LAKEPORT, Calif. – The charges against a Rohnert Park man in connection with a 2009 torture case were officially dropped on Friday, while preparations for a co-defendant's trial are moving forward.
Joshua Isaac Wandrey Sr., 36, appeared before Judge Arthur Mann Friday morning, at which time Mann approved a motion by prosecutor Art Grothe, filed last week, to dismiss several felony charges.
Grothe had stated in his motion that he reviewed the case after taking it over last month from outgoing District Attorney Jon Hopkins and determined that there wasn't sufficient motion to proceed, an action lauded as the right thing to do by Wandrey's attorney, Stephen Carter.
However, Grothe did note that the investigation is continuing and charges could be brought against Wandrey again if sufficient new evidence is developed.
Wandrey was charged with attempted murder, mayhem, torture, home invasion robbery, burglary, assault with a firearm, assault likely to cause great bodily injury, a special allegation for alleged gang activity and another special allegation for use of a firearm for the October 2009 assault on Lakeport resident Ronald Greiner.
In a morning attack the 49-year-old Greiner was shot, beaten, hogtied with barbed wire and robbed of 10 pounds of marijuana at his home.
The investigation led to the arrest of several subjects, some of whose cases already have been dismissed, but the main case continued against Wandrey and Thomas Loyd Dudney, 60, of Fulton, who faced the same list of charges as Wandrey did.
Wandrey, who has been in jail since his November 2009 arrest, remained in the Lake County Jail Friday night, according to jail records.
Meanwhile, the case against Dudney is moving forward.
He appeared in court Friday morning at the same time as Wandrey and accompanied by his attorney, Doug Rhoades.
Mann said the trial had been assigned to him and was set to begin on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 25.
SACRAMENTO – On Thursday, California's new governor issued a proclamation reaffirming the fiscal emergency declared by his predecessor's administration last month.
Gov. Jerry Brown's proclamation – which follows former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dec. 6 declaration – underscores the need for immediate legislative action to address California’s massive budget deficit.
He identifies as the source of the fiscal emergency the current fiscal year's budget imbalance, which he said is causing budgetary and cash deficits in fiscal year 2011-12.
On Jan. 10, just a week after taking office, Brown released a proposed budget package that calls for deep cuts to many services, would phase out redevelopment and asks for voters to approve a number of tax extensions in a June special election, as Lake County News has reported.
Brown's fiscal emergency declaration notes that “without corrective action” the combined operating deficit for fiscal year 2010-11 and fiscal year 2011-12 is $25.4 billion, revenues are $3.1 billion lower than were projected at the time of the 2010 Budget Act and the passage in November of Proposition 22 created an additional budget shortfall of $1.6 billion.
The declaration states that “decisive action is required to solve the State’s persistent and severe budget problems, continue economic recovery, promote job growth, and preserve public education and the quality of life for all Californians.”
Brown said that general fund revenues for the current fiscal year will decline substantially below the estimate of general fund revenues upon which the budget was based, and general fund expenditures will increase substantially above the estimate of general fund revenues.
Those factors, he said, will create a carry-over deficit affecting the cash reserves and the budget for fiscal year 2011-12.
Brown said his Thursday proclamation and the legislation he's proposing to address the budget supersedes Schwarzenegger's Dec. 6 proclamation.
THE LAKE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT HAS ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF PREVIOUSLY APPROVED VIDEO CLIPS THAT WERE POSTED ON THIS STORY. A SPECIAL HEARING WEDNESDAY RESULTED IN THE DECISION.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man facing two murder charges for the deaths of a Maine couple early last year appeared for the first day of his preliminary hearing Tuesday, when the main witness was his co-defendant in the case, who took the stand to testify against him.
Robby Alan Beasley, 30, sat beside his attorney Stephen Carter during a day of testimony in which 28-year-old Elijah Bae McKay recounted the events that led to the January 2010 shooting deaths of Yvette and Frank Maddox of Maine, as well as the gruesome circumstances of their deaths on the side of Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake.
Beasley and McKay are each charged with two counts of murder, along with special allegations of committing multiple murders in the first or second degree, committing the offenses with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims and using a 9 millimeter firearm. Beasley also is alleged to have had a felony conviction in Maine for criminal threatening with a firearm.
McKay – clad, like Beasley, in a black and white jail jumpsuit – remained handcuffed throughout his nearly two hours on the witness stand, as Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe and Carter took turns questioning him.
Looking on from the gallery was his attorney, Richard Petersen of Ukiah. Peterson watched but didn't interject in any of the proceedings.
McKay stated during his testimony that he was not offered a deal in exchange for his testimony and only was receiving limited immunity for his statements.
He said he had decided to testify in recent weeks after investigators showed Petersen an arrest warrant for McKay's fiancee. McKay also was told that his young son would be taken away.
The story McKay shared with the court Tuesday was one set against the background of an old friendship with Beasley, with marijuana growing and the large amounts of money it brought leading to tensions and, allegedly, the deaths of the couple, who Beasley had invited to come west to work for him trimming marijuana.
However, Beasley later came to believe they had been responsible for stealing from him several pounds of marijuana, which McKay testified led to Beasley planning to kill them.
Before McKay took the stand later in the morning, Grothe called to the stand two witnesses, Elvin Sikes and Tyreshia Celestin-Willis. Grothe had filed a motion regarding his intent to put on both witnesses, who offered certain amounts of hearsay testimony, which normally is not allowed in the evidence code.
However, Grothe said a new law allows the use of hearsay against a subject who was attempting to make a witness unavailable. In this case, he suggested Beasley had done so by killing the Maddoxes, who had made statements about Beasley to Sikes and Celestin-Willis.
Grothe noted the information could be stricken, and Carter agreed to go forward with the testimony.
Sikes recalled allowing the couple to stay with him after Yvette Maddox came to him in early December 2009, crying because they had no place to stay. “They wanted to go back home so I told them they could stay there for a little bit, until they got the means to go back home.”
Yvette Maddox told Sikes about mailing “packages” back to Maine, and Frank Maddox mentioned his plans to take Beasley to the airport, which Sikes advised against. Sikes said Yvette Maddox told him that she had her husband go get “the stuff that was owed to them,” meaning marijuana, but he didn't take it to mean they were stealing.
After Sikes was off the stand, Carter withdrew his support of going forward with the use of the hearsay, saying it would result in a potentially large body of information that would have to be stricken.
Judge Richard Martin said he wanted to hear all of the evidence before deciding whether or not it should be considered.
Grothe then called to the stand Celestin-Willis, who got to know the Maddoxes in late 2009.
She recalled an extremely upset Yvette Maddox coming to her house and telling her that Beasley had stated, “You're in my town, I'll make you come up missing,” and that her husband didn't protect her. Shortly afterward, Frank Maddox drove up to Celestin-Willis' house and Yvette Maddox ran and hid in the closet while Celestin-Willis told Maddox that his wife was not there.
Celestin-Willis said she had seen the couple with as much as a pound of marijuana, and was aware they were trimming it, noting that marijuana wasn't her “scene.”
Old friendship, new trouble
McKay followed Celestin-Willis to the stand, offering the information that set the stage for the couple's arrival in Lake County.
He recounted meeting Beasley about 15 years ago while they were in grade school and remaining friends throughout the years.
About five years ago McKay came to California, getting into construction in San Jose before trading in his apartment to live in tent and grow marijuana in Mendocino County. He later made two trips to Maine to sell some of his marijuana.
Last year he said he didn't go to the East Coast to sell marijuana, as he had 35 pounds to sell – at $2,500 per pound for product grown outdoors – and it was safer to stay in California and sell it.
He said Beasley was continuing to get in trouble with the law in Maine, and he invited him to come west and work with him about two and a half years ago, which Beasley eventually did. “He's a smart, hard worker,” McKay said of Beasley.
Beasley later split off and began doing his own indoor growing operation in Clearlake, and in 2009 – not long before McKay was set to go to New York state on a fishing trip – Beasley told him he wanted to have the Maddoxes come out and work for him.
“He discussed bringing them out to help them get on their feet,” said McKay, who had never met the couple before their arrival.
He said that Beasley vouched for the two, and told him he had been in prison with Frank Maddox and thought he was a good guy.
But when McKay returned from his trip and began working with the couple, he said he wasn't pleased with their work. He said Frank Maddox tried to claim he was trimming more marijuana than he did, they bickered with other trimmers and were asking McKay to help them get drugs.
McKay said he didn't find them very smart, and following an argument with Frank Maddox he fired them.
He said he told Beasley, “I didn't think they were working out and they should go home. He let them stay in his apartment instead.” Previously, they had been staying in a tent on an outdoor grow site McKay had.
But McKay testified that the relationship between the couple and Beasley started going bad. The couple were fighting and appeared to have become hooked on methamphetamine, causing Beasley to throw them out. But they didn't want to return to Maine and ended up living with another friend – Sikes had testified to taking them in.
On Christmas Day of 2009, Yvette Maddox was arrested for public intoxication. McKay said that the pair was angering people, with a woman pulling a gun on them at one point.
“They were making enemies as well as friends with the locals,” McKay said.
He said it was his policy not to get involved with local residents. “I kept it as a rule to stay out of everybody's business.”
McKay was on a trip to Boston in early January 2010 when Beasley called to tell him that the Clearlake apartment where Beasley grew marijuana had been robbed.
Someone small had used a screwdriver to force open a window, remove an air conditioning unit and crawl through, leaving small, muddy footprints that appeared to belong to a woman. Those footprints led to a sliding door where it appeared that it had been opened for two larger people, who also left muddy footprints.
The kind of indoor pot that was stolen from Beasley sold for about $3,500 a pound, McKay said.
When Beasley told McKay he planned to stay at the apartment to guard his marijuana, McKay told him to go to his home and get an unregistered, black 9 millimeter handgun that McKay had purchased in San Francisco. It had a 15-round clip and, in McKay's opinion, would be better for Beasley to use to defend himself than the six-shot .357 he had.
During his testimony McKay stated that the gun in question was one he carried with him in the marijuana grow because a mountain lion stalked him as he watered the plants.
He testified that the couple had held the gun that killed them, as he had left it with them for protection against the mountain lion, too.
McKay returned home on Jan. 19, at which time Beasley told him he had dug a hole and planned to kill the couple, who he suspected were responsible for the theft of his marijuana.
It was a plan McKay said he didn't think Beasley would carry out. “We talked about killing people before and never done it.”
Beasley also had talked about pulling out all of their teeth to prevent identification. McKay said he had commented to Beasley that it would be easier to cut their heads off. He also noted during testimony that Beasley offered him $20,000 to kill the couple during a lengthy and heated discussion. McKay turned the offer down.
He said Beasley planned to ask the couple to drive him to the airport on the pretense that he had to fly to see his family because his grandmother's death. McKay said Beasley acted out how he would tell the story, even making himself cry.
McKay said he tried to talk Beasley out of the plan. “They're from Maine, I'm from Maine. Everything seemed bad about it to me.”
He continued, “He told me he had dug a hole and was going to kill them, I figured anything was better than that.” McKay said he suggested that Beasley instead shake the couple down and get them to confess that they had stolen his marijuana.
Then on the night of Jan. 22, while he was at his brother's birthday party, McKay received a call from Beasley asking for him to come pick him up. McKay found him walking along Morgan Valley Road, near where the couple's pickup was parked.
“He had blood on his clothes,” said McKay.
Later in testimony, as McKay recounted picking Beasley up, he said his friend “looked really distressed and said he was going to hell.” When McKay asked where the gun was, Beasley responded that no one would ever find it.
McKay took Beasley back to his home, let him shower, burned Beasley's clothes and backpack, and both of their phones, before taking Beasley back to his own home. Afterward McKay returned to his brother's birthday party, trying to pretend nothing had happened and having birthday cake.
“It was probably the hardest piece of cake I ever ate,” McKay said.
The next day Beasley showed up with two new cell phones, one for each of them. Beasley was dressed in a full set of rain gear so he wouldn't leave traces, and they took the Maddoxes' truck and left it on Jerusalem Grade Road near Middletown, with a full tank of gas and the keys in it. McKay said they hoped someone would take the vehicle.
In the days after the murders, McKay said Beasley recounted that he had asked them to take him to the airport, but they didn't realize that going down Morgan Valley Road wouldn't take them there.
At one point Beasley asked them to pull over in a turnout so he could urinate, and Frank Maddox got out with him to do the same, McKay said.
While the two men were out of the truck, McKay testified that Beasley allegedly pulled the 9 millimeter out and cocked it, holding Frank Maddox at gunpoint and pulling Yvette Maddox from the truck.
During the confrontation that ensued, the couple wouldn't admit to stealing the marijuana, and McKay said that Beasley shot Frank Maddox in the leg, and Yvette Maddox fainted or was “playing opossum.” Frank Maddox then reportedly told Beasley he had better finish him off because he was going to kill him if he didn't.
McKay said Beasley then shot Frank Maddox in the head, doing the same to Yvette Maddox. Beasley then allegedly dragged their bodies down the nearby embankment. When the couple still showed signs of life, Beasley allegedly shot each of them in the head a second time.
As McKay left the stand, he looked toward Beasley and said testifying was “the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
After McKay left the stand the court heard briefly from Beasley's girlfriend, Kim Vanhorn, who said that during a jail visit he wrote on his hand, asking her if they found the gun.
Lake County Sheriff's Det. Tom Andrews also testified about computer and cell phone evidence extracted from equipment found at Beasley's apartment during service of a search warrant.
Grothe stated previously that the District Attorney's Office was waiting to make a decision about how to pursue the prosecution, whether it would be a death penalty case or life without the possibility of parole.
His new boss, District Attorney Don Anderson, will be involved in that ultimate decision. Anderson sat in on a portion of the afternoon portion of McKay's testimony.
The preliminary hearing will continue Wednesday morning, and is expected to last through Thursday afternoon.
SACRAMENTO – Continuing the push to rebuild California’s infrastructure and spur job growth, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) on Thursday allocated $1 billion to 107 transportation projects statewide, including $838 million from Proposition 1B, a transportation bond approved by voters in 2006.
The remaining allocations came from assorted state and federal transportation accounts.
“From one end of the state to the other, transportation projects are providing jobs and improving mobility for people and businesses in California,” said Caltrans Director Cindy McKim.
Among the approved projects are the city of Clearlake's Austin Park Sidewalk/Bikeway Project, which will install bike lanes from Lakeview Way to Highway 53; sidewalks and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) curbs on Olympic Drive; and ADA curbs, bike lanes, gutters and sidewalks from Burns Valley Elementary School to Lakeshore Drive. The allocation for $10,000 will be funded in fiscal year 2011-12.
The county of Lake also will receive $50,000 in fiscal year 2011-12 for the Bridge Arbor Bikeway, to construct class one and class three bikeways from the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff at Westlake Drive and the Bridge Arbor North Highway 20 intersection at Upper Lake.
Mendocino County will receive $495,000 from Proposition 1B funds to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 1 and Simpson Lane. A roundabout will relieve current and future projected congestion at this intersection more efficiently than traffic signals.
In addition, Mendocino County will get $2.6 million in state and federal transportation funds for storm damage repairs on Highway 101 near Rattlesnake Creek Bridge. Repairs include constructing a retaining wall, reconstructing shoulders and improving drainage.
Sonoma County will receive $19.8 million to widen the roadway from four lanes to six lanes in Petaluma, from just south of Old Redwood Highway Overcrossing to just north of Pepper Road. When completed, the project will result in daily vehicle hours of delay savings of about 965 hours..
Since its passage, $6.8 billion in Proposition 1B funding has been allocated by Caltrans and the CTC.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Day two of a former Maine resident's preliminary hearing in a January 2010 murder case took place Wednesday, with detectives discussing autopsy findings and an anthropologist's assistance in investigating the crime.
Robby Alan Beasley, 30, is facing two murder charges for the Jan. 22, 2010, shootings of Frank and Yvette Maddox of Augusta, Maine, who he allegedly invited to California to work with him in his marijuana growing organization.
He's also charged with special allegations of committing multiple murders in the first or second degree, committing the offenses with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims, using a 9 millimeter firearm in the commission of the crimes and having a previous felony conviction in Maine for
criminal threatening with a firearm.
On Tuesday, Beasley's co-defendant in the case and another former Maine resident, 28-year-old Elijah Bae McKay, took the stand to testify against Beasley.
Beasley, wearing his black and white jail jumpsuit, listened attentively during the hearing Wednesday, which took place at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport. He is being defended by attorney Stephen Carter.
Prosecutor Art Grothe's first witness of the day was Elona Porter, an evidence technician with the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Porter responded to a turnout along Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake in early March 2010 after the discovery of the Maddoxes' bodies, found at the bottom of a nearby embankment.
At the top of the embankment she found three spent 9 millimeter cartridges and one spent cartridge just down the embankment. Near the bodies were found three live 9 millimeter rounds and one spent cartridge, with one live round and another spent cartridge found under the bodies.
She said the bodies were very decomposed.
McKay's Tuesday testimony had alleged that Beasley had asked Frank and Yvette Maddox to give him a ride to the airport, his alleged ruse to get them alone.
Beasley allegedly had them drive down the remove Morgan Valley Road outside of Lower Lake, where he asked them to stop at a turnout while he urinated. Frank Maddox had reportedly gotten out to do the same, and the shootings followed a brief confrontation, according to McKay's Tuesday testimony.
Porter said Frank Maddox's body was found with his pants down around his ankles, with his boxer shorts pulled down to about his hips.
He was wearing a sweatshirt and one Timberland hiking boot, with another boot found not far away from his body at the bottom of the embankment, she said.
Yvette Maddox was fully clothed, with the top of her sweatpants partly turned down. Her top was torn, said Porter, noting a pair of women's underwear and a baseball cap with “NY” on it were near the bodies.
When investigators brought the couple's bodies up the hill, they emptied the pockets of the clothing, finding things like a driver's license, Chapstick and a Wal-Mart receipt, although photos of some of that evidence wasn't admitted due to its blurry quality.
In Frank Maddox's pockets they also found a lighter, coins and other currency, cigarettes and a bag of marijuana. His wife's pockets included two Social Security cards, one under the name Maddox and one under her maiden name of Colon, and a Maine-issued state identification card.
Also near the bodies was an overturned, empty box, with a lot of clothing on the ground nearby, said Porter.
She said the rocky terrain made it difficult to tell if there were traces of the bodies being drug down the embankment.
Also on the stand Wednesday was Lake County Sheriff's Det. John Drewrey, who discussed cell phone records and went over the couple's autopsy results.
He said he attended the autopsies, conducted by Dr. Thomas Gill, with the cause of death for both Frank and Yvette Maddox being gunshot wounds to their heads.
Drewrey said Gill found two gunshot wounds in Frank Maddox's skull, and believed there may have been a third wound to his stomach. However, due to the advanced state of composition, Gill couldn't be sure about the stomach wound.
Sheriff's Det. Jim Samples followed Drewrey to the stand, testifying about bringing Dr. Alison Galloway, a forensic anthropologist at University of California, Santa Cruz, on to assist with the case.
Samples said that due to the damage to Yvette Maddox's head, he approached Galloway – one of only five forensic anthropologists in California – for assistance with reconstructing the skull.
Following the autopsy, Samples transported the skull in a sealed evidence box to Santa Cruz, where Galloway cleaned the bones and reconstructed them. He said she was immediately able to put the bones together to show him one of the bullet wounds.
Altogether, Galloway identified two gunshot wounds to Yvette Maddox's head, entering from the left side and exiting through the right.
Samples, who oversaw the investigation at the site where the bodies were discovered near Lower Lake, said investigators went back several times to screen for bone and bullet fragments.
He said most of the fragments they found were tangled in Yvette Maddox's hair. “There was so much trauma to Yvette's head that anything that was there was very, very small,” he said.
It was for that reason that Dr. Gill suggested going to Galloway, because he couldn't say for sure that there were bullet wounds, Samples explained.
Deputy Lyle Thomas, another investigator on the case, recalled taking Beasley from the Lake County Jail for a blood draw last March.
Thomas served a search warrant for the blood draw, which Beasley refused to give without his lawyer present. Several correctional officers and detectives took Beasley to St. Helena Hospital in Clearlake, where – as he was being escorted into a room – Beasley attempted to run past a California Highway Patrol officer who was there for another case.
It took five officers to place Beasley facedown on a hospital bed and hold him there following what Thomas called a “fairly violent” struggle.
Thomas also testified to working with a county code enforcement officer to track down the Maddoxes' pickup, which McKay had testified Tuesday Beasley had moved from its Lower Lake location to Jerusalem Grade Road near Middletown following the murders.
Code enforcement had red-tagged the vehicle, which later was moved by a resident in the area, who then took the vehicle and parted it out. Thomas went over pictures of the pieces of the truck that were left, including its drive train assembly and driver's door.
Thomas also served a search warrant at Beasley's Lower Lake apartment last March, where he found a white envelope with Beasley's name and a post office box in Maine, receipts for a money gram and about 80 marijuana plants in two bedrooms.
Det. Tom Andrews was recalled to the stand at day's end, testifying to speaking with a woman who knew the Maddoxes and who told him that Beasley had problems with them because of his belief that they had stolen marijuana from him. “Rob told her he was going to nix those kids,” Andrews stated.
At day's end a hearing also was held ordering this reporter to remove video clips from the Internet that had been initially approved as part of a media request on Tuesday.
Carter argued that he had not received proper notice of the request and stated that it was harming Beasley's right to a fair trial.
Lake County News argued that the jury selection procedure – in which potential jurors would have to divulge what they knew of the case – was the best way to balance Beasley's right to a fair trial with the public's right to know what was happening in the proceedings.
After an hour and a half of arguments, Judge Richard Martin ordered the videos be taken down by Wednesday night, and additional ordered that the materials could not be disseminated, although they could be used to create still images. All videos were completely removed shortly before 7 p.m. in compliance with the order.
Testimony is expected to continue at 10 a.m. Thursday.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A project to widen and improve a portion of Highway 29 is moving forward, state officials said Tuesday.
Caltrans reported that additional biological surveys will soon begin in order to complete the final environmental impact report (EIR) for the Lake 29 Improvement Project in Lake County.
This project proposes to widen an eight-mile segment of Route 29, from near Diener Drive to the
junction of Route 29/175 near Kelseyville, in order to accommodate projected growth, improve traffic flow, and increase overall safety by providing a four-lane highway that meets current design standards.
New environmental regulations have been enacted over the last few years which require additional biological surveys of wetlands and California Red-legged Frog habitat.
These new surveys will cover a larger area than previous surveys. They will begin soon and will take several winter seasons, resulting in a final EIR in the spring of 2015.
Caltrans has refined the project to address comments received at the public open house/public hearing held August of 2007, and has worked to reduce costs and environmental impacts.
Caltrans is also working to identify ways of constructing the project in smaller phases in order to more easily obtain funding.
BOONVILLE, Calif – The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is investigating a Thursday night armed robbery in Boonville in which money, jewelry and marijuana were taken by several Bay Area suspects who later led officials on an hour-long high-speed chase.
The incident occurred in the 14200 block of Highway 12, according to Sgt. Greg Van Patten.
Van Patten's report said that just after 10:30 a.m. Thursday off-duty Anderson Valley resident Deputy Keith Squires was contacted by several alleged victims – Philo residents Alex Arguelles-Renteria, 23, and Jose Gustavo Alvarez, 25, and Boonville residents Fernando Ferreyra, 32, and 45-year-old Carlos Guerrero – who reported the crime.
The alleged victims told Squires that they were socializing inside a tire shop located in downtown Boonville earlier in the evening and while barbecuing a meal three black male adult suspects entered the business from a rear access point, Van Patten said.
The suspects allegedly brandished handguns, pistol whipped each victim and forced them to lie on the floor. Van Patten said the suspects forcefully took cellular telephones, a wallet containing $3,000 in US currency, jewelry and car keys collectively from the victims.
After obtaining the car keys the suspects gained entry into a vehicle at the shop, which was owned by one of the victims. Van Patten said the suspects allegedly then took approximately 2 pounds of processed marijuana from the vehicle.
After allegedly committing the robbery, the suspects fled eastbound on Highway 128 toward Cloverdale in a burgundy sedan, Van Patten said.
He said the suspect information was broadcast to Sonoma County law enforcement agencies, which immediately responded to the area of Cloverdale.
A Sonoma County Sheriff's deputy was parked along Highway 101 near Highway 128 monitoring traffic in hopes of finding the burgundy sedan, when he saw it traveling southbound on Highway 101 at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour without its headlights on, Van Patten said.
For approximately the next hour personnel from the Cloverdale Police Department, Healdsburg Police Department and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department engaged the burgundy sedan in separate vehicular pursuits. Van Patten said that at times law enforcement personnel lost sight of the burgundy sedan and had to discontinue the pursuit as a result.
During this chain of events, Van Patten said Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies were looking for the burgundy sedan in the area of Windsor when they noticed a different vehicle traveling southbound on Highway 101 without its headlights on.
Van Patten said deputies stopped this second vehicle and found it was occupied by four black adult males, three of whom matched the physical descriptors of the robbery suspects.
These three males were identified as Garrett Alexander Bonner, 18, of Alameda; and Oakland residents Shawn Delmore Ford Jr. and Leon Samuel Patterson, both 23 years old. Van Patten said it was determined Ford and Patterson were on active California Department of Corrections parole.
Van Patten said during the investigation the deputies found that one of the suspects allegedly was found in possession of a cellular telephone receipt that was taken during the robbery.
A canvass of the immediate area resulted in the deputies finding the burgundy sedan parked and unoccupied, he added.
Mendocino County Sheriff's detectives responded to Sonoma County and conducted further investigations, during which Van Patten said they discovered a second listed suspect allegedly was in possession of another receipt taken during the robbery.
Van Patten said detectives also learned the suspects allegedly possessed US currency consistent with the type taken during the robbery and that one of the listed suspects was in possession of car keys that accessed the burgundy sedan parked near the scene of the traffic stop.
Detectives conducted a search of the burgundy sedan and located a total of approximately 18 pounds of processed marijuana. Van Patten said the marijuana was packaged separately in approximately 1-pound bags.
Based upon the preceding information Bonner, Ford Jr. and Patterson were arrested and transported to the Mendocino County Jail to be booked on a charge of robbery. Van Patten said at the request of detectives, the California Department of Corrections placed a parole hold on both Ford Jr. and Patterson.
The driver of the vehicle stopped by Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputies was determined to not be involved in the robbery and was later released, Van Patten said.
Investigations into the robbery are currently ongoing at this time by Mendocino County Sheriff's Office detectives, Van Patten said.
Anyone wishing to provide information in regards to this case is asked to call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line at 707-467-9159.
MARYSVILLE, Calif. – The Yuba Community College District will soon be looking for a new chancellor.
Dr. Nicki Harrington announced Wednesday that she will retire at the end of the academic year, June 30, after more than 35 years of experience in higher education.
“My tenure at YCCD has been quite rewarding and I will always look back at my years here with fond memories,” Dr. Harrington said. “Retiring at the end of this academic year is bitter sweet. I’m sad to leave but at the same time I leave with peace of mind knowing that the district is in sound financial shape and headed in the right direction.”
Dr. Harrington has led YCCD, a multi-college district consisting of Yuba College and Woodland Community College, since February 2002. The district serves southern Lake County through its Clear Lake campus.
“She successfully transitioned us from a single college district to a multi-college district with the accreditation of Woodland Community College as the 110th college in the state, led us through a successful facilities bond campaign, the first in our district’s 84 year history, and strengthened our strategic direction and financial position in a time of economic downturn,” said Xavier Tafoya, chair of the YCCD Board of Trustees. “She will be hard to replace.”
Harrington presided over a time that saw districts struggle with budget cuts and some job losses.
Both she and the district's board of trustees came under fire early last year after the board granted her a more than $29,000 annual raise at the time it was discussing layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.
Harrington said she originally had planned to retire in June 2012, but decided –after extensive review and reflection on the status of the district, its upcoming activities, “and what is best for both the district and me, both personally and professionally” – to retire earlier.
She said this all would be an “opportune time” to pass the baton to a new chancellor, who she said will have a strong executive team and a new board with whom to work to lead the district as it enters its next era.
There are projects under way throughout the district, said Harrington, including at the Clear Lake Campus, where the district last year purchased a property from the Konocti Unified School District to expand the facilities.
Harrington began her career in higher education as a faculty member, and subsequently served in dean, vice president, superintendent/president and chancellor positions.
She has held faculty and administrative positions in both two and four year colleges and universities, and has served in three chief executive officer positions in the past 14 years.
In 2008-09 Harrington served as the 0resident of the Chief Executive Officers of the California Community Colleges, and in 2009 as the chair of the Economic Development Program Advisory Committee for the State of California.
She also sits on the Board of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO), and the Sacramento Region’s Linking Education and Economic Development (LEED) Board.
The district – which spans eight counties and some 4,200 square miles of territory in rural, north-central California – reported that it will begin a national search for the next chancellor immediately, with an expected start date of this summer.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Chamber of Commerce reported that it is extending the deadline for Stars of Lake County nominations.
The nominations deadline has been moved to the close of business on Friday, Jan. 28. All postmarked nominations bearing that date will be honored.
For those writing nominations, please keep in mind that details about why your nominee deserves to be awarded a Star of Lake County are very important. The Stars Selection Committee depends upon and makes their final decisions on the details they are provided on each nominee.
The 14th annual Stars of Lake County Community Awards will be held on March 5 at Robinson Rancheria Resort & Casino.
Please contact the Lake County Chamber with any questions concerning the nomination process. The Chamber office is located at 875 Lakeport Blvd. at Vista Point, Lakeport, telephone 707-263-5092.
The list of current nominees is as follows.
Marla Ruzicka Humanitarian of the Year
1. Carolyn Wing Greenlee, Kelseyville
2. Ben Finneston, Clearlake
Senior of the Year
1. Edward McDonald, Lakeport
2. Ginger Frank, Lucerne
Volunteer of the Year
1. Gerald Morehouse, Lucerne
Student of the Year-Female
No nominations.
Student of the Year-Male
No nominations.
Youth Advocate of the Year-Volunteer
No nominations.
Youth Advocate of the Year-Professional
1. Michelle Meese, Kelseyville
Agriculture Award
1. Scully Packing Co., Finley
2. Annette Hopkins, AgVenture Program, Lake County
Organization of the Year, nonprofit
1. Lakeport Speedway, Lakeport
Organization of the Year, volunteer
No nominations.
Environmental Award
1. Terry Knight, Lakeport
New Business of the Year
1. Riviera Fitness, Kelseyville
2. Color Splash Photos, Lakeport
3. Common Grounds Coffee House, Kelseyville
Small Business of the Year
1. Lannette R. Huffman, DDS, Lakeport
2. Lake County Jazzercise, Middletown
3. Airport Auto Brokers, Lakeport
4. Lucerne Pharmacy & Alpine Café, Lucerne
Large Business of the Year
No nominations.
Best Idea of the Year
1. Lake County Quilt Trail, All Around Lake County
2. AgVenture, All Around Lake County
Local Hero of the Year
1. Aaron Wright and Rich Swaney, Cal-Trans Workers, Clearlake Oaks
The Arts Award of the Year-Amateur
No nominations.
The Arts Award of the Year-Professional
No nominations.
Woman of the Year
1. Stephanie Lilly, Kelseyville
Man of the Year
1. Brian Grey, DDS, MDS, Lakeport
Lifetime Achievement
1. Allen Gott, Clearlake
Stars of Lake County Sponsors to date are St. Helena Hospital-Clearlake, Jim Jonas Inc, North Lake Medical Pharmacy, Shannon Ridge Winery, Cliff and Nancy Ruzicka, Westamerica Bank, Strong Financial Network, Congressman Mike Thompson, John Tomkins, Lake County Record-Bee and Lake County Land Trust.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A judge's decision on whether or not a man will stand trial for the January 2010 murders of a Maine couple is expected Friday morning.
Judge Richard Martin will reconvene session in Lakeport at that time and announce his decision in the case of 30-year-old Robby Alan Beasley.
Beasley is accused of shooting Frank and Yvette Maddox to death on Jan. 22, 2010. The couple had reportedly come to California to do marijuana trimming in Beasley's growing operation.
He is facing two counts of murder and special allegations of committing multiple murders in the first or second degree, committing the offenses with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims, using a 9 millimeter firearm and having a previous felony conviction in Maine for criminal threatening with a firearm.
Beasley is alleged to have tricked the Maddoxes into giving him a ride to the airport, directing them down Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake and asking them to pull over where, after a brief confrontation, he allegedly shot them both.
Testimony alleges that Beasley drug their bodies down an embankment and shot them each in the head once more to make sure they were dead.
Some of that testimony was given on Tuesday by 28-year-old Elijah Bae McKay, Beasley's co-defendant in the case. McKay, also a former Maine resident, is facing two murder charges and several of the same special allegations. His preliminary hearing is expected to take place this spring.
The third day of Beasley's preliminary hearing at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport wrapped up early Thursday afternoon and included brief visits to the stand by three young women who arrived from Maine the previous day in order to testify.
Starr Larrabee, Yvette Colon and Maria Carrion gave testimony that, combined, totaled about 20 minutes.
Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe called Larrabee first. Larrabee testified to being friends with Yvette Maddox, who stayed with Larrabee for about a year while her husband was incarcerated.
Larrabee said Frank Maddox was released from custody in August of 2009 and later that fall she drove them to the bus stop on their way to California.
She and Yvette Maddox exchanged occasional phone calls after the Maddoxes came west, with Yvette Maddox telling her friend that one of the two numbers she gave her belonged to her “boss,” Beasley.
Larrabee said Yvette Maddox told her that both she and her husband had a job in California trimming marijuana, and “it was on the up and up.”
Frank Maddox told Larrabee that he was expecting to make $10,000 a month at the job, but Yvette Maddox told Larrabee a different story, saying at one point “they had no money to even eat.”
Yvette Maddox also told Larrabee about a fight she had with Beasley, who allegedly threatened her while Frank Maddox reportedly stood by and did nothing. Beasley allegedly told Yvette Maddox that if she didn't leave California she would be killed. According to Larrabee's recollection, that conversation occurred in January 2010.
Defense attorney Stephen Carter did not cross-examine Larrabee, nor did he question Colon when she came to the stand next.
Colon, Yvette Maddox's daughter, said she also was given a phone number belonging to Beasley to reach her mother once she came to California.
Yvette Maddox told her daughter sometime in December 2009 or January 2010 that she and Beasley had fought, with one of the issues being a laptop.
“He had threatened that she could be handled and he threatened her with a gun,” while Frank Maddox said nothing, Yvette Colon said.
“She was just scared,” Colon said of her mother.
The third and final witness of the day and the hearing's final overall witness, was Maria Carrion, who called Yvette Maddox her best friend.
It was after Yvette Maddox and her husband were in California for about two months that she told Carrion she was working “in a field” trimming marijuana, and that Beasley had threatened her.
Carrion said she spoke with Yvette Maddox between Jan. 20 and 22, 2010, at which time “she said that she was going to give Robby a ride to the airport, to the Sacramento Airport, because his grandmother had died.”
According to McKay's testimony on Tuesday, the story about Beasley's grandmother dying had been part of a ruse Beasley had planned to use in order to get the couple into a vehicle in order to shake them down.
Before hanging up the phone with Carrion, Yvette Maddox told her friend that if anything happened to her it was because of Beasley.
Carter's only question of Carrion was a clarification on the spelling of her name, and Grothe said he had no further witnesses.
Prosecution, defense argue hearsay exclusions
For the remainder of the morning, Judge Martin focused on considering Carter's request to strike all hearsay statements provided during the three days of preliminary hearing this week – including that provided by Larrabee, Colon and Carrion – regarding statements made to them by the Maddoxes.
Grothe has sought to have the statements included under a new California evidence code section that went into effect at the start of this month, and which is meant to allow hearsay in cases where a defendant in a criminal matter has prevented a witness – either through intimidation or another means, such as murder – from testifying. He said it also can address cases where a witness is claiming the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Grothe said it was important to look at the whole background of why the Maddoxes were killed in making a determination on Carter's motion to strike, as he held the murders were a matter of preventing the couple from making statements to harm McKay and Beasley, which he believed made the hearsay admissible.
“The entire thrust of Mr. McKay's testimony was these folks aren't working out, they're doing drugs, they're causing trouble, they're mixing with the locals,” Grothe said, noting they were a threat because they were not controllable.
The final push for the murders came when Beasley came to believe they had stolen marijuana from him, Grothe said.
Grothe asserted that Beasley took action against the couple while they were alive and after they were dead in order to silence them. The murders were an attempt to silence, as was hiding their bodies off the road out of sight and moving their vehicle, he argued.
In addition to the three witnesses Thursday, Carter also wanted testimony stricken that was offered by Tyreshia Celestin-Willis and Elvin Sikes on Tuesday.
“All of the testimony?” asked Martin.
Carter said yes. “In terms of the testimony of each of those witnesses, almost all of it was about these hearsay statements” from one of both of the Maddoxes, Carter said.
He said the easiest way to handle the matter was to strike all of the testimony, rather than having to go through all of it.
Citing case law, Carter said the courts have “deep respect” for the confrontation clause, which provides a defendant the opportunity to question their accuser. He noted that only in time of dying declarations or when there is evidence of a defendant's attempt to procure a witness' absence are exceptions made, as the defendant should not benefit from wrongdoing.
But Carter worried that if everyone charged with murder was accused of trying to prevent a witness' testimony, it would open the door to every potential bit of hearsay. “How could we open up that door when it would obviously violate the confrontation clause?”
Carter said at the time of the Maddoxes' deaths, there was no criminal case pending against Beasley in which the Maddoxes were involved. Carter said of Grothe's case on the evidentiary rule, “It's an interesting argument but I don't think it's at all in line with the law.”
Martin said he didn't intend to strike the testimony, but rather to not consider hearsay evidence when making his decision in the case.
Carter maintained, “Hearsay should be stricken. It shouldn't be left in the record.”
Martin clarified. “Some of the testimony did not constitute hearsay and did not involve the issues we're discussing here,” explaining he was trying to distinguish between what was harmless and what was hearsay.
Carter asked for a record to be created of what evidence will be allowed to stay, which Martin said he would do.
“I will be specific as to which areas of testimony where your objections are sustained and which are not,” said Martin, which he added would allow an appellate court to look at the case later.
Martin went over the case law he researched during a morning break, and distinguished between the kind of “testimonial” evidence law enforcement officers might take during an investigation and statements to friends like those given in Beasley's preliminary hearing.
“Here we have the individual that is killed not talking to police but talking to a few friends and not doing anything to have police intervention and have this testimonial atmosphere,” he said, pointing out that such testimony is less reliable than it is when a person is aware that it will be brought into a court.
He explained the reasons for not accepting hearsay and the long record of not doing so in US common law. “For that reason the court is willing to grant Mr. Carter's motion.”
Grothe suggested that one of the statements given in testimony by Celestin-Willis, in which she had recounted Yvette Maddox telling her she had been threatened by Beasley with “coming up missing,” could be considered an “excited utterance” and would therefore be admissible on its own merits.
Martin said there were portions of statements from the witnesses who gave hearsay that included observations those witnesses actually had made. He said he wouldn't allow the statement as an excited utterance, but would allow Celestin-Willis' testimony about Yvette Maddox hiding in her house when her husband drove up.
As the session wrapped up on Thursday, Martin said he planned to go through the testimony and distinguish what would and would not be allowed, and on Friday would offer his conclusions along with his decision on whether or not Beasley would stand trial for the murders.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on Wednesday lauded the announcement by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan that California organizations will receive more than $227 million in federal grants to provide housing and other assistance to Californians who are homeless.
“Since the recession began, California and the rest of the nation have seen an increase in homelessness,” Boxer said. “These federal investments will help us combat the epidemic of homelessness so people can get back on their feet and off the streets.”
The HUD Continuum of Care grants support homeless programs that provide permanent and transitional housing to homeless people and offer services such as job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care.
The grants are funded through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
In all, 801 California homeless assistance programs – including efforts in neighboring Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa and Colusa counties – will receive about 16 percent of the total $1.4 billion in HUD grants announced Wednesday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – For emergency planning purposes, scientists unveiled a hypothetical California scenario that describes a storm that could produce up to 10 feet of rain, cause extensive flooding (in many cases overwhelming the state’s flood-protection system) and result in more than $300 billion in damage.
The "ARkStorm Scenario," prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and released at the ARkStorm Summit in Sacramento on Jan. 13 and 14, combines prehistoric geologic flood history in California with modern flood mapping and climate-change projections to produce a hypothetical, but plausible, scenario aimed at preparing the emergency response community for this type of hazard.
The USGS, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Emergency Management Agency convened the two-day summit to engage stakeholders from across California to take action as a result of the scenario's findings, which were developed over the last two years by more than 100 scientists and experts.
"The ARkStorm scenario is a complete picture of what that storm would do to the social and economic systems of California," said Lucy Jones, chief scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project and architect of ARkStorm. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes. The ARkStorm is essentially two historic storms (January 1969 and February 1986) put back to back in a scientifically plausible way. The model is not an extremely extreme event."
Jones noted that the largest damages would come from flooding – the models estimate that almost one-fourth of the houses in California would experience some flood damage from this storm.
"The time to begin taking action is now, before a devastating natural hazard event occurs," said USGS Director, Marcia McNutt. "This scenario demonstrates firsthand how science can be the foundation to help build safer communities. The ARkStorm scenario is a scientifically vetted tool that emergency responders, elected officials and the general public can use to plan for a major catastrophic event to help prevent a hazard from becoming a disaster."
To define impacts of the ARkStorm, the USGS, in partnership with the California Geological Survey, created the first statewide landslide susceptibility maps for California that are the most detailed landslide susceptibility maps ever created.
The project also resulted in the first physics-based coastal storm modeling system for analyzing severe storm impacts (predicting wave height and coastal erosion) under present-day scenarios and under various climate-change and sea-level-rise scenarios.
Because the scenario raised serious questions about existing national, state and local disaster policy and emergency management systems, ARkStorm became the theme of the 2010 Extreme Precipitation Symposium at U.C. Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, attracting over 200 leaders in meteorology and flood management.
ARkStorm is part of the efforts to create a National Real-Time Flood Mapping initiative to improve flood management nationwide. ARkStorm also provided a platform for emergency managers, meteorologists and hydrologists to work together to develop a scaling system for west coast storms.
"Cal EMA is proud to partner with the USGS in this important work to protect California from disasters," said Cal EMA Acting Secretary Mike Dayton. "In order to have the most efficient and effective plans and response capabilities, we have to have the proper science to base it on. Californians are better protected because of the scientific efforts of the United States Geological Survey."
According to FEMA Region IX Director, Nancy Ward, "The ARkStorm report will prove to be another invaluable tool in engaging the whole of our community in addressing flood emergencies in California. It is entirely possible that flood control infrastructure and mitigation efforts could be overwhelmed by the USGS ARkStorm scenario, and the report suggests ways forward to limit the damage that is sure to result."
The two-day summit included professional flood managers, emergency mangers, first responders, business continuity managers, forecasters, hydrologists and decision makers. Many of the scientists responsible for coordinating the ARkStorm scenario presented the science behind the scenario, including meteorology, forecasting, flood modeling, landslides and physical and economic impacts.
The ARkStorm Scenario is the second scenario from the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project led by Jones, which earlier created the ShakeOut earthquake scenario. More information about the ARkStorm Summit is online. The ArkStorm Scenario, USGS Open-File Report 2010-1312, is also online. Visit www.usgs.gov.
