his friend would use it to kill the Oroville teenager.

In his videotaped confession, Dixon told sheriff's detectives he was in the right front passenger seat "playing around" and pointing the gun at the back-seat passenger, when the car hit a bump in the road and it discharged accidentally.

He said he then fired several more times to put the teen "out of his misery ... like you would an animal."

An autopsy showed the victim was shot four times in the head, three times in the chest and once in the hand. His body was dumped along a dirt road south of Palermo, where it was found by children on their way to school the next morning.

In her closing summation to the jury on Monday, the prosecutor said Dixon fatally shot the teenager after "jumping to a conclusion" that had no basis in fact.

"John Dills never saw his 19th birthday; he now exists only in the memory of his family," the prosecutor said.

Jurors also upheld a special allegation that Dixon discharged a firearm causing death, which carries a second 25-to-life term.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Gerald Hermansen ordered Dixon held without bail pending sentencing on Sept. 9. ..News Source.. by TERRY VAU DELL - Staff Writer

CA- Parolee apparently kills self after N. Sacramento homicide

Posted in Related Deaths

8-21-2008 California:

Bobbie Johnson bought beer for the guy who slept in a garage down the street from his North Sacramento home.

Ma Phompong, 28, returned the favor by shooting Johnson's longtime companion dead. Then Phompong beat the man who befriended him halfway to the grave.

On Thursday, Phompong, a parolee from Stanislaus County, apparently killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Fresno.

The apparent suicide ended a 12-hour standoff with police and a manhunt that began the night before with the shooting death of Anna McCaleb, 61, and the attack on Johnson, 59, that left him with a broken eye socket.

"I just hope nobody else has to go through something like this in their life," said Ginger Ferguson, Bobbie Johnson's sister. "People have to be very careful about who they befriend and let into their homes because you never know."

Ferguson said Thursday that her brother was undergoing facial reconstruction surgery to repair bones that shattered when he was hit in the eye. She said he did not yet know that McCaleb was slain.

"I don't want him to give up," Ferguson said. "Trying to keep his will is the main thing we're trying to do right now."

On Wednesday night, Sacramento police were called to a home on Price Court in North Sacramento, authorities said. Inside, officers found McCaleb shot to death. They found Johnson badly beaten and locked in a garage.

The suspect – later identified as Phompong – had stolen the victims' Toyota Tundra pickup truck and likely fled to Fresno, authorities said.

Sacramento police alerted officers in Fresno and said they suspected that Phompong had stolen several weapons and ammunition from the victims' home.

Fresno police spotted the pickup and learned that Phompong was likely in an apartment complex where a relative lived.

Police called in the SWAT team and used "flash-bang" devices and tear gas to try to get Phompong out of the apartment, Fresno police said. Officers never made contact with the suspect.

A robot sent into the apartment recorded images of a body lying on the floor.

Shortly after 11 a.m., SWAT officers found Phompong inside the apartment, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. They found a .30-30 long rifle, the same model Phompong reportedly stole from the North Sacramento victims, Fresno police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said.

Thursday evening, police were awaiting fingerprint results to positively identify the body as Phompong.

A relative of Phompong reached Thursday by phone declined an interview.

Phompong was paroled Aug. 22, 2006, after serving nearly nine years of a 13-year sentence for an assault with a deadly weapon conviction that stemmed from the 1998 knife attack. Stanislaus County Assistant District Attorney Carol Shipley said Phompong had initially been charged with attempted murder for the assault. She said Phompong attacked the victim because he had testified against him in a previous case.

In September 2006, Phompong had been ordered deported by a judge, but was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody that December under parole supervision, according to officials at ICE and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Phompong was assigned to a parole agent in Modesto.

"He had no permission to be there (in Sacramento) and if he was, it was not to the knowledge of his agent of record," said Gordon Hinkle, a CDCR spokesman.

Latoya McGee, a 25-year-old resident of Price Court, said Phompong had been living in her family's detached garage for three months. They knew he had been in prison, she said, but not why.

McGee described him as a nice guy who had been looking for a job and who didn't cause trouble for the family. He was so chatty, in fact, said McGee's sister Latrina, that she sometimes avoided him.

Phompong became friendly with Johnson and McCaleb, the sisters said. He sometimes helped the couple clean house or went places with them.

Latoya McGee said her family recently let Phompong sleep in the house to escape the heat and bugs in the garage.

"Sometimes he slept on the floor next to us," she said. "We never see no signs of this, though." ..News Source.. by Kim Minugh, Andy Furillo and Niesha Lofing

---

Standoff Over In Central Fresno; Suspect Found Dead

A nine-hour standoff in Central Fresno is finally over; the suspect found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The stand-off began around 3 a.m. Thursday at an apartment four-plex along the 3700 Block of Clay Avenue, where police believed a Sacramento murder suspect was located.

According to police, 28-year-old Ma Phompong, had been involved in a home invasion Wednesday night in Sacramento. Officers say he killed a 61-year-old woman, and severely beat her 59-year-old husband. Phompong is said to have stolen several firearms from the residence, along with a Toyota Tundra truck before fleeing. Police say the Phompong was an acquaintance of the couple.

Sacramento Police alerted Fresno Police that Phompong could be headed towards the Fresno area. Around 12:15 a.m. on Thursday, Fresno Police spotted the stolen truck near the intersection of Olive and Tyler.

By 3 a.m. police had surrounded the four-plex on Clay, where they believed Phompong was hiding. The apartment complex, along with nearby homes were evacuated.

Three of the evacuees had been inside the apartment with Phompong. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer has confirmed that one of them was Phompong's cousin. Dyer says Phompong may have chosen to flee to Fresno due to the family connection.

Fresno Police crisis negotiators, along with SWAT officers, and the Sacramento Police spent several hours attempting to make contact with Phompong. They deployed two flash bangs, and tried calling the apartment's phone line. No communication was ever made though, and officers decided to send in a robot.

The robot, equipped with a camera, detonated tear gas three times. The robot then made its way into the bedroom where it located what looked to be Phompong's feet. Officers then entered the apartment where they found Phompong dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Police believe Phompong killed himself with one of the firearms stolen in the Sacramento home invasion.

"Although we were not able to take the suspect into custody alive, he made the decision to take his own life," Dyer said in an afternoon news conference.

Dyer acknowledged that while there has been no formal identification of Phompong, including fingerprints, "We have every reason to believe that this is the individual that killed himself," Dyer said. According to Dyer, Phompong had other distinguishing characteristics.

The stand-off required the closure of several streets in the area, including Olive to Tyler and Millbrook to Cedar. Police say that no schools in the area were impacted by the situation, and no residents were put at-risk. "We did everything we could in terms of exercising precautions to make sure this operation was done extremely safely," Dyer said.

This was not Phompong's first run-in with the law. Back in 1998 he was involved in another home invasion in the Modesto area, in which the homeowner was stabbed to death. Phompong pleaded to a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon, and was currently out on parole. Phompong was also a registered sex offender. ..News Source.. by KMPH Fox

CA- Boy was killed to hide sex crime, affidavit says

11-5-2009 California:

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A 14-year-old with a baby face told investigators he drowned his 4-year-old neighbor in a bathtub, then hid the body in a dryer, because the child was going to reveal the teen molested him, according to an affidavit released when he appeared in court Wednesday.

Raul Renato Castro, dressed in a purple T-shirt issued at the juvenile jail, appeared emotionless while staring at his hands in Fresno County Superior Court.

He was guarded by five bailiffs and two officers outfitted in paramilitary gear.

“He won’t cry, he won’t cry, he won’t,” said a woman who identified herself as his aunt but refused to give her name because she said the family had received death threats. Police could not confirm there had been threats.

Police said searchers found Alex Mercado on Saturday stuffed in the clothes dryer in the small farm town of Mendota.

The affidavit said Castro, a student at Mendota Junior High School, initially told police he knew nothing of the boy’s disappearance. When investigators said the boy had been found in the dryer, the teen suggested someone had broken into the house and put him there.

Castro eventually told police he had enticed the dimpled, brown-eyed boy into his house across the street and sodomized him, the affidavit states. He said he killed Mercado after the child fell and hit his head, started crying, then threatened to tell his mother, the document states.

“Castro said he panicked and decided to kill the victim by drowning him in the bathtub,” the affidavit says.

The teen, who is 5-feet tall and weighs 170 pounds, put Mercado’s body over his shoulder and carried him to the dryer, hoping everything “would go away,” the affidavit states.

Castro had been scheduled for arraignment as an adult on charges of first-degree murder, sodomy, child molestation, kidnapping and murder to silence a witness.

The arraignment was rescheduled for Tuesday after his acting public defender, Kathy Marousek, said she had not seen the paperwork.

“He told me he was scared,” said Marousek, who spoke with the teen as he sat in the jury box. “He could be in shock.”

Marousek said after the hearing that she doubted the teenager understood the Miranda Rights read to him by investigators, which could put his confession in doubt.

Earlier the teen had nodded without expression when Judge Jon Kapetan asked him if he understood the proceedings. Bail was set at $2.1 million.

California law says suspects 14 and older can be charged and tried as adults. About 20 percent of murders in the state are committed by people between the ages of 11 and 17.

Castro, who turned 14 on July 29, cannot face the death penalty but could be sentenced to as long as 47 years-to-life if convicted. ..Source.. by New Haven Register

CA- Suspect arrested in Orange County man's mysterious slaying

This is ONE example, of many, of our new death classification category, death by "sexual circumstances."

9-17-2009 California:

SAN DIEGO — Nearly two years after an Orange County man died under suspicious circumstances, police have made an arrest in the case.

Philong Huynh, 39, of San Diego, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a murder charge and a special-circumstance allegation of sodomy in the death of Dane Williams.

Huynh also pleaded not guilty to a separate sodomy charge in connection with the sexual assault of a second man.

Police said Huynh lives within 800 feet of where the body of Williams, 23, was found after he vanished.

Williams, of Huntington Beach and an employee of Hurley International, was visiting San Diego for the Action Sports Retailers Convention. In the early-morning hours of Jan. 26, 2008, he left a bar in the Gaslamp Quarter and seemingly disappeared.

Prosecutors said he was visibly intoxicated when he left the bar.

Williams' body was found Jan. 29 in an alley on Landis Street south of University Avenue near Colina del Sol Park in City Heights. The body was wrapped in a blanket and wearing a cap, neither of which belonged to him. His underwear was missing.

A manner of death was never determined, the Medical Examiner's Office said.

Investigators did not identify a suspect until this summer, when a man reported being the victim of a sex crime.

Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Means told a judge Tuesday that the victim met Huynh in the Gaslamp Quarter on June 6 and they ended up drinking and going to the beach. The next day, the male victim woke up in Huynh's bed.

“Previously he had said he had a headache and the defendant gave him two tablets,” Means said. “When he woke up he felt extremely sick and disoriented.”

The man went to a doctor that day and was diagnosed with “benzodiazepine intoxication” and showed signs of sexual assault, said the prosecutor, who described benzodiazepine as a central nervous system depressant. He, like Williams, is heterosexual, Means said.

On Aug. 19, DNA evidence from that alleged crime was matched through an FBI database to DNA found on Williams' body, said police Lt. Kevin Rooney. That led homicide investigators to Huynh, Rooney said.

Officers spotted Huynh driving Thursday on 43rd Street and Orange Avenue just after 5 p.m. and took him into custody.

Huynh, who works for a medical-equipment supply company, lives with his mother on Wightman Street near Shiloh Road, about a block from where Williams'body was found. Police served search warrants at the home and a former address.

Means told a judge Tuesday that several pharmaceuticals were found at Huynh's residence, including a benzodiazepine prescription in his name. The prescription was filled in January 2008, the same month that Williams' body was found.

Some commonly prescribed medications classified as benzodiazepines include, Xanax, Valium, Ativan and Rohypnol, the last of which is commonly referred to as the “date-rape drug” because of its involvement in many sexual assault cases, according to the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland at College Park. A victim is given the drug, which causes the person to black out and have trouble remembering any assaults, experts have previously said.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon ordered Huynh to be held in county jail without bail and appointed the Public Defender's Office to represent him.

A photo of Huynh was released by police, who asked other potential victims to contact them. He is not registered as a sex offender, Rooney said.

At the time of his disappearance and for months afterward, family, friends and co-workers handed out fliers throughout the city in the hopes of solving the mystery. A $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest was also offered.

The special allegation in Williams' death makes Huynh eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors typically decide whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole after a preliminary hearing in which a judge decides if there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial. ..Source.. by Angelica Martinez and Dana Littlefield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

CA- Prosecutor: Man Killed Son, Baby's Mom Over Paternity Case

9-9-2009 California:

SAN DIEGO -- Jury deliberations began today in the double-murder trial of a Bonita man accused of strangling the mother of his child and killing his 10-month-old son after she threatened to bring a paternity case.

Dennis Potts, 25, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of murdering 22-year-old Tori Vienneau and their child, Dean Springstube.

Deputy District Attorney Per Hellstrom told jurors in his closing argument that Vienneau was killed on July 26, 2006, on a night she and Potts had dinner plans.

Potts lied to police when he told them he called off dinner with Vienneau, Hellstrom said, because it was the victim who canceled the meeting.

That was the night that the 22-year-old victim planned to tell Potts she was taking him to court over the paternity of their baby, according to Hellstrom.

"This was clearly the catalyst that caused Mr. Potts to kill her," the prosecutor said, telling the jury a notion that a stranger broke into Vienneau's apartment and killed her and her baby was an "absurd conclusion."

A "ping" from a cell phone tower at 6:44 p.m. put the defendant near the victim's apartment in south San Diego around the time she was killed, the prosecutor said.

"(He) simply doesn't have the courage to admit what he did that night," Hellstrom told the jury.

The man who the defense claimed is the real killer, Daniel Moen, couldn't have committed the crimes because he was at work, the prosecutor said.

Besides, Moen cared for Vienneau and loved her baby, Hellstrom said.

"He (Moen) cannot have committed this crime," the prosecutor said. "He must be innocent."

By contrast, Potts had no relationship with his son and lied "up and down" about his role in the murders, Hellstrom said.

The defendant's lifestyle was at risk if he was proven to be the baby's father, the prosecutor said.

Potts erased all of his text messages from that night, then ordered his cell phone records and altered them, the prosecutor said.

The defendant said he was at friend Max Corn's home working on a project when Vienneau was killed.

Hellstrom labeled as "chilling" the Internet searches done by Potts a month before the murders, in which he researched such topics as "how to cheat a swab paternity test," "the best way to kill someone," "getting away with murder" and "getting out of child support."

Defense attorney Kerry Armstrong told the jury that Potts did the searches in connection with a school paper on euthanasia. He also had some fascination with death, was interested in mixed martial arts and was worried about his father's failing health, his lawyer said.

Potts' palm print on the door jam of the room where the baby was hung in his crib could have been put there weeks before, because the defendant had been to Vienneau's apartment three or four times, Armstrong argued.

Potts made changes to his cell phone records because he was "scared," but never showed the altered records to anyone, his attorney said.

Just because Potts lied to police doesn't mean he's guilty of murder, Armstrong said.

According to a defense expert, it is possible that Potts was at Corn's house when he took a call from his mother and the call "pinged" off the cell tower near the victim's apartment, Armstrong said.

There is no direct evidence linking Potts to the murders, the defense attorney said.

"This is a 100 percent circumstantial case," Armstrong told the jury.

Hellstrom told the jury that Potts surprised Vienneau in her apartment, knocking her unconscious and then strangling her with the cord from a hair-straightening iron. Potts ripped the victim's blouse to try to make it look like she was sexually assaulted, the prosecutor said.

The defendant then proceeded to the baby's room and hung the child in his crib with a cord from a cell phone charger, Hellstrom said.

"He (the baby) died alone with his mom in the room next door," the prosecutor told the jury.

Hellstrom said Potts lied to police when he said a paternity test he took was legitimate, when in fact he had used his friend Corn's DNA to submit for the test.

Potts is charged with two counts of murder and a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Corn, who faces a conspiracy charge, will be tried following Potts' trial. ..Source.. by 10News.com

---

CA- Bonita man who killed his son and baby’s mother gets life terms

11-6-2009 California:

A Bonita man who strangled his 10-month-old son and the baby’s mother because she was pressuring him to admit parentage was sentenced Friday to consecutive life prison terms with no possibility of parole.

Dennis Potts, 25, was convicted Sept. 10 of two counts of first-degree murder in the July 26, 2006, deaths of 22-year-old Tori Vienneau and their child, Dean Springstube.

Judge Bernard Revak, who has worked in the criminal justice system for nearly 45 years, said the case “cried out” for consecutive sentences.

“This case stands at the top of the list of cruel, uncaring, brutal (crimes) … with the gravest amount of malice that I have ever seen,” the judge said.

Revak said he hoped Potts would never be released from prison.

Deputy District Attorney Per Hellstrom called Potts “amoral, selfish and vindictive.”

“This man executed his own son,” the prosecutor said, calling the murders of Vienneau and her child “one of the most evil acts this community has ever seen.”

The prosecutor said Potts caught Vienneau off guard by telling her they were going out to dinner in La Jolla. Once in her apartment, Potts strangled her and then strangled the child in his crib, the prosecutor said.

“This is not a crime that this man should ever be released from prison,” Hellstrom told the judge. “He should spend the rest of his life in a cage.”

A “ping” from a cell phone tower at 6:44 p.m. put the defendant near the victim’s apartment in south San Diego around the time she was killed, the prosecutor said. The man who the defense claimed was the real killer, Daniel Moen, couldn’t have committed the crimes because he was at work, the prosecutor said. Besides, Moen cared for Vienneau and loved her baby, Hellstrom said.

Moen’s sister, Breanne, told that judge that her brother was “hit hard” by the murders of his best friend and her son.

“Daniel took it to heart to help his friend out,” his sister said. “Dean was Daniel’s buddy.”

Vienneau’s father, Roy Herroz, said Potts’ goal was murdering his daughter and her baby and getting away with it.

“What kind of animal murders his own son?” he asked. “What kind of parents stand beside such an animal?”

Herroz said he lost not only his daughter and grandson, but his job and his wife as he knew her before the murders.

“She is heavily medicated just to get by,” he said. “We’re still together, but we’re broken. Let Dennis Potts rot in his cell,” he said.

“That’s where he deserves to be.” Hs wife, Dayna, said Potts’ choice to kill her daughter and grandson “went beyond evil.”

She said it had been hard for her daughter to ask Potts to take a court- ordered paternity test, but she needed child support.

“She was a single mother doing the best she could,” Dayna Herroz said of her daughter. She said she hoped a photo of her daughter and grandson in the casket together would hang in Potts’ cell. “My only other wish is that when Dennis does die, that he rots in hell for all eternity,” she said.

Revak said Potts never thought investigators would recover the hard drive from his computer and discover that in the weeks before the murders, the defendant did Internet searches for “committing murder,” “how to cheat a swab paternity test,” “the best way to kill someone,” “getting away with murder” and “getting out of child support.”

Potts kept the fact that he was the baby’s father from his parents and fiancee.

“This case is really about choices, and the responsibility we bear for our choices,” the judge said.

Defense attorney Kerry Armstrong told the jury that Potts did the searches in connection with a school paper on euthanasia. He also had some fascination with death, was interested in mixed martial arts and was worried about his father’s failing health, his lawyer said. Potts’ palm print on the door jam of the room where the baby was hanged in his crib could have been put there weeks before because the defendant had been to Vienneau’s apartment three or four times, Armstrong argued.

Hellstrom told jurors that Potts surprised Vienneau in her apartment, knocking her unconscious and then strangling her with the cord from a hair- straightening iron. Potts ripped the victim’s blouse to try to make it look like she was sexually assaulted, the prosecutor said. The defendant then proceeded to the baby’s room and hanged his son in his crib with a cord from a cell phone charger, Hellstrom said.

Potts lied to police when he said a paternity test he took was legitimate, when in fact he had used his friend Max Corn’s DNA to submit for the test, Hellstrom said. Additional DNA tests done later determined that Potts was the baby’s biological father.

Corn, also 25, was tried separately and convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice for lying to police about Potts’ whereabouts and helping fake the DNA test. Corn faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 11. ..Source.. by Kelly Wheeler, City News Service

CA- Man convicted of murdering man who touched him

12-12-2008 California:

An Oakland man is guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a man who he said had touched him sexually.

Jurors in Alameda County Superior Court convicted 25-year-old Bruce Shaw on Thursday after deliberating for two days.

Prosecutors said Shaw shot 27-year-old Sirron Croskey in 2006 after the victim allegedly had touched Shaw several times during a long night of drinking and drugs.

Shaw's attorney had argued that Shaw was molested as a child and snapped when he was touched that night.

Prosecutors argued that there was no evidence Shaw was molested as a child. They also noted a time gap between the touching and the killing, saying that showed it was premeditated.

Shaw faces life in prison when he's sentenced Feb. 11. ..News Source.. by ModBee.com

---

Defense: Oakland Man "Flipped Out" When Victim Suggestively Touched Him
12-4-2008 California:

A defense attorney told jurors today that Bruce Shaw shot and killed 27-year-old Sirron Croskey near an Oakland park in the early morning hours of April 6, 2006, because Shaw "flipped out" after Croskey touched Shaw in what he thought was a sexually suggestive way.

In her closing argument in Shaw's trial in Alameda County Superior Court, defense attorney Andrea Auer said Shaw, 25, had been sexually molested when he was only 3 years old and didn't like it when Croskey repeatedly touched him at the end of a long night in which the two men and some acquaintances had been drinking, taking drugs and planning robberies.

Auer said Shaw's history caused him to react violently, saying, "We wouldn't be here if Bruce hadn't been badly sexually abused as a kid."

The defense attorney said that because Shaw was provoked, she thinks he should only be convicted of manslaughter, not murder.

However, prosecutor Joni Leventis told jurors she thinks that Shaw should be convicted of first-degree murder because he planned to kill Croskey and had time to reflect before he pulled the trigger.

Jurors will begin deliberating Shaw's fate late Thursday. ..News Source.. by BayArea News

CA- Police Shoot, Kill Man: Garcia Killed After Refusing To Surrender

2-23-2004 California:
.BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A man died after four Bakersfield police officers shot him to death, KERO reported. Gabriel Garcia was shot and killed while standing at the doorstep of a registered sex offender who lived just down the street from him. Police said neighbors reported Garcia acting strangely prior to the shooting. They said that after talking with several children in the neighborhood, he ended up on the doorstep of registered sex offender Vincent Verdile.

Garcia reportedly pulled a knife on Verdile, who ran into his home and called 9-1-1. Police detective Mary Degeare said when officers responded, Garcia was repeatedly ordered to drop the knife and surrender, but he instead continued to kick in Verdile's door. "At this point, officers had to stop him from going inside and hurting somebody," Degeare said.

Officers Stephen Kauffman, Ryan Newman, Sherman Rooks and Eric Shimon will remain on routine paid administrative leave until the shooting review board completes its investigation. ..more.. : by The Bakersfield Channel

Readers Comments:
You know, it's easy to blame police for the death of Gabriel Garcia. They shot him. And it would appear their pamphlets warning neighbors about a serious sex offender played a role in Garcia's death. He died in a hail of police gunfire as he kicked in the door of this house. Vincent Verdile lives here. He's the man on police warning pamphlets passed around the neighborhood -- a man with a history of sex crimes against children and teens. Crimes that reportedly enraged Gabriel Garcia so much he went to Verdile's house with a knife. A lot of people want to blame police for igniting this tragedy. C'mon. The police didn't cause this. They had a duty to protect kids in this neighborhood with these pamphlets. And no matter what we may think of Vincent Verdile, they had a duty to protect him too. So let's stop blaming police, and let's remember Gabriel Garcia died a vigilante -- not a martyr.
Craig Jahelka Vice President/General Manager

XXXX 07-01-2004, 12:15 PM: The man did a crime, he did the time. The people who made the flyers, then man that kicked in his door are all guilty of committing a HATE CRIME!

XXXX 04-04-2004, 6:37 AM: The police had unsubstantiated information regarding the victim of this crime not the perpetrator (Who has a history of violence against police and civilians. Why wasn?t that neighborhood flyered warning of this violent threat?), but still chose to flyer his neighborhood with slanderous remarks amplifying fears for something that happen nearly 2 decades ago and did not involve sex as stated. Ignorance and fear make people say things that create uncivilized actions as happened with Gabriel Garcia costing him his life and childish remarks by XXXX who knows nothing more than feelings based on ignorance. Grow up I say. This man did nothing wrong and was attacked for something that happened a very long time ago. He did not invite this kind of attention, nor deserve it. His neighbors had good things to say about him, and the news stations didn?t air it, only the negative stuff. Until you know the real story; I suggest acting like mature responsible adults. Not Drama Queens and War mongers.

XXXX 02-25-2004, 8:32 PM: In Reply to Mr XXXX's feelings, I do feel that the police have the right to protect the public, and themselves,however do you Mr XXXX feel that 14 shots from reportably 4 officers, was warranted?. We consider ourselves civilized,maybe we should not be so civilized. We need to punish convicted criminals much more than we do now, and I agree that this young man was no Martyr, if he was there to harm the child molester,tell me why the officers could not disignate one of them to fire a shot at a leg, to give this person the right to get some help,because I think he had more of a right to live than the animal inside.

---

Cops Kill Man Breaking into Sex Offender’s Home
2-26-2004 California:
."Police shot and killed a knife-wielding man attempting to break into the home of a registered sex offender who police warned neighbors might still be abusing children. Authorities on Monday defended their decision to circulate a flier in a Bakersfield neighborhood identifying Vincent Verdile as a registered sex offender even though the information was 'completely unsubstantiated...'

On Saturday, police shot and killed Gabriel Angel Garcia, who was attempting to kick in Verdile's front door. Police had not yet established a motive for why Garcia, a 20-year-old neighbor of Verdile, was trying to break into the man's home. But several weeks ago, Bakersfield police circulated a flier around Verdile's neighborhood with a picture of Verdile on it and listing his height, weight, hair color and race under a banner that read, 'Serious Sex Offender...'" ..more.. : by Mercury News

---

Officers justified in shooting according to review board
2-27-2004 California:
.BAKERSFIELD - A shooting review board said four Bakersfield police officers acted within department, state and federal guidelines when they shot and killed a 20-year old man. A panel of five police administrators cleared officers Stephen Kaufman, Ryan Newman, Sherman Rooks and Eric Shimon of any wrong-doing in last weekend's deadly shooting. The decision was based in part on a frantic 911 call and police dispatch tape obtained by KGET 17.

“Uh, I have a person on my front yard with a knife, that's going to cut me,” said Vincent Verdile to a 911 dispatcher, “He's at my door right now. I have a feeling he's going to try and kick it in.” With that phone call, police rushed to a southwest Bakersfield home. When officers arrived they said 20-year old Gabriel Garcia had a small folding knife in his hand and was banging violently on the door. “The police are there and he's trying to come in,” said Verdile, “This guy's a psycho.”

The man who called 911, Vincent Verdile, was convinced he was the target of a hate crime. “Why do you think it was a hate crime?” said the dispatcher. “Because, uh, the police, uh, I'm a sex offender,” said Verdile, “It happened a long time ago but the police fliered my neighborhood and this person is obviously here to try to scare me off and stab me.” Detectives said Garcia ignored orders to drop his weapon and when the front door began to crack open they fired.

“Sounds like gunfire,” said Verdile. “Yeah,” said the dispatcher, “It is.” Officers fired 14 rounds killing the intruder. The police department said officers tried to avoid the use of deadly force, claiming the sequence of events on the dispatch tapes prove it. “Subject armed with a knife in the yard,” said a dispatcher to officers, “At 4709 Arbor Glen,” “Can you see if we have an officer with a taser to start that way?” responded an officer.

A unit with a taser gun was called along with a K-9 and a sergeant with a pepper-ball gun. “They're just trying to hold him at bay,” said Det. Mary DeGeare, “And utilize other uses of force.” Investigators said Garcia was un-phased by four taser darts that hit him. The K-9 and pepper-ball gun were still in route when Garcia got the door open. “He still has the knife,” said Det. DeGeare, “He turns around and he's walking inside the house. He has already crossed the threshold of the door. The officer's have to make a split second decision.”

Vincent Verdile was alone in the home as Garcia tried to force his way in, but officers assumed there was more than one potential victim inside. ..more.. : by KGET TV

CA- Defense opens in Magalia murder trial

Darrin Lee Pacheco killed: Paul Prestridge 28 because he called him a "chomo lover" (i.e. means child molester lover in prison jargon). See case on appeal!

3-10-2008 California:

OROVILLE -- The defense is scheduled to open its case today in the Darrin Pacheco Magalia murder trial.

On Friday, an autopsy surgeon testified that allegedly during a fight with the defendant's brother, Paul Prestridge, 29, of Magalia suffered stab wounds to the back, leg and chest — the latter thrust done with enough force to puncture all the way through his heart.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Resk said the wounds were "consistent" with having been made by a steak knife, which at least three witnesses claimed Pacheco, 39, of Auburn had grabbed that night from the kitchen in his brother's home.

Pacheco's attorney, Robert Marshall, has argued that whatever his client did, he was lawfully justified in protecting the life of his brother, Rick Pacheco.

Witnesses at a barbecue in the brother's home on Sept. 3, 2006, have testified that Prestridge, who like Darrin Pacheco had served time in prison, punched the defendant's brother several times in the face, after accusing him of being a "chomo-lover."

A former prison official called by the defense attorney told the jury on Friday that is inmate-talk for someone who befriends a child molester.

Outside of the jury's presence, Marshall asserted that by that statement Prestridge had, in effect, "marked (the brother) for death."

But because there was no evidence what was in the defendant's mind, or even whether he knew what the term "chomo" meant, deputy district attorney Kurt Worley objected to the defense using the phrase to try to "create a defense" to the fatal stabbing.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Gerald Hermansen agreed with the prosecutor, and would only permit the prison expert to testify that child molesters are reviled by inmates and must be placed into protective custody to prevent being attacked.

The Magalia homicide case is expected to go to the jury later this week.

The prosecution rested Friday, after calling Resk, who conducted the autopsy on the slain man.

The county pathologist said the fatal attack could have occurred as testified earlier by the brother's girlfriend, Amanda Baum.

She told the jury her boyfriend had the other man in a headlock on the floor, and heard Prestridge say, "I'm done, I'm going home" when the defendant made what appeared to be "punching motions" toward Prestridge.

Moments later, she claims she saw a steak knife on the floor near the combatants and placed it on a table.

Although a fingerprint expert was unable to obtain any usable prints from the steak knife, he testified to finding the defendant's bloody left thumbprint on a larger butcher knife, also recovered from the scene.

Baum alleges that Darrin Pacheco had the larger knife in his hand when he tried to return to the fight moments later, but that she managed to take it away from him.

The stab wound to the heart caused extensive internal bleeding, resulting in Prestridge's rapid death, Resk told the jury Friday.

He testified that the slain man also suffered numerous scrapes and bruises to his head and body, and what appeared to be a shallow cut to the back of one hand.

The prosecutor asked whether someone stabbed through the heart could have stood up, punched Rick Pacheco once more in the face and walked several feet toward the front door before finally collapsing, as witnesses have testified.

Resk agreed that while that might not be possible for some people, for a man of Prestridge's age and strength, it was "not unlikely."

The defense attorney got the pathologist to concede that because he couldn't determine the precise angle of the fatal attack, he couldn't rule out the possibility of the stab wounds being inflicted by the defendant's brother with his free hand, while he had Prestridge in a headlock.

Although the prosecution had the defendant's brother under subpoena, Worley chose not to call him as a witness during his case.

Last week, Pacheco's attorney had the judge direct the brother to be in court today, as a potential witness for the defense. ..more.. by TERRY VAU DELL - Staff Writer


Trial begins in alleged murder during altercation at party in Magalia

3-5-2008 California:

OROVILLE — Testimony got under way Tuesday in the trial of an Auburn parolee charged with a Magalia murder.
Darrin Lee Pacheco's attorney told the Butte County Superior Court jury the defendant was acting in lawful defense of his brother when Paul Prestridge, 28, was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife during a physical altercation on Sept. 3, 2006, at a family barbecue at the brother's Crescent Drive Magalia home.

In his opening remarks to the eight-woman, four-man jury, deputy district attorney Kurt Worley acknowledged Prestridge initiated the fight by accusing the brother of befriending a child molester and throwing the first punch that night.

The prosecutor said witnesses will testify the defendant's brother had Prestridge in a headlock on the floor, when the 37-year-old suspect began "flailing his arms" over the combatants after retrieving two kitchen knives.

A woman at the party suffered a cut to a hand taking one of the knives away from him, according to Worley.

The mortally wounded man tried to punch the defendant's brother at least once more before collapsing and dying near the front door from a stab wound to the heart, said the prosecutor.

In asking the jury to acquit Pacheco of murder and assault charges, Chico defense attorney Robert Marshall contended the defendant was legally justified to prevent his brother from suffering death or serious injury.

Marshall said he would prove Prestridge, who had also spent time in prison, had a history of punching people, including a motorist and a fellow employee.
Witnesses will testify that when the name of a man came up from whom they might be able to purchase some marijuana that night, Prestridge claimed he was a "chomo," which is prison parlance for child molester, said Marshall.

When Prestridge questioned how Rick Pacheco could allow his daughter to go over to a child molester's house, and called him a "chomo lover," Marshall told the jury the defendant tried to mollify him by saying "I never saw any paperwork" to that effect.

The defense attorney alleges that when told to leave, Prestridge rushed at the defendant's brother, punching him several times in the face and drawing blood.

He said a reasonable person under that situation would also have believed Pacheco's brother was in "imminent danger of death or serious injury."

Among those present during the start of the fight, was Prestridge's fiancee, Mindy Johnson, who told the jury he had proposed marriage to her earlier that night.

She testified to only seeing her boyfriend slap the defendant's brother once with an open hand, after backing him against a wall.

She said she jumped on Prestridge's back at that point to try to pull him off, but he was able to fling both her and Darrin Pacheco off him.

Under questioning by Marshall, Johnson testified she took her oldest child across the street to her mother's home at that point, because she didn't want the tot to see Prestridge fighting, and also because "he is strong and I knew he could take care of himself."

She was getting ready to return to the party when she heard someone speeding away from the mobile home, the wail of an ambulance and arrived to find her fiancee not breathing on Rick Pacheco's front porch. ..more.. by TERRY VAU DELL-Staff Writer