Sacto 9-1-1

Roseville police today arrested a son in the killing of his father last May.

Christopher Dale Northam, 44, was fatally shot May 30 at the warehouse in Roseville where he was about to open an innovative new business: indoor skim-boarding. Northam had at least one gunshot wound to his head.

This morning detectives arrested Christopher Jon Michael Northam, 25, of Roseville, on a warrant charging him with the homicide of his father.

The son's ex-wife, Averill Elizabeth Easley, 34, of Roseville was also arrested on a warrant charging that she was an accessory after the fact. She is suspected of giving false and misleading information to police about key facts.

At the time of his death, Northam was reportedly negotiating with a major investor from Dubai who was interested in helping launch and expand the business.

Dubbed Skim X, the venture aimed to combine skim-boarding and skateboarding in an indoor water park. Northam was a partner in the business with his son, Christopher.

Roseville police conducted a nearly 9-month investigation, which included witness interviews, search warrants, the examination of financial records and the elimination of other potential suspects, according to a department press release.

In the end, police said, detectives concluded that the elder Northam was killed by his son for financial gain, according to a press release.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies were called this morning to a home in southern Sacramento County where a family was tied up by robbers.

Shortly before 9 a.m., the deputies responded to the robbery call at a residence in the 8800 block of Skipjack Way near Gerber Road and Elk Grove-Florin Road.

Deputies said the suspects, clad in brightly colored vests, used the ruse that they were utility workers to get into the home. Once inside, they handcuffed and tied up the family before searching for cash.

The suspects left without injuring anyone. A media alert from the sheriff's department said it was not immediately known if the robbers were successful in getting away with any loot.

Two men were killed Tuesday night in a murder-suicide that occurred in the parking lot of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District headquarters, Sacramento police officials report.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office this morning identified the dead as Robert Gully, 73, of West Sacramento and Jerome Votaw, 62, of Sacramento.

Police said the shooting may have been prompted by a love triangle.

A Sacramento man has been sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

Melvin Lee Gregory, 30, was sentenced in federal court in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge John A Mendez, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. His prison term is to be followed by one year of supervised release.

According to court documents, between March and July 2010, Gregory stole U.S. mail, looking for financial and identification information. He opened lines of credit using his victims' personal information, and obtained cash and goods from merchants and financial institutions in the Sacramento area.

A Nevada City man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to involvement in a marijuana and money laundering operation.

Charles Miller Hilkey Jr., 58, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to conspiring with others to cultivate marijuana and to structuring financial transactions to avoid federal reporting, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, Hilkey was the leader of a significant marijuana growing operation. The marijuana grown on multiple properties that he controlled was ostensibly for medical purposes. Officials said Hilkey and his confederates structured various financial transactions with some of the money they made selling marijuana to avoid financial reporting requirements under federal law. Hilkey structured at least $859,000 in transactions with one or more financial institutions, usually post offices in Nevada County.

By Kim Minugh and Cathy Locke

kminugh@sacbee.com

Two men were killed Tuesday night in a murder-suicide that occurred in the parking lot of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District headquarters, Sacramento police officials report.

Police spokesman Andrew Pettit said the men were not SMUD employees but were among a group of people using SMUD facilities for a meeting.

Pettit provided these details about the fatal incident:

Placer County sheriff's detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying a woman accused of passing counterfeit bills throughout the county.

The woman (pictured) was captured on surveillance videos in different businesses where she passed bogus bills, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. Officials said the bills (pictured) look authentic and have a stripe printed on them, so that when a clerk holds the bill up to a light source, the stripe and watermarks are visible. In this case, however, the stripe and watermark are clearly printed on the back of the bill.

Anyone with information about the woman is asked to call Detective Jim Hudson at (530) 889-7855. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward, call Placer County Crime Stoppers at (800) 923-8191, or go to the website at www.placercrimestoppers.com.

A judge today ordered a woman to stand trial for murder on charges she burned her two-month-old baby to death by placing her in a microwave oven.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene Balonon also found evidence to support the special allegation filed by prosecutors that Ka Yang also tortured the baby. The allegation would guarantee Yang a life term in prison with no chance of parole if she is convicted. Prosecutors earlier agreed to not pursue the death penalty because Yang has no prior criminal record.

Yang, 30, is accused in the March 17 burning death of her infant daughter, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, in their home on Rood Avenue in the Robla neighborhood on the city's north side.

A 16-year-old was grazed in the head by gunfire as a result of another teen playing with a handgun, police said.

Sacramento police said the two 16-year-olds were in the backyard of a residence in the 100 block of Fairbanks Avenue in Strawberry Manor on Sunday morning when the recently acquired weapon fired.

One of the teens was "playing with the handgun" when it fired, according to a police activity log.

The injured boy was treated and released from the hospital. The 16-year-old who was handling the weapon was booked into Sacramento County Juvenile Hall for suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm.

A group that provides train rides to boys and girls has had a vintage tractor stolen that was essential to keeping their Rancho Cordova excursion railroad in good running order.

The Sacramento Valley Live Steamers, a nonprofit organization runs a scale-model steam train in Hagan Community Park, has been delighting children since the early 1970s with train rides through the trees with glimpses of American River.

The railroad line has endured vandalism and the theft of tools and track before, but never something like what happened last week when somebody took their vintage tractor.

A week ago, somebody broke into a locked shipping container and took the group's red-orange 1951 Ferguson farm tractor with a front loader. The tractor is used for a variety of tasks, including carrying gravel ballast that is used under the tracks.

The group is in the process of replacing track. That's when the sturdy workhorse comes in handy.

But now it is gone, apparently driven away down the bike trail.

"I'm told that the transmission is worth $1,000 on its own," said Bill Yoder, president of the Live Steamers. "As heavy as that thing is, they will probably chop it up and sell it for scrap."

Yoder wanted help in making the public aware of the theft in hope that somebody spots the hard-to-hide tractor. The group has offered a $1,000 reward for its return in good condition.

Any information about the stolen tractor should be provided to Rancho Cordova Police, Yoder said.

Starting in March, the group plans to start excursion runs again. Yoder will use his small tractor to move gravel.

PHOTO CAPTION: The stolen vintage tractor. Sacramento Valley Live Steamers

The man who ran over Maggie the cattle dog has been given more jail time.

Justin Phillip Lombardo-Barton, 19, of Camptonville, was sentenced in October to five years probation and time served. A Sierra Superior Court judge gave Lombardo-Barton credit for 122 days served in county jail.

Sierra County District Attorney Larry Allen said in an e-mail that Lombardo-Barton was recently brought back into court on a probation violation for failing to keep in contact with his probation officer.

This time the judge game him 360 days in jail and reinstated probation.

Lombardo-Barton, who pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty and hit-and-run badly injured the border collie that Nevada County rancher John Reader raised from a pup.

On June 19, Maggie was helping Reader and mounted riders herd about 300 head of cattle along Alleghany-Ridge Road in Sierra County en route to summer pasture. Pilot cars were in front and back of the herd.

As the cattle moved along the road, cars stopped to let the herd pass. But a white Jeep Cherokee pushed through instead of waiting. Reader said the driver gunned the car, ran into a calf and cow, and struck Maggie, who was on the road's shoulder.

Maggie suffered a broken right hind leg and a deep cut to her left hind leg, and her liver and stomach were pushed into her chest cavity. She underwent surgery to repair her broken leg with a pin and screws.

A few days later, Sierra County sheriff's deputies arrested Lombardo-Barton.

Maggie was nursed back to health by Loomis Basin Veterinary Clinic and eventually went back to the Reader ranch. Dozens of people donated to help cover her medical costs.

PHOTO CAPTION: Maggie, the injured cattle dog, is released from Loomis Basin Veterinary Hospital in July 2011/Autumn Cruz/Sacramento Bee

Citrus Heights officers working on a domestic violence call this morning say they were greeted by a shotgun blast that shattered a sliding glass door.

Police said that about 12:45 a.m. today they responded to meet a woman who was the victim of assault. She told them that her husband, Loren Fullmer, 43, assaulted her while they were inside their vehicle.

Police obtained an emergency protective order on behalf of the victim. At about 2:11 a.m. officers tried to contact Fullmer at his home in the 5800 block of Sunrise Vista Drive.

Officers knocked on the front door. At about the same time they allege Fullmer fired one shotgun round through the frame of a sliding glass door several feet away from the front door.

Officers ordered Fullmer to surrender, which he did several minutes later, according to a department press release.

Officers later confiscated a 12-guage shotgun and a spent casing from the home. Fullmer who police said was on probation for burglary, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and weapons violations.

PHOTO CAPTION: Loren Fullmer/Citrus Heights police

By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com

In a new twist to a gruesome San Joaquin County search, convicted killer Wesley Shermantine has described the location of a third well where he says a murder victim can be found, bounty hunter Leonard Padilla said Monday night.

"It means that there's another body out there to be found," said Padilla.

Authorities have identified one of the pilots involved in the Sunday
night collision over the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in which an airplane
clipped a helicopter near Rio Vista.

Ronald Albert Gawer, 49, of Brentwood, was at the controls of the
Beechcraft Bonanza airplane that had made contact with a Robinson R22
helicopter shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, according to lead operations
specialist Mark Grosenheider of the Byron Airport in Contra Costa County.

Gawer crash-landed his aircraft short of the runway at Byron,
Grosenheider said. He had a passenger with him, and both were shaken up in
the crash, but neither was hurt seriously, according to Grosenheider.

Federal aviation authorities are investigating a mid-air collision that took place tonight when an airplane clipped a helicopter while the two were flying over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The unidentified pilots of the Beechcraft Bonanza airplane and the Robinson R22 helicopter only suffered minor injuries from the 7 p.m. accident that occurred while the two aircraft were in the air over Antioch, according to Sacramento sheriff's officials.

Sacramento sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said the airplane was able to make it to Byron Airport in Contra Costa County where it sustained damage upon landing.

The helicopter crashed in a field about eight miles south of the Rio Vista Airport, on Sherman Island near Highway 160, according Ramos and Federal Aviation Administration Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor.

A 45-year-old man was in critical condition in the hospital Sunday after he was struck in the crosswalk by a hit-and-run motorist at Stockton Boulevard this morning, the Sacramento Police Department reported.

Police said the incident occurred before 7 a.m. at Stockton Boulevard and Dias Avenue.

Investigators reported the car that hit the pedestrian was a newer model charcoal gray sedan, possibly a Honda., and that the driver is an Asian mail, 36-42 years old, medium build with "scruffy facial hair."