Sacto 9-1-1

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has released the names of two people who were shot to death in recent days.

Laki Lee Lopa is the 19-year-old man who was gunned down in a North Avenue homicide in Del Paso Heights. It was reported to Sacramento police at 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

Michael Sanderson, 54, was slain at 12:15 a.m. Friday in an apartment complex in the 5700 block of Manzanita Avenue.

A pedestrian who died Saturday after he was struck by a van last month in Citrus Heights has been listed as a homicide victim by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office.

Leonard Lambeth, 76, was hit by the vehicle around 3 a.m. on June 27 outside his apartment complex in the 7700 block of Greenback Lane.

Citrus Heights police Sgt. Chad Courtney said somebody other than the victim threw an object at the van, which prompted it to stop, back up and then strike Lambeth, who was either crossing the street or standing on the sidewalk.

Rocklin police are investigating a robbery today at Jasmine's Donuts.

Investigators said the suspect wore a blue bandana over his face and carried a black semi-automatic handgun when he entered the Sunset Boulevard doughnut shop around 8:22 a.m. The suspect demanded money, pushed the clerk and grabbed cash from the register, the police said in a press release.

Police described the suspect as a 6-foot black man with a slim build in his early 20s and wearing a hooded sweatshirt. They say he also tried to rob a customer who didn't have any money.

Sacramento police are on the lookout for three juveniles suspected of carrying out a series of armed robberies between 2 and 4:30 a.m. today.

In one of the robberies a victim was shot in the eye. In another, two female victims were forced to disrobe and then were touched sexually, police said today.

The robbery spree centered in the Oak Park area and extended into a neighborhood a short distance to the south.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

A male teenager was shot and killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning on North Avenue, the Sacramento Police Department said in a news statement.

The 19-year-old victim's name has not been released yet.

Officers responded around 2:30 a.m. to the 900 block of North Avenue after gunshots were fired. One of the officers was directed to a vehicle containing the young gunshot victim, the release said.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

Leslie R. Bellamy, 38, was one of two people found dead in a south Sacramento home Friday afternoon, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said this morning.

"We are officially investigating these deaths as a murder-suicide," said Deputy Jason Ramos.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a woman who they believe was with the victim of a North Sacramento homicide shortly before the man was shot to death early Friday morning.

The woman, pictured in surveillance footage to the left, is not considered a suspect in the investigation, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. Detectives believe she may have been with the victim in the hours before his death, and want to talk with her regarding what occurred during the evening, the release states.

A Chico man today pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to one count of mail fraud for his role in a multimillion-dollar "building bailout" mortgage fraud scheme.

During his plea hearing in district court, William E. Baker, 65, admitted that he and others conspired with Garret Griffith Gililland III, 30, formerly of Chico, to artificially inflate the sales prices of new homes sold to Gililland's buyers, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. After close of escrow, Baker & Baker Construction would rebate significant sums of money to a front company controlled by Gililland.

On one occasion, Baker misrepresented the purpose of the payments to Gililland's company as "improvements for three houses." In fact, officials said, Giilland's company made no improvements to homes sold by Baker to Gililland's buyers.

Six Sacramento residents, including five members of single family, have been charged in federal court with sex trafficking of minors.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento on Thursday returned a 13-count indictment charging Tynisha Marie Hornbuckle, 22, Tamrell Rena Hornbuckle, 25, Latrelle Alicia Hornbuckle, 23, Cherrelle Elizabeth Hornbuckle, 24, Tammy Rena Brown, 43, and Jacquelin Lanoise Radisha Wade, 24, with conspiring to commit sex trafficking of minors by force, fraud or coercion. Various other charges include sex trafficking of minors, tampering with witnesses and making false statements relating to their sex trafficking of minors.

The Hornbuckles are sisters, and Brown is their mother, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. All were arrested today.

Gregory Wolfe, the former manager of Aquarius Pools Inc., has been sentenced to two years in state prison for his role in the company's demise.

During his tenure as the company's general manager, Wolfe repeatedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars that the company had received from numerous pool customers throughout the Sacramento Valley, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release. His wife, Teresa Wolfe, was previously sentenced to one year in jail after pleading no contest to felony embezzlement and tax evasion.

Law enforcement agents with the Contractors State License Board, the Franchise Tax Board and the District Attorney's Office spent several thousand hours investigating and studying the collapse of the firm, executing search warrants and issuing numerous subpoenas to obtain all necessary documents and evidence, according to the news release.

Sacramento police have arrested a man they believe may be responsible for more than 100 cases of vandalism involving graffiti on walls, signs, sidewalks and trash bins in the midtown area.

Over the last couple of years, Sacramento City Code Enforcement and Sacramento Police Department officers, along with the Sacramento County District Attorney's community prosecutor have worked to identify the prolific tagger, who used the monikers "Reid" and "Reidel", according to a Police Department news release.

Officers were able to develop information that led to the arrest of Nicholas Larson (pictured), 21.

A man and woman were found dead this afternoon in a south Sacramento home and authorities are investigating the deaths as suspicious, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said that deputies were called out to a home on Malt Court near Power Inn and Gerber Road after the woman's employer had notified authorities that the woman had not shown up to work today.

When deputies arrived, no one responded to knocks on the door, Ramos said. He added that neighbors told deputies that a car had been at the house unmoved for several days and that a porch light had been on for several days.

Deputies forced their way into the home. In one upstairs room, they found a dead female, believed to be in her late 30s or early 40s, with signs of trauma, Ramos said. In another upstairs room, they found a dead male, believed to be in his late 40s or early 50s, also with signs of trauma.

The names of the deceased were not released. Ramos said the man has not been identified, so the relationship between the man and the woman is undetermined. He also said that even though the deaths are being treated as homicides, it is not know whether is was a double homicide or a murder-suicide.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said this week he has sufficient jail space in the short term to accommodate inmates transferred from the state to counties under Governor Jerry Brown's prison realignment plan, but that more beds will be needed in the long term.

The specific impact of the realignment plan on counties is not yet known, and Jones said much of his understanding at this point is based on "largely anecdotal" information. Nevertheless, Jones said his department estimates it will take custody of 1,200 to 1,800 of the state's inmates over the next few years, beginning in October.

Jones said his department is trying to plan for the influx by discussing alternate sentencing options to keep low-level inmates out of jail; the best use of the county's current facilities and possibly even construction in the future.

"There are very few firm answers," Jones said. However, "We are not burying our head in the sand and hoping it goes away."

A man suspected in at least eight residential burglaries in Auburn in the recent weeks was arrested early Thursday morning after allegedly breaking into a home.

Auburn police officers responded to the 900 block of Lincoln Way regarding a report that a man had broken into a home and was walking in the area.

The man, later identified as Brandon Kendall, 27, had been followed on foot by a citizen who had seen him climbing out a window of a residence in the 100 block of Crutcher Court, according to a Police Department news release. The citizen kept an eye on Kendall while she called police on her cellphone and kept officers informed of his location.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Isleton Police Chief Rick Sullivan announced his retirement Friday, prompting the Delta hamlet to name a a sergeant as interim chief.

City manager Bruce Pope said Sullivan, who was named interim chief of the Isleton Police Department in 2009 before taking on the position full-time, stepped down Friday because he simply "wanted to retire."

Steve Adams, previously a sergeant with the department, was named acting police chief until a formal application process can be conducted, Pope said. Adams has been a sworn member of the department for less than a month, but volunteered with the department prior to that, Pope said.

A man who backed his motor home into his girlfriend, then drove off dragging her underneath the vehicle, was sentenced today to 70 years to life in prison and a determinate sentence of 11 years.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Troy Nunley sentenced Darryl Keith Alexander, 41, for the second-degree murder of Ginger Ball, 56. Ball was killed July 30, 2010.

Alexander stopped the motor home when he heard bystanders screaming, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies are investigating the discovery of two bodies in a Florin-area home.

The cause of death of the man and woman is not yet known; however, sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos said there is possible evidence of foul play.

Deputies discovered the bodies this afternoon when they were called to the home in the 7600 block of Malt Court, near Gerber and Power Inn roads, for a welfare check on a resident who hadn't been heard from or seen in awhile, Ramos said.

Check back later for more information.

Five Oroville men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Sacramento for participating in marijuana cultivation and distribution.

The grand jury Thursday returned a six-count indictment charging the men for conspiring to cultivate marijuana and ship it to New York.

A judge sentenced William Michael Todd to 26 years to life in prison on his first-degree murder conviction in the stabbing death of his friend last year.

Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet handed down the term to the 37-year-old defendant for the May 31, 2010, killing of David Paul Endres, 44.

The two had been sitting outside a friend's apartment in the 3200 block of Azevedo Drive when Todd stabbed Endres for looking at the defendant's wife, prosecutors said.

A Sacramento judge expressed anger and outrage today in a written statement he read from the bench in sentencing three men to a combined total of 2,492 years to life in prison with no chance of parole for a crime spree five years ago that culminated with a robbery-murder in Land Park.

"I don't think I have adequate words to describe the level of malevolence and depravity displayed by these defendants," Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage said before he imposed the terms of Alex Brown Jr., Terry Larell Alexander and David Jacob Carrera.

The defendants "quite literally made war" in a week-long crime rampage, Savage said form the bench. The 21 counts they were convicted on included the Jan. 3, 2006, shooting death of James Ramirez, 18, in the doorway of his parents' home on Francis Court.

An elderly man was killed by a suspected drunken driver in a head-on collision Thursday evening in Magalia, northeast of Chico.

The 80-year-old victim was driving at about 20 mph in the northbound lane of Skyway Road when he was hit by a southbound car driven at about 35 mph by Jordan Fischbach, 23. Authorities said Fischbach's vehicle had drifted across double yellow lines into the path of the victim's car.

After the collision, Fischbach waited at the scene for emergency personnel to arrive. The victim died at the scene.

Fischbach was taken to Enloe Hospital where he was treated for moderate injuries and was arrested for a felony DUI.

A man was fatally shot early this morning after two men forced their way into a Carmichael apartment, authorities said.

The 54-year-old victim was shot in the upper torso and died at an area hospital. The Sacramento County Coroner's office has not yet identified the victim, pending notification of his family.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies responded to an apartment complex on the 5700 block of Manzanita Avenue about 12:15 a.m. after receiving reports of gunfire. They found the victim and a witness inside an apartment unit where the victim lived, said sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos.

The witness, who is a friend of the victim, told deputies that two men knocked on the door, forced their way inside and pushed him to the floor. He was held there by one suspect as the other found the victim in another room.

A 48-year-old man has been convicted of engaging in sex acts with a child under the age of 10 after the victim, now 5, testified during the trial.

A Sacramento County Superior Court jury found Russell Armitage guilty of repeatedly assaulting the youngster, a relative, during a period of about 18 months when the child was 3 and 4 years old, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

Officials said Armitage faces 135 years to life in prison and is to be sentenced Aug. 26 by Judge Russell L. Hom.

A Sacramento County Superior Court jury has found a convicted child molester guilty of molesting three other youngsters.

Alejandro Carrillo, 42, previously was convicted of child molestation in 1991, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

In 2001, he moved in with a new girlfriend and her there daughters, ages 7, 9 and 11. The girlfriend did not know about Carrillo's previous conviction and allowed him to watch her daughters while she was at work.

A guard with the California State Department of Corrections has been arrested in connection with a robbery Tuesday at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Lodi.

At 5:40 p.m., a man later identified as Daniel Duffy (pictured), 26, walked into the pharmacy at 520 W. Lodi Ave. He told the pharmacist that he had a gun and wanted Oxycotin, according to a Lodi Police Department news release. The pharmacist complied, and Duffy left the store with the Oxycotin.

Police said the pharmacist told officers that he recognized the man and knew him by name.

A man from Michoacan, Mexico, has been sentenced to prison for cultivating marijuana on public land.

Nemesio Reyna Ortega, 20, was sentenced in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to three years and one month in prison.

According to court documents, law enforcement agents raided a marijuana-growing operation in a rural area of Tehama Count on Aug. 6, 2010, arresting Ortega and co-defendant Jose Pelayo, 37, also from Mexico. Agents found 5,344 marijuana plants at the grow site, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

A Long Beach man accused of conducting a massive identity theft scheme was sentenced today in federal court in Sacramento to more than 12 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. sentenced That Tien Truong Nguyen, 34, to 12 years and seven months in prison for conspiring to commit computer fraud and access device fraud, access device fraud, possession of stolen access devices and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The case resulted from and investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

The Sacramento Police Department will launch a weeklong motorcycle safety enforcement program Saturday in an effort to reduce the number of motorcycle-related accidents and fatalities, and to educate the public about motorcycle safety.

From Saturday through Aug. 5, officers will be assigned to various locations throughout the city, enforcing traffic violations by motorists, including motorcyclists, that could lead to collisions, injuries and fatalities, according to a Police Department news release.

Police cite Office of Traffic Safety statistics showing that motorcycle fatalities have increased 175 percent in California in the previous decade, rising from 204 killed in 1998 to 560 in 2008. Since then, the number of motorcycle fatalities has decreased.

A man who died in a crash after leading Folsom police on a high-speed pursuit early Wednesday morning has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Stephen Christopher Stucker, 22, of North Highlands.

About 3 a.m. Wednesday, Folsom police officers noticed a vehicle traveling at high speed with its headlights off on Iron Point Road. The vehicle went through the intersection of Iron Point and Empire Ranch roads without stopping for the stop sign, according to a Folsom Police Department news release.

When officers attempted to pull over the vehicle, the driver tried to elude them. During the pursuit, the driver continued to travel at high speeds and attempted to run over police officers with his vehicle, according to the news release.

By Tony Bizjak
tbizjak@sacbee.com

A passenger at Sacramento International Airport was arrested Thursday morning after federal Transportation Security Administration officials found an undeclared .40 caliber gun - with a bullet in the firing chamber - in the passenger's checked luggage.

Federal officials notified local law enforcement, who took the passenger into custody on a charge of carrying an unregistered, loaded firearm, federal officials said. The incident occurred at 6 a.m. The unidentified passenger had been scheduled to fly on a United Airlines flight to Chicago.

Unloaded firearms are allowed in checked baggage, officials said, if they are in a carrying case, and if the passenger has informed the airline beforehand.

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

A Sacramento man who prosecutors said kicked to death one pet dog and drowned another in a washing machine has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to two counts of felony animal abuse.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White on Tursday sentenced Ramon King Jr. to 2 years, 8 months in prison, an unusually harsh sentence in an animal cruelty case, said deputy District Attorney Hilary Bagley-Franzoia.

King, a National Guardsman, had no prior criminal record, she said.

The Sacramento Police Department's Reverse 911 system is now able to register cell phones, allowing police to inform more residents and businesses about emergencies in their area.

The Reverse 911 program originally registered landlines at specific addresses. The land lines would be contacted with a recorded message when an emergency developed.

But with more people using cell phones instead of land lines, the program is extending its service to more people living and working where health and safety becomes a concern.

Two people were arrested and cited Monday night in Marysville in sting operations aimed at people who furnish alcohol to minors.

From 7 to 11 p.m., Marysville police officers working with Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators conducted undercover operations in the city, targeting people who agree to purchase or furnish alcohol to minors and stores that sell alcohol to minors.

The operation consisted of "shoulder tap" and "minor decoy" stings, according to a Police Department news release. Shoulder tap stings target people who purchase alcohol for underage drinkers, and minor decoy stings target store or restaurant employees who sell alcohol to minors.

A three-alarm grass fire that broke out shortly before 6 p.m. in Elk Grove has been contained at 5 acres, a Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department official said.

Crews responding to the call around 5:40 p.m., found an active fire in an open field of grass and trees near Bradshaw and Calvine roads, said Deputy Fire Chief John Michelini.

Nearby homes were threatened for a short period of time, Michelini said. However, crews were able to stop the spread of the fire in that direction before it reached the homes, he said.

A 24-year-old man has been arrested in connection with three arson fires that occurred in Sacramento County during a two-week period.

The Galt Police Department on Monday arrested Adam Kelly (pictured), following an investigation by police and the Cosumnnes and Sacramento Metropolitan fire departments.

The first fire occurred July 6 at 10430 Twin Cities Road in Galt. Firefighters responded to the service area of Raley's supermarket and found numerous large pieces of recycled cardboard piled up and set on fire. Firefighters extinguished the fire. No one was injured, and the building sustained minor damage, according to a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District news release.

Sacramento police arrested a 44-year-old woman early this morning after she allegedly made more than 100 non-emergency calls to 911 on her cell phone in a three-hour span, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol communication center in Sacramento began receiving repeated 911 calls from a woman shortly after midnight, said CHP spokesman Officer Adrian Quintero. Each time, the woman gave her name, apologized for calling, and then began "rambling and speaking about things that made no sense," Quintero said.

By Jane Braxton Little
Bee Correspondent

SUSANVILLE - Three days into his preliminary hearing, Robin Glen James, 46, was held today to answer charges that he murdered a Susanville police officer and conspired with the victim's wife to commit the Jan.1 murder.

After determining that enough evidence exists to try James, Lassen County Superior Court Judge Michelle Verderosa scheduled him for arraignment on Aug. 15.

James and co-defendant Joanna McElrath, 36, both of Susanville, were arrested Jan. 6 after Lassen County deputies found the body of Robert McElrath, an off-duty police officer who was married to Joanna McElrath.

Sacramento police are asking for the community's help in identifying a man suspected of sexually grabbing an 83-year-old woman in midtown in April, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

The alleged grabbing occurred in the early afternoon on a light-rail train near 22nd and R streets, police reported. Police allege the suspect thrust his groin area toward the victim numerous times and grabbed her buttocks before she was able to get away and call for help, according to the release.

A 24-year-old man was arrested Monday night in connection with multiple metal thefts in Yuba County.

Yuba County Sheriff's deputies responded to the area of Dantoni Road and Simpson-Dantoni Road in Browns Valley after a property owner located a person who appeared to be trying to steal scrap metal from his orchard, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Deputies located the suspect vehicle after the driver dumped the metal and tried to leave the area.

Galt police are requesting the public's help in identifying a man suspected of robbing a Wells Fargo bank branch located inside a Raley's on Tuesday evening, according to a Galt Police Department news release.

The suspect, left, entered the store in the 10400 block of Twin Cities Road around 6 p.m., approached a bank teller and allegedly verbally demanded money, the release states. He was given an undisclosed amount of currency before fleeing the store in an unknown direction, Galt police Lt. Jim Uptegrove reported in an email.

The Sacramento police seek the public's help identifying a man suspected of stealing jewelry from two area stores last month.

At 11:45 a.m. June 28, the man (pictured) entered the store in the 400 block of K Street and approached the jewelry section. He asked to see one of the men's rings on display. He placed the ring on his finger and ran out of the store, a Sacramento Police Department news release states.

At 2 p.m. June 29, the same man entered a jewelry store in the 1600 block of Arden Way. He looked at several women's rings during several minutes, then fled with one of the rings. An employee chased the man but lost him when he crossed the street, police said.

A driver was killed near Folsom Lake this morning after a high-speed chase with Folsom police officers.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, was seen speeding without headlights on through a stop sign at the intersection of Iron Point Road and Empire Ranch Road at 3 a.m., according to a Folsom Police Department press release.

The City of Roseville invites its residents to celebrate the 28th annual National Night Out Aug. 2.

The city is taking part in the national program that aims to increase awareness about crime prevention, support local crime prevention programs, and build partnerships among police departments and the communities they serve.

The Rocklin Police Department is heading into the city's neighborhoods Aug. 2 to celebrate the 28th annual National Night Out.

The department, along with fire department staff, city staff and city council members, is taking part in the national program that aims to increase awareness about crime prevention, support local crime prevention programs, and build partnerships among police departments and the communities they serve.

A 20-year-old woman is expected to survive after being shot six times in her North Sacramento apartment today, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said the shooting "appears to have stemmed from some domestic argument that escalated out of control."

He said a 20-year-old man, with whom the victim has an undetermined relationship, has been taken into custody in the shooting. The suspect had not been booked into jail as of 7:45 p.m., and his identity has not been released.

Two people suffered major injuries this afternoon when the vehicle in which they were riding crashed into a median barrier on Interstate 80 and overturned, ejecting them onto the roadway.

About 2:10 p.m., two vehicles, a white BMW convertible and a gold Subaru Legacy, were traveling east on I-80 west of Horseshoe Roar Road at a high rate of speed, according to a California Highway Patrol news release. The driver of the BMW lost control of his vehicle and swerved across the traffic lanes, striking the concrete median barrier.

The impact caused the BMW to overturn, ejecting two female passengers who were in the rear seat. One was ejected into the center divide area of the westbound traffic lanes and the other into the center divide area of the eastbound traffic lanes, officials said. Both were transported by ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center with major injuries.

The Elk Grove Police Department is teaming up with 35 communities in the city Aug. 2 to celebrate the 28th annual National Night Out.

The department is taking part in the national program that aims to increase awareness about crime prevention, support local crime prevention programs, and build partnerships among police departments and the communities they serve.

The Sacramento Police have reported that a suspicious object found in a flower bed late Tuesday morning at the County Main Jail is not dangerous.

Police have opened I Street to through traffic once again after diverting westbound traffic on I Street south onto 7th Street during the investigation.

The Sacramento Police Bomb Squad responded to a report of the object found in a flower bed adjacent to the County Main Jail on I Street between 6th and 7th streets at 10:39 a.m.

A passerby reported seeing the item to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's department then called the Sacramento Police, who then decided that the object was unusual enough to call the bomb squad to investigate.

A New Folsom Prison inmate was convicted Monday of felony battery by a prisoner and violently resisting peace officers last April.

Jose Plascencia was serving his time in prison for first and second degree murder and assault causing great bodily injury when he assaulted two officers who were assigned to escort Plascencia from one part of the prison to another.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Federal authorities in Sacramento today unveiled a large-scale immigration fraud involving dozens of sham marriages arranged to allow participants unlawful entry into the United States.

Sergey Potepalov, a 55-year-old Citrus Heights resident, was described by U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner as the ringleader of those behind the fraud.

Potepalov and 13 others, including eight more from the Sacramento area, were charged two weeks ago in a sealed grand jury indictment with an elaborate scheme involving foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and Russia, who paid up to five-figure fees to marry a U.S. citizen recruited by Potepalov and others.

El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies arrested two Sacramento men on the weekend, after receiving reports the men were stripping copper wire from a closed lumber mill.

Deputies responded to a burglary report Saturday just before 1 p.m.

Two men were reportedly taking wire and other items from the non-operational mill.

A small silo fire broke out at the Blue Diamond almond factory in Sacramento early Tuesday morning.

At around 1 a.m., the Sacramento Fire Department arrived at the factory at 1701 C St. after the security guards smelled smoke and determined that it was coming from one of the silos.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A shooting outside a Watt Avenue motel Monday night left a 24-year-old man hospitalized and his car parked facing the wrong way on an Interstate 80 off-ramp, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported.

Authorities received reports of gunshots at the Economy Inn on Watt Avenue near I-80 around 9 p.m., with a possible victim involved, said sheriff's Lt. Scott Loggins. Shortly thereafter, a man called in from the area advising he had been shot, Loggins said.

A 45-year-old man who was found motionless in a pool at an Elk Grove fitness center Sunday afternoon has died.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified him as Jesse Lee Morton, 45, of Elk Grove. The cause of death has been initially classified as undetermined.

Morton was swimming laps, and his children were at the facility when the incident occurred.

The California Highway Patrol has canceled a SIG alert issued after a big rig overturned on the eastbound Interstate 80 connector ramp to northbound Interstate 5 in Sacramento, closing the ramp for nearly two hours, a CHP spokeswoman said.

At about 3:45 p.m., a big rig en route to Oroville from Oakland was taking the connector ramp when its load apparently shifted, causing the vehicle to roll onto its left side, said CHP spokeswoman Officer Lizz Dutton.

The driver, believed to be in his 60s, was transported to a local hospital with minor to moderate injuries, Dutton said. There were no other occupants of the big rig and no other cars involved in the accident, she said.

Authorities closed the ramp around 4 p.m., reporting that all lanes of the ramp were blocked. Reports also indicated that clean-up crews were requested for unspecified fluids spilling out of the big rig onto the roadway, Dutton said.

The SIG alert was canceled shortly before 5:30 p.m., and the ramp has been reopened, Dutton said. The big rig was apparently loaded with cans of pineapple, she said.

Fire crews have contained a 10-acre grass fire that broke out this afternoon near a power substation in Folsom, a Folsom Fire Department spokesman said.

The two-alarm blaze was originally reported as a tree fire at Kennerly Way and Oak Avenue Parkway around 1:10 p.m., said fire department spokesman Capt. Tom Sakaris. When firefighters arrived, they found a working fire in a grassy area near that intersection, Sakaris said.

Crews were positioned to protect a power substation located near the burning area, but the fire did not get close enough to threaten the substation, which is surrounded by asphalt, Sakaris said.

Brian Jagger, who served as treasurer for Placer County District Attorney Scott Owens' election campaign last year, pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud in a scheme to embezzle more than $20,000 from three campaign accounts of candidates who ran for political offices in Placer County in 2010.

Jagger, 32, of Roseville entered the plea in federal court in Sacramento.

The other two victims were county Auditor-Controller Katherine Martinis and county Supervisor Kirk Uhler, said Lt. Mark Reid, Placer County Sheriff's Department spokesman.

According to court documents, Jagger worked for each candidate and had signature authority over each one's campaign bank account. Jagger used his position to convert their campaign funds to his own use, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Jagger was Uhler's district director for about four years but was placed on administrative leave following his arrest in December. Jagger was a contract employee, and his contract was not renewed when it expired at the end of 2010.

Uhler said he learned of Jagger's guilty plea Monday afternoon. "I'm happy that there has been a resolution to this," he said. "I hope Brian and his family are able to get on with their lives after he serves whatever punishment has been agreed upon."

It was Owens who noticed a discrepancy in his campaign account and initiated the investigation by the Placer County Sheriff's Department

Uhler said he learned from sheriff's investigators that Jagger had moved money out of his campaign account. The funds, however, had been replaced by the time Uhler reconciled the account, so bank records showed the account was whole. No money was missing from the account, Uhler said.

Jagger is to be sentenced Oct. 24, by U.S. District Judge Willam B. Shubb.

A 21-year-old Rocklin woman suffered major injuries Sunday night when her vehicle struck the concrete center median barrier on Interstate 80.

Hillary Cantrell was driving a white Chevy Silverado on westbound I-80, east of the Gilardi Road overcrossing northeast of Loomis about 10:55 p.m. She was traveling in the fast lane, when she made an unsafe turning movement, causing her vehicle to hit the median barrier, according to a California Highway Patrol news release. The impact caused the vehicle to overturn several times, ejecting Cantrell into the roadway.

She was airlifted to Sutter Roseville Medical Center by a CHP helicopter. A hospital spokeswoman said today that she is in critical condition.

A man arrested earlier this month on suspicion of stabbing a man during a fight is now accused of homicide.

The victim, Jesse Perez, 54, of Sacramento, died Sunday of injuries suffered July 13.

Kenneth Vega (pictured), 41, is in Sacramento County Jail, accused of the stabbing.

A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman during the burglary of her apartment has been found guilty by a Sacramento County Superior Court jury.

The jury convicted Rahru Walker, 41, of forced oral copulation, two counts of rape and burglary. The jury also found true allegations that the sex offenses were committed during the commission of a burglary, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

Walker was burglarizing a young woman's apartment on Mack Road, and during the burglary, he sexually assaulted her while her children were asleep in the same room, officials said.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 19 before Judge Michael Savage, who will also make findings on an allegation that Walker has a prior conviction for rape.

A 45-year-old man who was found motionless in a pool at an Elk Grove fitness center Sunday afternoon has died.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified him as Jesse Lee Morton, 45, of Elk Grove. The cause of death has been initially classified as undetermined.

Morton was swimming laps, and his children were at the facility when the incident occurred.

Witnesses said he had come up for breath and was continuing with his lap swimming when he failed to surface about 4 p.m., said Randy Karr president of California Family Fitness on Bond Road.

"Some of the lap swimmers thought he was doing a breath test," he said. "When he didn't come up, the person next to him grabbed him."

The center's staff responded and began CPR, Karr said.

Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Chief John Michelini told The Bee on Sunday that the man was in cardiac arrest when he was taken by ambulance to Methodist Hospital.

A Sacramento-area gang member has been convicted of two counts of assault with a firearm.

A Sacramento County Superior Court jury also found true allegations that Louis Estrada Vasquez, 24, used a firearm, inflicted great bodily injury and committed crimes for the benefit of a street gang while out on bail for pending charges in a separate case, according to a Sacramento District Attorney's Office news release.

On July 26, 2008, Vasquez, a member of the Varrio Franklin subset of the Norteno criminal street gang, went to Cheers bar on West El Camino Avenue. Other Norteno gang members and associates from different subsets in the Sacramento region were also at the bar. At closing time, a verbal dispute escalated into a fight between several gang members in the parking lot, and during the fight Vasquez fired a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun four times, according to the news release. Rick Farinias suffered a gunshot wound to his thigh and Raul Delgado was hit in the foot.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Isleton's planned marijuana farm may be dead, but officials from the Delta hamlet are alive and kicking, and they are not bowing to the findings of a recent grand jury probe of their town.

In a 52-page response to the Sacramento County grand jury investigation, Isleton officials say the panel's report on the planned marijuana project was filled with errors, ignored important facts and needlessly cost the cash-strapped town $100,000 to defend itself.

"Despite hearing testimony from twenty witnesses, the grand jury's eleven page report contains more than fifteen material errors of fact," the report from Isleton City Attorney Dave Larsen and other city officials states.

One man is dead and another is in jail after a fatal stabbing in Sutter County late Sunday.

Sutter County Sheriff's detectives were called to the Sutter Food and Mart at 7505 Highway 20 in Sutter at 8:21 p.m. and found a man with multiple stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three men had followed the male victim into the store, and when the victim left, two of the men followed him outside, a sheriff's news release states.

A 35-year-old man was found lying motionless in a swimming pool at an Elk Grove fitness center Sunday afternoon, fire officials said.

A patron at California Family Fitness on Bond Road noticed the man around 4 p.m, in the fitness center's lap pool, said Deputy Fire Chief John Michelini of the Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department. Paramedics arrived soon afterward and took the man, who has not yet been identified, to Methodist Hospital while performing CPR.

"He was in cardiac arrest when they found him and in cardiac arrest as they took him away," Michelini said, adding that he did not know the man's current condition.

Citrus Heights police recovered an ATM card reader and burglary tools at a Citrus Heights bank early today after arresting two suspects.

Armen Babayab, 37, and Norik Havhannisyan, 50, were booked on counts of identification theft, conspiracy, grand theft, burglary and committing a crime while out on bail. Both subjects had been released on bail for a similar crime in Elk Grove, according to the Citrus Heights Police Department.

Citrus Heights police reported that they responded to an ATM alarm at a Chase bank on the 7000 block of Auburn Boulevard shortly after 1 a.m. Police detained the two as they were leaving the area and discovered the ATM's card reader had been replaced with another device.

Sacramento County Coroner's officials have identified Jesus Orozco as the man who died Saturday morning following a single-vehicle crash on the 3300 block of Marysville Boulevard near Los Robles Boulevard.

The 6:30 a.m. crash temporarily closed a portion of Marysville Boulevard.

According to Sacramento Police officials, Orozco, 48, was driving southbound on Marysville Boulevard when his blue pickup truck veered off the road, struck a utility pole and crashed into the corner of a vacant building. Orozco was taken to a hospital where he later died.

Coroner's officials have not yet reported a precise cause of death.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

A 48-year-old man died early Saturday morning in a single-vehicle crash that temporarily closed a portion of Marysville Boulevard, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

The Sacramento Coroner's Office has not released the victim's identity.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police officers used just about every means of city transport but light rail to catch a probation violator Friday, according to the daily police log.

The incident began with an officer on horseback attempting to stop a black SUV at J and 13th streets for loud music and other vehicle violations not specified in the report.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District officials said their resources were stretched this afternoon as they responded to two grass fires and two structure fires within two hours.

At 4:21 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to a grass fire in the 4300 block of Glenridge Drive in Carmichael. The 1-acre grass fire was in a natural park area and threatened a grove of oleanders. Officials said access to the site was difficult, but the fire was contained with five grass units. No structures were threatened.

Witnesses reported seeing two boys leaving the area just before they noticed the fire, according to a fire district news release, and firefighters said the fire appeared to have started in more than one area.

A young man was shot in the shoulder this afternoon while he was playing basketball in the Oak Park neighborhood, according to Sacramento police.

The victim told police he was playing at Temple Park, near 12th Avenue and 34th Street, when he heard a volley of gunfire, said police Sgt. Norm Leong. Hit in the shoulder, the victim fled the park and went to Sutter General Hospital for treatment, Leong said.

The victim, a man in his 20s, told police he did not see the gunman and did not know who shot him, Leong said. His injures are not life-threatening.

Witnesses reported seeing a group of people run from the park when the shots were fired, but police are not clear if they were involved with the shooter or the victim, Leong said.

The second defendant in the "Monk Mobb" murder of a Halloween party host three years ago was sentenced today to 118 years to life in prison.

Corey Andre Carmicle, 24, received the term from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall for the Oct. 31, 2008, shooting death of Patrick Razaghzadeh, 24, at the party in the La Riviera-Larchmont Park area.

Evidence at trial showed that Carmicle brought the gun that was eventually used to kill Razaghzadeh. The convicted gunman in the case, Elijah Rasean Fields, 21, was sentenced in April to 145 years to life.

Both Carmicle and Fields were members of the "Monk Mobb" street gang that formerly was active in the North Highlands area.

A boiler room in a Rancho Cordova apartment complex caught on fire Friday morning after someone who the apartment manager says may have been an unlicensed contractor installed a new boiler Thursday.

The Sacramento Metro Fire Department responded to a call at 1:21 a.m. at the Point Knoll Apartments at 10680 Coloma Rd. The firefighters determined that the fire was extending to the attic and roof and quickly extinguished those flames.

The fire damaged four apartment units, causing three families to lose their homes. No one was injured, and the fire department estimates that the damage is around $10,000.

Authorities are investigating the unlicensed contractor as well as the cause of the fire, which the department says appears to be electrical.

Auburn police say they arrested a Placer County man Thursday after receiving a report at 1:09 p.m. that the suspect was selling marijuana out of a five gallon bucket at the Auburn Dam Overlook.

Auburn police officer Stan Hamelin used the license plate of the vehicle associated with the suspect to locate David S. Robles, 21, of Auburn, at his home on Live Oak Lane in Placer County, according to a police department news release.

The department said Robles was wanted on a warrant for a D.U.I. offense. Hamelin found Ketamine, or the "Date Rape" drug, in Robles' possession, along with a .45 caliber handgun, a switchblade, and hashish, the news release said.

The officer followed a lead to a storage facility where he found more marijuana, the release said.

Robles is being held in Placer County Jail for possession of the gun, knife, narcotics and narcotics for sales.

A homeless woman who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting death of a man at a downtown Sacramento bus stop was sentenced today to a state mental hospital.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard ordered that Audrey Anna Jackson, 50, be placed in Napa State Hospital for no more than the 34 years to life. It's the sentence she would have received for her conviction on attempted murder charges in the Sept. 22, 2008, shooting of Francisco Salvador Perez, 54.

A jury acquitted her of murder for the attack on Perez that was prompted when he rebuffed her attempt to panhandle him at a bus stop at 6th and J streets. The panel found that Perez's death 13 months later could not conclusively be linked to the shooting.

Three small fires have been put out after burning along Highway 50 this morning.

Sacramento Metro, Folsom and El Dorado Hills fire personnel responded to several calls about the blazes at about 7:04 a.m., Sac Metro Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum said.

The two fires west of East Bidwell Street were tackled by Sac Metro, and the one east of the street was handled by Folsom and El Dorado Hills crews.

A vehicle crash originally thought to be an accident late Thursday was a homicide, Sacramento police said.

A 49-year-old man was found dead in a red Honda CR-V after the vehicle plowed through two gates and into the side of a house just south of Curtis Park on 15th Avenue and Franklin Boulevard about 11 p.m., a police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said.

Police found that the victim had suffered upper-body trauma that did not seem to have been caused by the crash and instead was consistent with injuries associated with a homicide.

A man who died Monday when the pickup in which he was riding crashed along Highway 99 north of Galt has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Carlos Rodriguez Nevarez, 36, of Modesto.

The crash occurred when the 47-year-old driver, also of Modesto, lost control and slammed into a tree. The pickup was northbound at freeway speed in the fast lane about 10:30 a.m. when it drifted off the left side of the roadway between Arno and Mingo roads.

The driver overcorrected and went back over freeway lanes before spinning and clipping a metal guardrail, according to the California Highway Patrol. The truck spun into a tree, with the passenger side of the vehicle hitting the tree.

Rodriguez Nevarez was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the CHP, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Rancho Cordova woman has been arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty following the death of her 6-month-old dog, which was found locked inside a hot car in a Folsom parking lot Wednesday afternoon, the Folsom Police Department reported.

The Pomeranian/Shih Tzu, named "Gizmo," was found panting heavily on the rear floorboard of a black Honda around 5 p.m. Wednesday outside a supermarket in the 200 block of Blue Ravine Road, according to a police department release.

The little dog, which police estimate was in the car for at least 90 minutes, was taken for emergency treatment at a nearby animal hospital, where it died during the night, the release states.

The Roseville Fire Department amended an account of its response to a Wednesday two-alarm house fire following a post-incident analysis Thursday morning, a department official said.

The fire broke out around 12:30 p.m., in the 1800 block of Finch Drive, the department reported. Initial reports were than an elderly woman was trapped by the fire.

When rescue personnel arrived on scene, they found the woman already out of the house, with citizens lifting her over a fence into the front yard, said Jeff Carman, assistant chief of operations for the fire department.

A Galt man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Sacramento to embezzling more than $800,000 from his employer.

According to his guilty plea, Ruben R. Rios Jr., 40, admitted that while working as the financial controller of a Natomas-based company between December 2007 and August 2009, he used his corporate credit card for personal expenditures totaling $876,661 and caused the company to incur finance charges on those personal expenses.

Through this scheme, according to a federal Department of Justice news release, Rios obtained approximately $360,000 in cash advances at casinos, spent nearly $100,000 for home improvements and supplies, purchased a funeral plot, paid approximately $60,000 in delinquent personal taxes, purchased four all-terrain vehicles, covered personal travel expenses of nearly $60,000, entered into an $8,000 personal training contract, customized multiple vehicles for $50,000, obtained nearly $80,000 in electronics and consumer goods, and wired funds to family members.

Sacramento police have arrested an 18-year-old man who they believe is responsible for the shooting death of a man in Del Paso Heights on Thursday afternoon, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said.

Shortly after 2 p.m., two Twin Rivers Police Department officers were hailed regarding a shooting in the 3500 block of High Street, said Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

One officer responded to the scene and located a 35-year-old man suffering from at least one gunshot wound to the upper body, Leong said. The victim was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Leong said.

The second officer observed a male subject running from the area and stopped him, Leong said.

Jose Valdovinos, 18, was taken into Sacramento police custody and later arrested on suspicion of murder, Leong said.

According to the release, detectives believe based on their investigation that Valdovinos and the victim, whose identity has not been released, met to conduct a drug transaction. Detectives allege that at some point after the transaction, Valdovinos shot the victim for an undetermined reason, the release states.

The police investigation into the shooting is ongoing, Leong said. Valdovinos had not been booked into jail as of 8:30 p.m. Thursday, he said.

The Sacramento Police Department will conduct a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint Friday night at Del Paso Boulevard and El Camino Avenue.

Beginning at 8:30 p.m. and continuing for up to seven hours, motorists traveling through the checkpoint site will be contacted by uniformed officers, who will check for alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers, according to a Police Department news release. Officers also will make sure all drivers have a valid driver's license.

The checkpoint is part of an effort to promote public safety by increasing awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving, and to serve as a deterrent to potential impaired and unlicensed drivers, officials said.

Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Safety Administration.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Inmates who began a hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison on July 1 to protest their treatment inside the facility and the Security Housing Unit have ended the effort, officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced today.

The inmates halted the hunger strike Wednesday "after they better understood CDCR's plans, developed since January, to review and change some policies regarding SHU housing and gang management. These changes, to date, include providing cold-weather caps, wall calendars and some educational opportunities for SHU inmates."

CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in a prepared statement that "hunger strikes are a dangerous and ineffective way for prisoners to attempt to negotiate."

"This strike was ordered by prison gang leaders, individuals responsible for terrible crimes against Californians, and so it was with significant and appropriate caution that CDCR worked to end the strike," he added. "We will now seek to stabilize operations for all inmates and continue our work to improve the safety and security of our prison system statewide."

One hundred people were evacuated from a Citrus Heights apartment complex early this morning after an unidentified vehicle backed into a bank of gas meters causing a gas leak.

The vehicle had fled the scene at 7640 Auburn Road when Sacramento Metro Fire responded to a call at about 3 a.m.

The department started evacuating people from their homes, said the Metro Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum.

Pacific Gas & Electric went to the scene and capped the gas meters. The fire department started allowing people back into their homes about 4:45 a.m.

The steps of three mobile homes in Citrus Heights were set on fire by a suspected arsonist early this morning, authorities said.

After responding to a gas leak at a nearby apartment complex that was reported about 3 a.m., witnesses smelled smoke, and the fire department went to investigate its origin on Antelope Road near Auburn Boulevard.

When Sacramento Metro Fire personnel arrived at about 4:50 a.m., police were putting out the flames with fire extinguishers from their vehicles. Sacramento Metro Fire put out the fire and gathered debris samples to be tested for investigative leads, said Metro Fire Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum.

"There's no other way that this could have happened," said Cockrum.

The mobile homes were unoccupied, and Cockrum said there was about $5,000 worth of damage.

A public briefing regarding a two-day sex-offender sweep will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Yolo County District Attorney's Office, 301 Second St., Woodland.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig, along with other county, local and state law enforcement officials, will discuss the results of "Operation Vigilance," a compliance and enforcement check of Yolo County's registered sex offenders.

During the past two days, 130 law enforcement officers from agencies in Yolo County - as well as the FBI, California Highway Patrol and State Parole - conducted sex offender compliance checks in Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento, Winters, Capay, Esparto and Dunnigan, according to a District Attorney's Office news release. Officials said 436 registered sex offenders live in Yolo County. Most were convicted of rape, child molestation or possession of child pornography.

Roseville firefighters rescued a woman from her burning home in the 1800 block of Finch Drive earlier this afternoon, the fire department reported.

Fire crews were called to the house fire around 12:39 p.m., and arrived at the scene about five minutes later, said Jeff Carman, assistant chief of operations for the Roseville Fire Department. Initial reports were that an elderly woman was trapped inside and yelling for help.

Firefighters immediately made entered the home and located the woman in the living room, with her exit blocked by flames, Carman said. They removed her from the home.

A 38-year-old man has been arrested in connection with Sunday's shooting death of Mario Rodriguez at a Foothill Farms apartment.

Sacramento County sheriff's homicide detectives arrested Manuel Guzman (pictured below) early this morning at a residence outside Sacramento County. He was booked in Sacramento County Main Jail and is being held without bail.

At 11:45 p.m. Sunday, deputies responded to a report that a man had been shot at the Alder Grove Apartments in the 3900 block of Madison Avenue. When they arrived, they found Rodriguez dead of a single gunshot wound to his upper body, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The Elk Grove Police Department seeks the community's help to identify two suspects in an armed robbery that occurred Tuesday at a check cashing business.

As an employee of Advance America Cash Advance, 5109 Laguna Blvd., arrived for work at 9:44 a.m., she saw two men sweeping the parking and front walk area of the business. As the employee unlocked and opened the front door, the men approached her with handguns, according to a Police Department news release.

They ordered the employee to enter the business and turn off the alarm. Once inside, they removed an undisclosed amount of money from the safe and cash drawers.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

In a brief but emotional appearance outside the Sacramento Superior Courthouse this morning, Robert B. Adams, who has been named as the focus of a wide-ranging child molestation investigation in Citrus Heights, said he was "shocked" at the allegations and insisted they are not true.

Adams, 60, who for years has run a respected private preschool and elementary school in Citrus Heights, is being investigated by Citrus Heights police on allegations he molested numerous children over a number of years.

During a press conference this morning, he held hands with his wife and daughters as they wept quietly before a bank of cameras and reporters. Adams spoke only briefly.

Police arrested a man and a woman at Cottage Elementary School early Wednesday morning after the suspects were caught on surveillance cameras reportedly stealing copper.

John Wilson, 54, and Desiree Sanders, 27, of Sacramento allegedly sneaked onto the school property at 2221 Morse Ave. and were seen by surveyors at the San Juan Unified School District. Someone from the district called police at 2 a.m.

The Folsom Police Department will be checking drivers for sobriety and licenses at a safety checkpoint Saturday night.

The checkpoint will be stationed on Blue Ravine Road near Parkway Drive from 7 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday.

The California Office of Traffic Safety is sponsoring the event through the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (S.T.E.P) to promote public safety and awareness about drunken driving risks and to deter people from driving without a license.

For information about the impaired driving and drivers license checkpoint contact Officer Paul Rice at price@folsom.ca.us.

Seven Sacramento-area real estate professionals have been charged with committing mortgage fraud with losses totaling $4 million.

Moctezuma Tovar, 42, owned and operated Delta Homes and Lending, Inc., where Sacramento residents Manuel Herrera, 31, Ruben Rodriguez, 34, and Jaime Mayorga, 32, worked as licensed real estate agents.

A former loan officer, Sandra Hermosillo, 49, of Woodland, along with former loan processors and Jun Michael Dirian, 38, of Antelope and Christian Parada Renteria, 35, of Sacramento also worked for Tovar at Delta Homes.

A purse snatching in Citrus Heights this afternoon turned into a high-speed chase that ended when the suspects crashed their vehicle in West Sacramento.

Citrus Heights Police Department spokesman Officer Jon Kempf said a woman was leaving the Costco store at 7000 Auburn Blvd. about 3:50 p.m. when two men grabbed her purse, then got into a vehicle and fled. A witness who was pumping gas at the store gave chase and followed the suspects onto Interstate 80. Kempf said he believes the witness abandoned his pursuit when officers got involved. He added that police do not recommend that citizens pursue suspects.

Kempf said Citrus Heights police were joined in the pursuit by Sacramento and West Sacramento police officers and a helicopter.

Driving into your neighborhood to find sheriff's deputies searching for burglary suspects is disconcerting.

Driving out of the neighborhood a short time later and discovering you've got a suspect in tow is terrifying.

For a Florin-area mother and four children, this afternoon's experience was worthy of a television drama.

Shannon Carter had taken her children to the movies this morning and returned home around noon to find Sacramento County sheriff's deputies and K-9 units throughout the neighborhood. A neighbor told her they were looking for burglary suspects, so she locked her house and garage while she and her children, ages 7, 8 and 9, prepared a lunch to take to an Elk Grove park.

A sex offender sought by Idaho law enforcement authorities has been arrested at a Meadowview residence, where guns and drugs also were found, according to a U.S. Marshal's Service news release.

In May 2010, officials said, Mack Phanmaha, 39, failed to register as a sex offender in Idaho. He previously had been convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, according to the news release.

The Ada County Sheriff's Office in Idaho issued a probation warrant, and when Phanmaha fled his last known address in Boise, the U.S. Marshal's Service was asked to help locate and apprehend him.

A Sacramento man pleaded guilty today in federal court to two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Law enforcement officers arrested Melvin Lee Gregory, 28, on July 31, 2010, after he led them on a high speed chase in a stolen car, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. At the time, officers discovered that Gregory possessed more than 150 items of stolen U.S. mail.

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 metropolitan area.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A worker at Creative Frontiers School claimed today she was aware of at least two instances of possible abuse in the last year at the private Citrus Heights school, including one that she says she witnessed herself involving Principal Robert B. Adams.

Irma Mertens, a 62-year-old receptionist at the school until she quit in May, said in an interview with The Bee at her home that she surprised Adams when she walked into the school's administrative office last summer and found him tending to a 7- or 8-year-old girl in a swim suit.

Mertens claims Adams did not hear her enter the office and that she saw the principal rubbing the girl and touching her in a physically and sexually inappropriate manner.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department seeks the public's help in identifying a man who robbed a Chase Bank in the Foothill Farms area Monday afternoon.

The man entered the branch at 4741 Madison Ave. at 4:10 p.m. and presented the teller with a note demanding money, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. After receiving the money, the man ran out to a light blue or silver Toyota Prius driven by a woman who was described as white and believed to be in her early 20s.

The Sacramento Fire Department evacuated its building at 5770 Freeport Blvd. at around 11 a.m. Tuesday after a routine generator test malfunctioned, said Captain Niko King.

Dampers that were supposed to automatically close to prevent carbon monoxide exhaust from filling the building failed to shut, exposing employees on the second floor to the toxin.

Sacramento Fire Station 5 responded to the department's call for a hazardous materials team, said King. The Haz-Mat squad ventilated the building and started allowing employees to re-enter the building about 40 minutes after the evacuation.

Several employees demonstrated symptoms of exposure to elevated levels of carbon monoxide, and were treated on-site.

A Sacramento jury today convicted Richard Lalo Ramirez of second-degree murder in the May 24, 2009, shooting death of Christopher Richard Montejano outside a birthday party in Oak Park.

Superior Court Judge Gary S. Mullen scheduled the sentencing on the 22-year-old Ramirez for Aug. 26. Ramirez is looking at a sentence of at least 40 years to life in prison. The conviction included a sentencing enhancement under the state's 10-20-LIfe law that Ramirez used a gun to seriously injure or kill his victim.

According to evidence at trial, Montejano, 20, challenged Ramirez to a fight because the defendant physically intervened and pulled the hair of the victim's ex-girlfriend in an altercation the woman was having with another female. Ramirez claimed he shot Montejano in self defense.

The Elk Grove Police Department needs help in identifying the man who committed an armed robbery at a Walgreens on Friday morning.

The suspect threatened an employee at the store on 7299 Laguna Blvd. with a black handgun until he opened the store's two cash registers. He then hit the employee in the head with the gun and stole an undisclosed amount of money and several Zippo lighters.

The Yellow Cab Company of Sacramento is offering $5,000 to anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man or men who committed three taxi thefts over the weekend.

Three drivers were robbed between early Friday and early Saturday, and police are investigating the chance that the same man is behind all of the robberies.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is investigating a pair of shootings that occurred hours apart in the same south Sacramento neighborhood today, a department spokesman said.

Both victims were males in their 30s and were expected to survive, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

The earlier shooting occurred around 4:30 p.m., in the 4700 block of Roosevelt Avenue. Deputies who responded to the location found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the buttocks, Ramos said.

A military reservist and employee of a private security company died in a single-vehicle crash at Beale Air Force Base early Sunday morning.

Beale officials identified the victim as the driver, Scott Bergseng, an employee of TW & Co. Inc. and a Reserve technical sergeant with the 940th Security Forces Squadron at Beale. The accident occurred about 4:45 a.m. at the base's Wheatland Gate. Bergseng was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a U.S. Air Force news release.

TW & Co. is a private security contractor who employs gate security personnel at Beale. At the time of the accident, Bergseng was not on Reserve military status, officials said.

Citrus Heights police announced today that they have shut down the Creative Frontiers School at 6446 Sylvan Road because of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Police Department and an administrative investigation by the California Department of Social Services regarding multiple allegations of child molestation.

To date, detectives have identified multiple victims with allegations spanning at least 15 years, according to a Police Department news release. The focus of the investigation is the owner, Principal Robert B. Adams, the release stated. Police said no criminal charges are pending against Adams, and he is not in police custody at this time.

"Our primary concern is for the safety of the children. We took action today to to ensure than no children are in danger and that they are home safe with their families," said Officer Bryan Fritsch of the Citrus Heights Police Department.

The passenger in a pickup died this morning when the truck's driver lost control and slammed into a tree along Highway 99 north of Galt.

The crash killed a 36-year-old man from Modesto, whose name has not been released pending notification of family.

The 47-year-old driver, also from Modesto, was headed northbound at freeway speed in the fast lane about 10:30 a.m. when the pickup drifted off the left side of the roadway between Arno and Mingo roads.

The Sacramento County Coroner's office today released the name of the man shot to death during a struggle in Foothill Farms last night.

He was identified as Mario Jose Rodriguez, 36, of Roseville.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies said that they responded to a call about 11:45 p.m. Sunday regarding a man who had been shot at an apartment in the 3900 block of Madison Avenue. The caller said that a casual acquaintance of his had been shot inside his apartment and that two men had fled.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Former Woodland middle school teacher and coach Christopher Tomsett was sentenced Monday by U. S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. to five years in prison.

Tomsett, 44, pleaded guilty in April in Sacramento federal court to receipt and distribution of child pornography.

The count to which he pleaded guilty charges that Tomsett in 2010, received and distributed via the Internet "visual depictions" that were produced using "a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct."

A man reported missing this morning after becoming separated from friends during Sunday's "Rafting Gone Wild" event on the American River has been located at his home.

Sacramento County law enforcement officials are still totaling up the numbers of arrests and citations as a result of the social media-spawned event, and parks officials launched but later called off a search today after receiving a missing person report.

John Havicon, ranger supervisor for Sacramento County Regional Parks, said rangers received a call this morning regarding a 28-year-old Roseville man who became separated from friends Sunday on Gilligan's Island near Hagan Community Park in Rancho Cordova and had not been heard from since. Havicon said he reached the man today at his home. The man said he became separated and made his way home on his own.

The event, which officials estimate drew 3,000 to 6,000 people to the stretch of the American River between Sunrise Boulevard and River Bend Park, was organized largely via Facebook and other social media. It was through monitoring social media that parks officials and law enforcement officials became aware of it and were able to beef up staffing in anticipation of the crowds.

Deputy Jason Ramos, Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said the Sheriff's Department and Rancho Cordova Police Department assigned about 20 officers to the area, including marine enforcement and helicopter units. Fifteen to 20 Search and Rescue Team volunteers also were on duty throughout the day. Havicon said six of the seven rangers on duty Sunday were assigned that stretch of the river. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District personnel also were on scene handling numerous water rescues.

Officials said most of the problems were alcohol-related.

"We had a lot of drunken brawls happening at River Bend ,,, and a lot of intoxicated people," Havicon said.

He said rangers believe the problems Sunday were comparable to those they use to encounter on Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day before a county ordinance passed in 2006 banned alcohol along the river and parkway during those holidays.

The Yolo County Coroner's office has released the name of a 21-year-old man who died in a car crash into a tree late Saturday night in rural Yolo County.

He was identified as Joel Lowell, 21, of Brooks, Yolo County.

Lowell was traveling at a high rate of speed about 11:30 p.m. along County Road 23 west of County Road 89, which is just southeast of Esparto. Lowell for an unknown reason lost control and hit a walnut tree.

Officers suspect Lowell was not wearing a seatbelt when he was ejected from the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The California Highway Patrol said in a press release that alcohol is believed to be involved in the crash.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A chemistry teacher at Elk Grove High School left a suspicious device in his pickup after being arrested for public drunkenness over the weekend, authorities said.

Officers used a blast of water to "defuse" the device at a Rio Linda fire station and determined it was not a bomb, Sacramento Sheriff's Department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said Sunday.

"It was not rigged to explode," Ramos said.

By Hudson Sangree

hsangree@sacbee.com

A fire that started in a trash can at Pioneer Elementary School caused damage to a classroom and restroom Sunday evening, the Twin Rivers Police Department said in a news release.

Firefighters were called at about 6 p.m. to the structure fire at 5816 Pioneer Way. Arson investigators also responded to "examine the suspicious fire," the news release said.

Investigators were reviewing surveillance videos but had not identified suspects, it said.

Anyone with information should call Twin Rivers police dispatch at (916) 566-2770.

By Hudson Sangree

hsangree@sacbee.com

Firefighters responded this afternoon to a report of suspicious package in Rio Linda, only to find that an Elk Grove chemistry teacher had left the package, which was wrapped in duct tape and had wires poking out, in the back of his pickup.

"Chemistry teachers ignite things a lot," said Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District Battalion Chief Eric Bridge. He said the package may have been part of a classroom demonstration.

The incident began when a tow truck driver hauled away the Ford F-250 pickup, which was parked on private land, Bridge said. The land owner had called to have it removed, he said.

As the tow-truck driver headed for an impound yard, he noticed the suspicious package in the back of the truck, Bridge said.

The driver pulled into a fire station on Rio Linda Boulevard to report the package, the battalion chief said.

Investigators spoke with the chemistry teacher, who described the package "to a T," Bridge said. They determined it did not represent a threat without having to use a bomb-squad robot, he said.

By Whitney Mountain
wmountain@sacbee.com

A 7-year-old boy who saw his father overcome by a fatal fire and explosion in a rice field south of Colusa ran two miles for help on Saturday, the Colusa County Sheriff's Office reported.

Authorities said 43-year-old Roberto Ayala of Grimes apparently was turning on an irrigation pump at an electrical switch midday Saturday when the blast occurred in the field between Wescott and Abel roads in Colusa County.

Ayala's son was muddy and had scratches when he arrived about 1:20 p.m. at a neighboring home, where he reported that his dad was on fire in the field, said Sheriff's Lt. Shane Maxey. The neighbors called authorities.

Several bystanders - including an off-duty police officer - joined forces and held down a would-be thief who tried to snatch a purse from an elderly woman this morning, according to authorities.

A 78-year-old woman and her 77-year-old husband were getting out of their car outside the IHOP restaurant at Bradshaw Road and Old Placerville Road when the suspect ran up, said Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos.

The suspect tried to grab the woman's purse, but she would not let go, Ramos said. When her husband tried to help, he was knocked down.

The scuffle drew the attention of four people nearby, who grabbed the suspect as he tried to flee with the purse and held onto him until sheriff's deputies arrived. One of the Good Samaritans was an off-duty Sacramento police officer, Ramos said.

Arrested was 27-year-old Aaron Walker, Ramos said.

The purse made it back to its rightful owner.

Local authorities are investigating three robberies of taxicab drivers in a little more than 24 hours.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that one person is responsible for all three attacks, though the suspect descriptions given by victims vary slightly, according to the Sacramento police and county sheriff's departments.

The first robbery was reported Friday morning, just after midnight. A cabbie picked up a fare at Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road and was driving when the suspect pulled out a gun and ordered the driver toward Howe Avenue, said police Sgt. Norm Leong.

An early-morning fight that led to the participants being bounced from a bar spilled into a different parking lot and ended with a man being assaulted with a tire iron, according to Sacramento police.

The victim, 20 years old, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital, police said.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

Joga Singh Kahlon, a 50-year-old man, was found dead in his home Friday in the 1900 block of Mammoth Way, according to Sacramento authorities.

Police say they responded to a call at 10:10 p.m. Friday, from a relative of the man who was concerned about his well-being. When officers entered the home, they found the victim's body and identified trauma marks indicating he had been killed.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified Kahlon today. His death had been announced earlier by the Sacramento Police Department.

Deputies have arrested two men on suspicion of stealing copper wire from a property in McClellan Park this afternoon, and attempting to sell it at a nearby recycling center about 15 minutes later, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

Authorities received a report around 4:55 p.m. Friday, of two males loading copper into a black Honda Accord at a Regional Transit building near the intersection of Dean Street and Kilzer Avenue, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said.

When deputies arrived, the car was not on scene. However, they found that copper wiring had been removed from a large pole in a fenced-off yard behind the building, Ramos said.

A Sacramento County Sheriff's Department deputy sustained minor injuries while struggling with a man he was attempting to detain in North Sacramento this morning, a sheriff's department spokesman said.

The man, who ran from deputies and was not located during an ensuing search, is now wanted on suspicion of assaulting an officer, said department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. Another man was arrested during the search on an unrelated weapons charge, Ramos said.

Deputies responded to Dawn Way near Howe Avenue at about 9:45 a.m. today, after a resident called to report a suspicious subject, Ramos said. They located the man, who was uncooperative and refused to identify himself.

Joseph Raheem Williams has been sentenced to 22 years in state prison for a 2008 shooting death of a many outside the Double Tree Hotel in Sacramento.

Williams was convicted by a jury of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Alexander Hunter. He was sentenced by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Savage.

On Feb. 10, 2008, Hunter was celebrating his 21st birthday with family and friends at the Double Tree Hotel. About 3 a.m., Hunter left the hotel and was walking through the parking lot when a vehicle came close to hitting a family member, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release. Williams was a passenger in the vehicle.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A judge handed down massive prison terms today to two Stockton men who were convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two innocent bystanders in an Arden-Arcade apartment building last year.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary S. Mullen gave Dominque Amos 105 years to life in prison and imposed a term of 80 years to life on co-defendant Ronnie Brown III.

Amos and Brown, both 21, were convicted in the Jan. 14, 2010, killings of Eleea Langley Jr., 29, and Marcus Thompson, 18, at the Villa Capri Apartments on Trussel Way.

Authorities said the shooting took place when Amos and Brown went to the apartment complex to help move out some friends who were having trouble with other Villa Capri residents.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A man who ran over and killed a Loaves and Fishes volunteer last year was sentenced today to six years and eight months in state prison.

Jeffrey Crayton Yelverton received the sentence for his voluntary manslaughter and hit-and-run convictions in the death of Thomas William Deollos.

"You stole that life," Sacramento Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan told Yelverton, 55, before she handed down the term.

A cabbie was held up at gunpoint and his taxi was stolen last night in Sacramento.

The taxi driver picked up what he thought was a possible fare around midnight at a shopping complex near Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road and was forced to begin driving, Sacramento police said.

At gunpoint, the young man robbed the driver. He then forced the cabbie to drive to Cottage Way and Howe Avenue where the driver was forced out of his taxi.

Three teens were arrested for allegedly vandalizing a South Lake Tahoe elementary school targeted in the past with graffiti.

A citizen called police to Bijou Community School, 3501 Spruce Ave., Wednesday night where police found 6 boys on school grounds. Four were determined to be marking the campus with graffiti, police said.

Three were immediately arrested and a fourth arrest is pending. None of the graffiti appears to be gang-related.

The school has been a target of graffiti vandals for years, South Lake Tahoe police said.

The Citrus Heights Police Department is zeroing in on speeding motorists, noisy vehicles and motorcycle safety.

Officers will conduct additional speed and muffler enforcement throughout the remainder of 2011 as part of a grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety, according to a Police Department news release.

In 2010, 287 collisions in the city resulted in injuries or death. Of those collisions, police said, 120, or 42 percent, were speed related.

Davis police have arrested three suspects in connection with a Wednesday night home invasion robbery, the police department reported.

Three residents of a home in the 1400 block of Notre Dame Drive reported that two male suspects had broken in shortly before 8:30 p.m., sprayed them with a chemical and displayed what appeared to be a handgun before fleeing with the victims' property, according to a police department news release.

A man sought in connection with a 20-year-old homicide in Redding was booked into Shasta County Jail today, a year after DNA evidence linked him to the case.

Brian Eric Norton is being held on a no-bail warrant accusing him of murder in the death of Despina Magioudis, according to a Redding Police Department news release.

Magioudis, 53, was found in a field on the north side of East Cypress on Aug. 10, 1991. The police investigation revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and died as a result of strangulation and bludgeoning. Redding police and the California Department of Justice Crime laboratory pursued the case for years, but it finally went cold, officials said.

A Placer County Sheriff's Department air support unit conducted a rescue Tuesday night of a kayaker who paddled off a 30-foot waterfall and sustained severe back injuries on landing, the department reported.

The 27-year-old man was kayaking on the north fork of the American River in a remote area of the Tahoe National Forest when he went over the waterfall, according to a department news release. Other kayakers pulled him from the water and hiked out of the canyon to call for help, the release states.

"The way he went off, his boat apparently hit flat on the water, and that's like hitting concrete," said sheriff's department Sgt. Van Bogardus, who piloted the department's air support unit rescue helicopter.

Fire crews have contained a 30-acre grass fire south of Folsom near White Rock Road, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman said.

The blaze ignited just after 2 p.m., in a large field near the Prairie City State Vehicular Recreation Area, said CAL FIRE spokesman Daniel Berlant. It grew "pretty quickly," due in part to the dryness of the grass, but CAL FIRE and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District crews were able to contain the fire within an hour, Berlant said.

A 41-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of a man in broad daylight at a busy Sacramento intersection Wednesday afternoon, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

The stabbing occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the corner of Broadway and Alhambra Boulevard, police reported. The 54-year-old male victim was transported to a local hospital with "very serious" injuries, said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck.

A Sacramento man has been sentenced to three years in prison for possession of stolen mail.

U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. also sentenced Kevin Duane Hickman, 34, to three years of supervised release following his prison term, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, on Feb. 18, 2010, Hickman was found to be in possession of U.S. mail that had been stolen from more than 35 victims.

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

Folsom police urge residents to take precautions to prevent thefts of catalytic converters.

Over the past seven days, the Folsom Police Department has taken numerous reports of the devices being stolen from city residents.

The catalytic converter is mounted underneath the vehicle and reduces pollution-causing emissions. It is made from platinum and other precious metals sought by thieves, who can use a portable power saw to remove the converter, often in less than 20 seconds, according to a Police Department news release.

Folsom Prison authorities said a nurse assaulted inside the facility Wednesday afternoon likely was attacked by an inmate.

However, they have not identified a particular suspect, said prison spokesman Lt. Paul Baker.

Officials found the nurse in a medical office about 3 p.m. Wednesday, after she activated her personal alarm, which all prison employees carry. Officials discovered she had been battered by an unknown suspect; Baker said the assault might have been sexual.

Auburn police said the man being chased by police into downtown last night was eventually arrested.

Police said this morning that an Auburn Police Department officer recognized Neal John Bugnatto, 28, of Auburn about 10:45 p.m. on High Street near Cleveland Avenue. Police said that he was wanted and had an outstanding warrant.

During a short interview, police said that Bugnatto provided a false name and then ran away. A short chase ensued into downtown Auburn's central square area.

That's where police said they caught up with Bugnatto and arrested him. He was taken to Placer County Jail where police booked him on the outstanding warrant and suspicion of providing false information to a peace officer, resisting and possession of methamphetamine.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

One person died and another sustained burn injuries in a fire that engulfed a multi-unit residential structure in Placer County on Wednesday night, the Placer County Sheriff's Department reported.

Fire crews and sheriff's deputies were dispatched around 7:30 p.m., to the structure in the 200 block of Ponderosa Way in the unincorporated area of Colfax, said sheriff's department Lt. John Savage. Upon arriving, they found the structure well-involved with flames and learned there may have been occupants inside one or two of the units, Savage said.

As crews battled the fire, one victim emerged from the structure with burn injuries, Savage said. That victim was airlifted to the UC Davis Medical Center for treatment.

A fire that burned 20 acres in a field of wheat stubble in Yolo County on Wednesday afternoon has been contained, an Esparto Fire Protection District official said.

Crews responded around 5 p.m., to the field near County Road 85 and Road 13, about six miles north of Capay, said district Fire Chief Barry Burns. Personnel from a half-dozen local fire districts and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection were able to contain the blaze within about an hour, Burns said.

No structures were involved and no injuries were reported. The field had already been harvested, so no crop was lost, Burns said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The driver of a big rig truck who died in a crash on Highway 50 late Tuesday afternoon has been identified by the El Dorado County Coroner's Office as Michael Mathes, 44.

Mathes, who was from Missouri, was driving westbound near Silver Fork Road pulling a trailer loaded with limestone when the truck's brakes failed, according to Officer Donovan McCann of the California Highway Patrol.

Mathes began using both westbound and eastbound lanes to pass vehicles, McCann said. When he swerved back into the westbound lane to avoid oncoming traffic, he hit a pickup, sending both vehicles into an embankment.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department deputies are investigating the invasion this afternoon of a home in North Highlands occupied by four children.

Around 12:30 p.m., deputies responded to a residence in the 3700 block of Bolivar Avenue after a 12-year-old girl reported two male adult suspects had broken into her home, according to a sheriff's department news release.

Deputies determined that four children, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, had been inside the home when one of the suspects knocked on the front door, the release states. The children did not answer and, a few minutes later, they found the two suspects had entered the home through the garage and were ransacking a bedroom.

A San Francisco woman died this morning in a collision between a big rig and a car on Highway 12.

San Joaquin County Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia said the Coroner's Office identified the woman as Kristin Lynn Aksnes, 21.

The crash was reported about 5:30 a.m. on Highway 12 between Brannan Island and Tower Park Marina, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Rich Wetzel.

A stabbing in broad daylight at a busy Sacramento intersection Wednesday has left a man hospitalized with serious injuries, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

Officers responded around 1:30 p.m., to reports of a fight and stabbing at the corner of Broadway and Alhambra Boulevard, said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck. They located a 54-year-old man suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Yolo County authorities say a Davis baseball star died after being punched by a friend on Picnic Day, but they don't intend to file charges.

The county coroner concluded the death of Scott Heinig, 22, was a homicide - a "death caused by human hands" - the Yolo County District Attorney's office said in a news release.

But the DA's office said Heinig's death was the "result of accident or misfortune," with no intent to kill.

A 21-year-old woman was submerged for about a minute and suffered chest injury during an outing with friends on the Cosumnes River.

Crews from the Pioneer Fire Protection District in El Dorado County responded about 4 p.m. Tuesday to the North Fork of the Cosumnes River near the Happy Valley Cutoff Road Bridge.

Four apparently unrelated robberies early this morning kept Sacramento police busy.

• At 12:50 a.m. a suspect ran up to a woman as she got out of her vehicle in the 7600 block of 51st Avenue. He pointed a gun at the victim and demanded money.

The victim's brother ran outside to help, and the suspect ran off.

A driver suffered life-threatening injuries when his vehicle slammed into a light pole in Elk Grove on Calvine Road.

The car was traveling eastbound on Calvine Road about 8 a.m. when for an unknown reason the vehicle left the road and hit the light pole. The vehicle's engine caught fire after the crash.

The man in the car was not responsive at the scene and was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, said Elk Grove Police Officer Christopher Trim. Calvine Road was closed in the eastbound direction near Short Road.

Photo courtesy of Elk Grove Police Officer Christopher Trim.

A fatal collision between a big rig and a car on Highway 12 in the delta this morning has snarled traffic.

The crash involving the big rig, which is overturned off the side of the road, and a Volkswagen automobile left a woman in the car dead. Traffic in both directions is backed up as the coroner responds and other emergency vehicles try to clear the scene.

By Matt Kawahara and Bill Lindelof
mkawahara@sacbee.com

The Sacramento County Coroner's office today has released the name of the motorcyclist killed in a collision in the south area.

He was identified as Matthew S. Forward, 24, of Elk Grove.

Forward died after his motorcycle collided with a Toyota four-door at an intersection Tuesday night, authorities said.

A gas leak that prompted evacuations of multiple homes in Elk Grove this afternoon has been stopped, a Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department official said.

The leak was reported around 4:50 p.m., said fire department Chief Tracey Hansen. Responding crews located a ruptured one-inch line on a residential property in the 9500 block of Nut Tree Court, and evacuated the immediately adjacent houses, Hansen said.

PG&E crews responded to isolate the leak and are currently repairing the line, Hansen said. All residents are being allowed back into their homes, she said.

The leak apparently started when the homeowner clipped the gas line while digging as part of a home improvement project, she said. There were no reports of injury or illness.

A man is suspected of taking $50,000 from victims, possibly by placing a debit card reading device somewhere in the Sacramento region.

The Folsom Police Department is asking for the public's help in finding the man who they suspect has used a "skimming device." Skimming devices have in the past been placed at gas pumps.

When customers use debit or credit cards, the skimming device reads the vital information on the card. The account information is then used by thieves to make purchases or debit accounts.

Citrus Heights police will set up a drunk driving checkpoint Friday in an area where alcohol has played a role in causing crashes.

The DUI checkpoint will be in operation from 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. on Madison Avenue, east of San Juan Avenue.

Officers will also be checking to see if drivers have a valid license. Drivers without a valid license could have their vehicles towed.

The checkpoint is funded through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A small airplane attempting to take off from the Placerville Airport today made a hard landing near the runway, causing the pilot to be hospitalized and fuel to leak from the damaged aircraft, officials said.

The plane lifted off briefly before hitting the ground off the side of the runway around 4 p.m., said El Dorado County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Bryan Golmitz. Officials said the cause is unknown.

Fire crews responded and found the pilot had climbed out of the downed plane, said El Dorado County Fire District Battalion Chief Tim Cordero. The pilot, the only occupant of the plane, was evaluated by paramedics and transported to a local hospital, Cordero said.

A 32-year-old Sacramento man has pleaded guilty in federal court to selling counterfeit music CDs and motion picture DVDs at California flea markets, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Carlos Benavidez Tejeda pleaded guilty today to criminal copyright infringement, according to a Department of Justice news release.

According to the plea agreement, between June and November of last year, Tejeda sold counterfeit CDs and DVDs to the public at the Galt Market in Galt, and at other flea markets in the Eastern District of California, the release states.

A Natomas man pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a minor for prostitution.

According to court documents, in November 2009, Jamal Kareem Warren, 24, met a 16-year-old girl who wanted to run away from home. The girl indicated that she thought Warren was a pimp and wanted to work for him.

Warren took sexually explicit photographs of the girl and posted them on the Internet, advertising her for prostitution, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Davis police announced today that they have obtained an arrest warrant for one of two suspects sought in connection with the June 6 robbery of a Motel 6.

Two men, both described as African American, walked into the motel office on Chiles Road, pointed a handgun at the clerk and demanded money. The suspects fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Police said no one was hurt in the robbery.

One suspect was described as approximately 6 feet tall with an average build, short dark hair and wearing a maroon windbreaker. The other was described as about 5 feet, 6 inches tall with a thin build, wearing a light blue shirt and a black rag over his hair.

A wildland fire that consumed 350 acres along the Yuba River near Smartsville was declared fully contained this morning.

Firefighters battled the smoky blaze all day Sunday. No structures were threatened.

Three engines and four hand crews were still on the scene about noon today.

Truckee police have determined that a bicyclist failed to stop at a red light before he collided with a vehicle that fled the scene.

At about 5:30 p.m. Sunday a 31-year-old Truckee bicyclist collided with the vehicle at Donner Pass Road at Northwoods Boulevard. The driver of the vehicle got out of his vehicle but then fled northbound on Donner Pass Road.

A Truckee Fire District ambulance crew on its way to the collision spotted the vehicle driving at a high rate of speed as it passed the fire station, providing police a good description.

It's not a case of overflow parking.

The car in the American River near Ancil Hoffman Park was stolen and driven into the river. Once in the water, park rangers think it was swept downstream about a mile by abnormally high summer river flows.

Sacramento County Park Ranger John Havicon said the car was stolen from an owner in Gold River. The vehicle was then apparently driven into the river at the Rossmoor Bar boat ramp.

A suspected carjacker fled late Sunday night when Woodland police arrived on the scene.

Police officers had been dispatched to the area of First Street and Lincoln Avenue about 10:20 p.m. Sunday. As they arrived, officers said Robert Vance, 30, of Woodland fled on foot.

He was eventually detained and arrested on suspicion of attempting to carjack a vehicle from a couple. Officers suspect Vance of approaching a female and her boyfriend who were in a car.

By Debbie Arrington
darrington@sacbee.com

Two men are in custody on suspicion of breaking into seven cars Sunday morning in the economy parking lot at Sacramento International Airport.

Officials said Mark Poe, 35 (above, left), and Marshall Young, 33 (above, right), were arrested after Sacramento sheriff's deputies found numerous items believed taken from other cars in the trunk of the suspects' vehicle.

Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said an attendant spotted two men breaking the window of a parked car in the economy lot at about 6:30 a.m. Sunday and alerted deputies assigned to the airport. After the suspects exited the lot through the toll plaza, they were stopped and questioned. A search of their vehicle revealed the stolen property, Ramos said.

By Debbie Arrington

darrington@sacbee.com

Maybe this wasn't the best example of driver's education.

Two parents who had too much to drink were cited for letting their 14-year-old son drive them to a Sacramento liquor store, police said.

With his intoxicated parents in the car, the unlicensed teen driver was stopped Saturday night by police at a DUI checkpoint at Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard in South Sacramento. According to police reports, the parents - who were not identified - weren't arrested. But they received a citation for allowing their underage son to drive without a license.

At the same checkpoint, another unlicensed driver apparently thought one citation was enough for one day. When unable to produce a driver's license, he showed the officers a citation he had received earlier in the day in another jurisdiction for driving without a license.

Now he has two citations for the same offense - and his car was towed.

By Debbie Arrington

darrington@sacbee.com

A brush fire that consumed more than 400 acres along the Yuba River near Smartsville in Yuba County should be near full containment Monday morning.

More than 175 firefighters battled the smoky blaze Sunday, using a helicopter and three water tenders, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. By late afternoon, the fire was 60 percent contained, and attention was turned to mopping up unburned islands of fuel within its perimeter.

"We're making good progress," he said. "The burning operation put quite a lot of smoke out. We didn't want to leave anything within the perimeter that could still burn."

By Debbie Arrington
darrington@sacbee.com

Call it the case of the naked gun woman.

At a Super 8 motel in Vacaville, a night clerk convinced a nude woman brandishing a handgun to surrender to police early Sunday morning.

Patricia Wright, 32, of Fairfield, was arrested by Vacaville police at about 3 a.m. following a 20-minute standoff, officials said.

According to police, Wright entered the motel's lobby around 2:40 a.m. Sunday wearing no clothes but waving a gun. The female desk clerk called 911, then tried to calm Wright, who was staying at the motel with a male companion.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

A man pushing a shopping cart on North 16th Street was hit by a car which sped on, rather than stopping, according to the Sacramento Police Department activity log.

Police reported the man was pushing the cart along the street near North B Street in the dark, around 2:30 a.m.

A witness told police a late-80s gold Toyota Celica two-door with shiny rims hit the pedestrian and the cart without slowing.

The car continued north, running red lights, the witness said.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

A man trying to steal a surveillance camera came up empty-handed early today, when he fell off the roof, according to the Sacramento Police Department activity log.

Police responded to a call around 2 a.m. from an Alhambra Boulevard resident who heard someone on the roof, and then heard the invader fall.

The suspect apparently fell 15 feet off the roof.

The surveillance camera was found on the ground near the suspect, whose leg was injured in the fall.

The victim declined to press charges, feeling that the leg injury was adequate punishment.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A south Sacramento drive-by shooting late Friday night left two victims with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at about 10 p.m., in front of a home on Fieldpoppy Circle near Country Park Drive. The two victims were outside working on a car when they were shot at numerous times from a passing vehicle, said Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Lt. Chet Madison.

Both victims were hospitalized with gunshot wounds but are expected to survive, Madison said.

Authorities did not provide a description of the suspect vehicle or the ages of the victims. No other witnesses to the shooting had come forward, Madison said.

Neighbors reported hearing 8-to-10 shots in rapid succession.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

Redding police were busy Friday evening with two vehicle crashes along Churn Creek Road, the first of which left an 88-year-old woman dead.

Police responded to that crash - within the gated community of Shasta Hills Estates - at 6:39 p.m., according to a release.

Investigators determined that Evelyn Demarco, 88, of Redding was driving a 1997 Cadillac Deville on a private road within the community when she lost control, went off the roadway and hit a tree.

She was not wearing a seatbelt and received fatal injuries.

The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

A man has been convicted in Sacramento County Superior Court of six felony charges in the kidnapping and robbery of a 68-year-old Orangevale nurse in December 2010, according to a county District Attorney's Office news release.

Joseph Sullivan was found guilty by a jury of the felony charges, which include kidnapping for extortion with bodily injury, burglary, robbery and carjacking, the district attorney's office announced Friday. He faces life in prison.

The District Attorney's Office reported this series of events:

One man died and another was injured this afternoon when a pickup truck veered off Highway 99 north of Gridley and overturned in a ditch.

The single-vehicle crash occurred about 2:20 p.m. near Ord Ranch Road.

Sgt. Steve Dubravetz of the California Highway Patrol said the pickup was southbound on Highway 99. Witnesses reported that the trailer began to fishtail and left the roadway. The driver overcorrected, hitting a dry drainage ditch. The vehicle then flipped over and landed upside down in a ditch containing water about three feet deep.

Three Southern California doctors with ties to the owner of clinics in Sacramento and Carmichael have been convicted of Medicare fraud by a federal jury in Sacramento.

Dr. Alexander Popov, 46, of Los Angeles; Dr. Ramanathan Prakash, 63, of Northridge; and Dr. Lana Le Chabrier, 62, of Santa Barbara, were convicted of conspiring to commit health-care fraud. In addition, Popov and Prakash were convicted on three individual counts of health care fraud, and Le Chabrier was convicted of a single additional count of health care fraud, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. The guilty verdicts were returned today after a monthlong trial before U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr.

According to testimony presented during the trial, from February 2006 through August 2008, Vardges Egiazarian, 63, of Panorama City, owned and controlled three health care clinics in Sacramento, Richmond and Carmichael. Egiazarian and others recruited doctors to submit applications to Medicare for billing numbers. These doctors would assume the role of owners and practitioners at the clinics, and claims would be submitted to Medicare under their names for medical services purportedly rendered at the clinics. Popov and Prakash fulfilled this role for the Sacramento clinic and Le Chabrier did the same for the Richmond clinic.

Sacramento police will conduct a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint Saturday night at Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard.

The checkpoint is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., and run for five to seven hours, the police department reported. Officers will check drivers for signs of alcohol and drug impairment and for valid driver's licenses.

Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A Sacramento man has pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of sex trafficking of three different minors, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Paul "Yoshi" Moore, 50, entered the guilty pleas Friday before Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia, according to a Department of Justice release.

According to the superseding indictment, Moore's criminal conduct occurred between December 2005 and February 2007, the release states.

Law-enforcement officials eradicated almost 9,000 marijuana plants early Friday morning in a remote area of Nevada County.

The plants were in three growing beds in a remote rural area between Washington and Graniteville, said county Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal. The property was on public land.

Agents from the Sheriff's Department, Truckee Police Department and U.S. Forest Service continued to search for suspects late Friday afternoon.

"It's not unusual for them (suspects) to hear the surveillance helicopter and run off into the woods, and many times there's another garden they can go to," said Royal.

"Evidence in a camp at the garden, where individuals were living, indicated it's a Mexican drug-growing operation," he said.

The 8,625 plants eradicated in the garden constitute the "first major marijuana raid in what is probably going to be a busy year," Royal said.

The victims, a husband and wife, called the sheriff's dispatch center at 3:07 p.m. to report that three men, one of whom they knew, had entered their Dry Creek Road home and stolen marijuana and other items. They reported that the men brandished a gun during the robbery and told the couple to stay in a confined area of the home as they left, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

At 3:25 p.m., deputies spotted the three suspects driving westbound on Interstate 80 near Douglas Boulevard in Roseville. The car was stopped on the side of the freeway and the suspects were taken into custody without incident. Inside the car, deputies found a handgun that matched the description of the gun used during the robbery. Officials said some property also was discovered.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office will sponsor an academy in September for people interested in joining the Community Emergency Response Team.

The CERT program began in 2007, and to date more than 150 people have received training. The program is part of an effort to increase disaster preparedness awareness in the county by having a group of trained individuals capable of assisting themselves, their families and neighbors in the event of a disaster, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

CERT training promotes a partnership between local emergency services and the people they serve. The goal is for emergency personnel to help representatives of neighborhoods, community organizations and workplaces develop basic response skills.

CERT members are then integrated into the area's emergency response capability. If a disastrous event overwhelms or delays professional responders, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills they learned during the training.

Upon completing the training and application process, individuals will be registered as CERT volunteers with the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office. Registered volunteers are required to participate in monthly disaster preparedness training activities to maintain their volunteer status.

CERT Academy training is scheduled:

• Sept. 16, 6 to 8 p.m., Emergency Preparedness and CERT Organization

• Sept. 17, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fire Safety, Medical Operations

• Sept. 23, 6 to 10 p.m., Light Search and Rescue, Disaster Psychology

• Sept. 24, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Terrorism, Course Review, Disaster Simulation

Training sessions will be held in the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office Training Room, 330 Fair Lane, Building A, Placerville.

Those interested in attending the Academy should call Bob Todd, academy coordinator, (530) 644-6955, or email tcharles_2@netzero.net, or call OES Deputy Matt Cathey, (530) 621-7660, or email catheym@edso.org.

A young woman tortured by her parents thanked her adoptive mother in court today and said that because of the ordeal, "I'm stronger than ever."

"I'm not scared any more," Lillian Manning, 19, said to her convicted tormentor, Lillian Manning-Horvath, at the defendant's sentencing in Sacramento Superior Court. "You thought you won the war. But no you didn't. I did. It took awhile, but I did it. Me. Lillian Kate Manning, aka Rachel Cornist."

Manning-Horvath, 72, ducked into the corner of the holding cell in front of Judge Lawrence G. Brown and behind her lawyer, Ken Rosenfeld, to avoid a newspaper photographer in the courtroom. But she couldn't hide from her sentence -- consecutive life terms with no chance of parole for her no-contest pleas to charges of torture and mayhem.

Nevada County sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help in solving a 27-year-old case.

The investigation focuses on the death of an unidentified woman whose body was found July 8, 1984, six miles north of Nevada City along state Highway 49.

She was found 50 feet below a dirt parking area, two to three weeks after police think she died.

A California correctional officer accused of smuggling phones and tobacco into a prison in return for cash payments is scheduled to make his first appearance in Sacramento federal court today.

Bobby Joe Kirby is charged in a criminal complaint filed June 17 and unsealed Thursday with wire fraud and depriving the state of his honest services.

According to an FBI agent's affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Kirby received thousands of dollars via wire transfers last year and this year as payment for his unlawful delivery of cell phones and tobacco products to inmates at the California Correctional Center in Susanville.

A medical marijuana collective in Redding was robbed at gunpoint Thursday evening, Redding police reported.

Officers responded at 6:20 p.m., to a report of an armed robbery at Northern Patients Group in the 11000 block of Rhyolite Drive, according to a police department news release. Upon arrival, they found the suspects had already fled.

Employees of the collective told investigators that two men had just entered the collective when one of them brandished a gun and ordered employees to place cash in a backpack and marijuana in a duffel bag, the release states. The suspects then fled on foot.

The Yuba County Sheriff's Department is investigating the death of a man found alongside a road in Linda earlier today, a department spokesman said.

An employee of a vector control service alerted authorities just before noon to a body near the intersection of Redgold Street and Kirkhill Drive in southeast Linda, said sheriff's department spokesman Lt. Damon Gil.

The street has residences on one side and a large field on the other, Gil said. Responding deputies located the man lying at the edge of the field and pronounced him dead at the scene.

A Fairfield man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Sacramento in connection with a May 27 car bombing.

The four-count indictment charges Daniel Richard Garcia, 30, with malicious use of explosive materials, possession of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, and two counts of possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The indictment alleges that on May 27, Garcia detonated a pipe bomb, causing damage to a car and apartment complex in Fairfield. According to publicly filed documents in the case, a second bomb was found during a June 16 search of Garcia's house.

The Nevada County Sheriff's Office seeks the public's help in identifying a woman whose body was found 27 year's ago and is believed to be the victim of a homicide.

The body of a young woman was discovered July 8, 1984, six miles north of Nevada City along Highway 49, just south of the Independence Trail head, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. The body was about 50 feet below a dirt parking area.

The possible cause of death was identified as strangulation, and the woman was believed to have been dead two to three weeks before the body was found.

The California Highway Patrol is investigating whether a driver who allegedly caused a double fatal collision this morning in Sutter County fled the crash on foot.

At about 5:20 a.m. a van was heading southbound on Highway 113 north of Seymour Road near the community of Robbins when it tried to pass a car headed in the same direction at about 60 mph. The van's driver then realized he did not have enough room to execute the passing maneuver when he saw a northbound vehicle approaching.

The CHP said in a press release that the driver then turned into the path of the car it was passing and collided. The car went off the roadway into an oak tree, killing two passengers and causing major injuries to the driver, Alberto Martin Marcos, 50, of Yuba City.

The third and final defendant convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two men in the Seavey Circle housing project two years ago has been sentenced to prison.

Phillip Perez Gonzales Jr, 27, received 31 years to life in prison today from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White for the July 21, 2009, killings of of Everett Antonio Taylor, 28, and Deshawn Dante Holloway, 35.

Gonzales' co-defendant, Michael Lee Armstrong, 23, the actual gunman in the killings, received a 55-to-life term. The woman who arranged the killing, Priscilla Ramirez, 21, last week received a 16-to-life term.

According to testimony at trial, Ramirez lied to the two men in telling them that she had been raped by one of the victims.

A Sacramento man charged with robbing and assaulting two teenagers at knifepoint has entered a plea deal with Yolo County prosecutors, agreeing to serve a prison sentence of more than 28 years.

The agreement with Robert Christopher Shepler, 40, was reached Wednesday, during the second day of jury selection after the start of the trial, according to a Yolo County District Attorney's Office news release.

Officials said Shepler, on June 9, 2010, intervened in an argument among three juveniles. Two brothers, ages 15 and 16, were arguing with another juvenile over an iPod. Shepler pulled a knife on the brothers and told them to empty their pockets. He shoved the younger brother against and wall and searched his pockets, then turned to the 16-year-old, who was wearing a gold necklace. Shepler tried to rip the necklace from the boy's neck. When it didn't come off, he pressed the knife against the boy's neck and demanded the necklace, according to the news release. The boy complied.

Rocklin police have arrested a man suspected of early morning burglaries on Sunset Boulevard.

Police said just after 2 a.m. today a burglar alarm was tripped at a pizza parlor in the 2200 block of Sunset Boulevard. When officers arrived at the business, they saw that a window had been broken for entrance.

The business owner arrived and viewed the burglary security video, which showed a white man with a medium build, tank top and black shorts. He also had a tattoo.

Gunfire erupted when a motorist complained loudly that he had been cut off by another driver in an early morning road rage incident, Sacramento police said.

A 25-year-old man was traveling south on South Watt Avenue near Fruitridge Road about 12:30 a.m. when a pickup truck cut him off.

The driver who was cut off flashed his lights and pulled up next to the offending pickup truck. He then began yelling at the occupants of the truck.

That prompted a young male passenger in the truck to fire several times into the victim's sport utility vehicle. The driver was not hurt by the shots fired from the gold or tan GMC pickup.

Roseville police will conduct a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint Saturday night at an undisclosed location in the city, the police department reported.

The department's traffic unit will staff the checkpoint from 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday, according to a Roseville police news release. Officers will check drivers for signs of impairment and for valid driver's licenses.

A federal judge in Sacramento today sentenced a Stockton farmer to two and a half years in prison for crop insurance fraud.

U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez also ordered Gregory Peter Torlai Jr., 50, to pay a $10,000 fine for filing false claims for crop insurance benefits and $211,516 in restitution.

Following and 11-day trial, a federal jury on Feb. 10 found Torlai guilty of 16 counts of submitting fraudulent statements in insurance applications for crops in San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Lassen counties, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

By Matt Kawahara

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect wanted in connection with two recent robberies at a U.S. Bank branch in Rancho Cordova.

The robberies occurred on June 13 and July 2 at the bank in the 11000 block of Olson Drive, the sheriff's department reported.

Both times, the suspect entered the bank, simulated the possession of a handgun under his shirt and demanded money, the department reported. He then fled on foot.

Roseville police on Tuesday arrested three men in connection with a marijuana robbery and are looking for a fourth suspect.

About 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, three Sacramento men met with four other men in the parking lot of a Galleria Boulevard restaurant to conduct a marijuana sale, according to a Police Department news release. Instead of paying, the four suspects robbed the Sacramento men of their marijuana at gunpoint, then fled in a black Toyota sedan, police said.

A Roseville police officer spotted the vehicle on westbound Interstate 80 and followed it to the dead end of Kenroy Lane, off Riverside Avenue. Two of the passengers got out of the car and fled on foot. The other two remained with the car and were taken into custody.

A 7-year-old girl who died Tuesday at a church rectory after a television fell and struck her on the head has been identified by the Colusa County Coroner's Office as Kateri Meraz of Colusa.

Lt. Shane Maxey of the Colusa County Sheriff's Department said the coroner determined that the cause of death was a blunt force head injury.

"It was an extremely tragic accident," Maxey said.

A hazardous materials incident in south Sacramento that seemed under control early Wednesday afternoon became anything but hours later when a trailer holding up to 40 chemical substances burst into flames.

The fire was contained in less than 15 minutes, fire officials said, but not before a thick plume of dark smoke spread over the Mike & Son's Truck Repair yard near Elder Creek Road and Florin Perkins Road.

The daylong saga began around 8 a.m.when fumes started wafting from a tractor-trailer at the shipping yard.

The Sacramento Fire Department and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District responded to the incident, which was declared a Level 3 hazmat situation. A Level 3 is the most severe category of hazardous materials incidents, occurring when officials must identify the material involved and a decontamination team is required.

Due to cutbacks of its hazmat team, the Sacramento Fire Department also called on the Roseville Fire Department to respond, said Sacramento Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Lloyd Ogan.

Crews ventilated the trailer and evacuated more than 50 nearby businesses, Ogan said.
It was determined that oil containing refrigerant had leaked from a container in the trailer and likely mixed with another chemical to create the fumes, said Sacramento Fire Department Assistant Chief Niko King. Three people were transported to a hospital for some "inhalation irritation," King said.

The situation seemed to be resolved around 1 p.m., when fire officials turned the cleanup over to Clean Harbors, a hazardous chemicals disposal company based in Massachusetts that was storing the trailer at Mike & Son's, Rexroad said.

However, Ogan said, officials believe that before the truck could be unloaded, two non-compatible chemicals came into contact and ignited a fire around 5 p.m.

Although Ogan said all of the substances in the truck were hazardous, he said officials had been unable to determine precisely what they were.

Crews were expected to remain on the scene throughout the night, sequestering the water used to battle the truck fire and ensuring that the materials did not flare up again, Ogan said.

A man was arrested on suspicion of theft for allegedly taking bathroom items from a South Sacramento business.

Sacramento police said that a man walked into a smog test business in the 6100 block of Freeport Boulevard about 5 p.m. Tuesday and entered the restroom.

He later exited the restrooom carrying cleaning supplies and toilet paper, according to business employees. The employees chased the man, causing him to drop the items as he fled.

The employees then followed the suspect, identified as Jamie Camel, 36, to a nearby motel room. Police later arrested Camel.

An Air National Guard helicopter crew rescued a tired missing hiker suffering from dehydration in the El Dorado National Forest.

The crew from the 129th Rescue Wing spotted, landed and hiked to rescue Lauren Ellen Delatorre. She had been without food, water and warm clothing for 32 hours when the air crew found her on the Fourth of July.

The California National Guard was told Sunday evening by the state Emergency Management Agency that Delatorre was missing. The 129th Rescue Squadron was in position to help, having participated in a Fourth of July celebration near Lake Tahoe.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department deputies arrested a 23-year-old man Monday in Rancho Cordova on suspicion of animal cruelty for allegedly leaving his dog in a car for more than an hour in the afternoon heat, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Deputies staffing the Fourth of July celebration at Hagan Community Park were alerted around 5 p.m. to a dog locked in a car in the parking lot, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

They found the dog, believed to be an 8-to-10-week-old pit bull, "panting heavily on the floorboard of the car," Ramos said. Deputies smashed the window of the car, unlocked the door and retrieved the dog.

A 7-year-old girl has died from accidental head injuries sustained when a television fell and struck her this afternoon in a church rectory in Colusa, the Colusa Police Department reported.

Colusa police officers responded to reports of an emergency at the rectory of Our Lady of Lourdes church on Ware Avenue around 1 p.m., according to a police department news release. They located the 7-year-old girl on the floor of a conference room in the rectory, suffering from severe head trauma.

Investigators determined the girl was attempting to move a cart carrying a large TV when the TV tipped over and struck her on the head, the release states. The girl and her brother were in the conference room while their mother was doing volunteer work in the rectory, police reported.

A Sacramento man has been convicted by a federal court jury of possessing oxycodone and marijuana with intent to distribute, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

Gabriel Johnson, 35, was convicted Friday, according to a department news release. The verdict was returned following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr.

According to testimony presented at the trial, Johnson possessed significant amounts of oxycodone and marijuana for sale at his apartment in midtown, the release states.

An Elk Grove man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to access device fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Richard Nuwintore, 42, of Elk Grove, pleaded guilty last December to using stolen credit card numbers to purchase airline tickets for himself and others, according to the release. He was sentenced today by United States District Judge William B. Shubb.

The case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.

Motorists in the Sacramento region fared slightly better than last year during the Independence Day maximum enforcement period conducted by the California Highway Patrol and area law enforcement agencies.

However, officials say statewide statistics point out the critical need to buckle up.

CHP spokeswoman Jaime Coffee said the number of roadway fatalities in the agency's Valley Division - which covers the greater Sacramento region - was down, with two reported this July 4 weekend compared with six during the same period in 2010.

The number of arrests made by Valley Division CHP officers for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs also was down slightly, from 179 last year to 177 this year. Coffee said the DUI arrest figures do not include DUI arrests made by other law enforcement agencies in the region.

About 20 CHP officers, sheriff's deputies and Sacramento police had to break up a what law enforcement officials said was a rowdy Fourth of July party in South Sacramento.

Before the show of force by the officers was over, a Taser was used on two people, deputies said. Officers also reported that someone in the crowd threw a beer bottle and large firecrackers called M-80s at law enforcement.

The night's events began when a resident complained to the sheriff's department that someone was using illegal fireworks in the 4500 block of 28th Avenue. The patrol officers who responded did not see or hear any illegal fireworks, but noted a large crowd blocking street access.

A 72-year-old man was shot and killed last night after he allegedly drove his vehicle at a Sutter County Sheriff's deputy.

The man, Jagtar Singh Kang, of Yuba City, was pronounced dead in the Rideout Memorial Hospital emergency room after the shooting that is under investigation by several agencies. The deputy was not injured.

Sutter County Undersheriff Jeff Pierce said today he could not confirm media reports that Kang was upset with neighbors firing off illegal fireworks. Deputies were called to the 900 block of Mesa Verde in Yuba City about 10 p.m.

By Jane Braxton Little
Bee Correspondent

QUINCY - A Reno man who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder stemming from a Saturday night car chase in the remote backcountry near Antelope Lake could face additional charges after one of the men he shot died today.

Gregory Wallen-Reed, 36, who owns a home near Janesville, pursued a blue sedan that left his property after its occupants allegedly stole solar lights from his driveway, said Plumas County Sheriff Gregory Hagwood.

When an occupant of the sedan fired on his truck, Wallen-Reed fired back, Hagwood said.

Two of the occupants hit by gunfire were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Reno and Chico. A third was treated and released from a Quincy hospital.

By Niesha Lofing
nlofing@sacbee.com

William Eugene French, 49, is dead after engaging in a shootout with sheriff's deputies late Sunday night.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies responded to the 3400 block of Morrow Street after the department received an incomplete 9-1-1 call at 9:20 p.m. Arguing could be heard over the phone, but the exact reason for the call was unknown, a sheriff's news release states.

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

Two men are listed in critical condition after they were both shot Sunday morning in Stockton following a verbal altercation with a suspect who fled.

The shooting occurred at 7:44 a.m. near an apartment complex in the 2700 block of Country Club Blvd. in Stockton. Police said the victims exchanged words with a man at a grocery store. The victims left and were shot as they tried to enter the apartment complex.

The suspect is described as a black man in his 20s. A 20-year-old victim was airlifted to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto while a 33-year-old victim was airlifted to Doctors Medical Center of Modesto.

"I think at this point they are both going to survive," said Stockton Police Lt. Michael Howard.

Bee Staff

Sacramento police are looking for two men who robbed a Wingstop in the 1000 block of Florin Road around 11 p.m. Friday.

Police said at least one of the suspects was armed with a gun when the pair took cash and miscellaneous items.

The suspects were wearing masks and are described only as African American. They were last seen running east toward the freeway onramp.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

Redding police arrested a vagrant man Saturday night next to Parsons Junior High School on Maraglia Street after they found him brawling on the ground with man visiting his family from Medford, Oregon, according to a department news release.

The altercation reportedly began in front of the 99 Cent Store at 2611 Hilltop Drive. Police say that Christopher Jacob Anderson, 21, approached a 15-year-old girl and eventually spat on her. The girl's mother reportedly came to protect her daughter from Anderson, the release said.

The exchange between Anderson and the mother and daughter reportedly grew so intense that another woman tried to wedge her car between the parties, according to police. Undeterred, Anderson reportedly jumped on the hood of the woman's car, causing minor damages.

The girl reportedly managed to phone her father during the confrontation. Like his wife had earlier, he hurried to his daughter's aid, police said, following Anderson out of the shopping center and onto Maraglia Street. There, the father tried to speak with Anderson, who reportedly became angry and pulled out two 2x4 pieces of wood with nails hanging from the ends. When Anderson tried to use the weapons, the father reportedly knocked him to the ground and the two men fought until police arrived, the release said. Neither man was seriously injured, police said, but they did have minor abrasions and cuts.

Police said that Anderson struggled when they arrested him. Once inside the patrol car, he reportedly tried to escape by kicking a door open, which prompted an officer to subdue him with pepper spray.

Anderson was booked at the Shasta County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon, and for allegedly resisting arrest.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Pieces of concrete, a brick and an unknown projectile have slammed into cars traveling along Highway 99 in Sacramento's south area within the last six days, authorities say.

A Sacramento police officer responding to a burglary in progress early Friday sped southbound on Highway 99 at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when an unknown object thrown from the overpass struck the car's hood and bounced into the windshield, the Sacramento Police Department reported.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A former Placer County resident was accused in a federal grand jury indictment of stealing nearly $2 million by flimflamming investors in a nascent Elverta real estate development.

John George Coulter Jr., in an indictment returned Thursday, is charged in 12 counts of mail fraud and four counts of using criminally derived funds for monetary transactions between April 2006 and July 2009.

The death of a man found this evening in a Rancho Cordova canal is not being investigated as suspicious, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

A passerby alerted authorities to a body in the waterway near Jackson Road and Sunrise Boulevard at about 6:20 p.m., said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. Sheriff's deputies and a Drowning Accident Rescue Team responded to the location and retrieved the body, Ramos said.

Fire crews have contained a 80-acre grass fire in Placer County, but remain on scene this evening while a hay barn continues to burn, said a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The grass fire, which broke out shortly before 4:30 p.m. near Fiddyment and East Catlett roads, just west of Thunder Valley Casino, was contained around 6 p.m., said CAL FIRE spokesman Daniel Berlant.

A metal-sided hay barn was the only structure involved, and the hay was still burning at 7 p.m., Berlant said. A nearby house did not catch on fire and no injuries were reported, he said.

Personnel responded from CAL FIRE, Placer County Fire, and the Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln and Pleasant Grove fire departments.

Berlant said fire crews would likely remain on scene throughout the evening, putting out hot spots and monitoring the barn.

Law enforcement agencies across Northern California are scheduling a crackdown on drivers impaired by alcohol asot the long Fourth of July weekend begins.

Enforcement activities under the statewide AVOID anti-DUI campaign, including sobriety checkpoints and roving DUI patrols, are scheduled to begin tonight. The California Highway Patrol also has declared a Maximum Enforcement Period beginning tonight at 6 p.m. and continuing through Monday.

Throughout the weekend, the CHP will assign available officers to freeways, state highways and unincorporated roads to keep an eye out for motorists driving under the influence and encourage all motorists to use their seatbelts, according to a CHP news release.

A woman whose false rape allegation led to the shooting deaths of two men was sentenced today to 16 years to life in prison.

Priscilla Ramirez, 21, could have been sentenced to as much as 32 years to life for her convictions on two counts of second-degree murder. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White instead set the 16-year minimum term and said he would leave it up to the state Board of Parole Hearings to determine how long she may serve beyond then, based on her performance in prison.

Ramirez made the false rape allegation to her cousin, Philip Perez Gonzales Jr. The cousin and a friend of his, Michael Lee Armstrong, then went over to the Seavey Circle apartment of her boyfriend, Everett Antonio Taylor, 28, on July 21, 2009, to rough him up. While they were there, Armstrong shot and killed Taylor, 28, and another man, Deshawn Dante Holloway, 35.

Armstrong, 23, and Gonzales, 27, both were convicted of second-degree murder in the case. Armstrong received a 55-to-life term. Gonzales' sentencing is pending.

A judge today sentenced Ignacio Leyba to 72 years to life in prison for the shooting death of Oquitzin Bravo last year at a south Sacramento area party.

Leyba, 27, who was convicted of second-degree murder, told Bravo's family he was sorry for the death but proclaimed "I didn't do it."

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard disagreed. She told Leyba the shooting death of the 33-year-old construction worker was "senseless and extreme."

Jurors also convicted Leyba of attempted murder in the shooting of a friend of Bravo who was seriously injured in the attack.

A man convicted of murder in an Orangevale stabbing death last year was sentenced today to 16 years to life in prison.

Billy James Ray, who is now 20, received the term from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard for the July 5 killing of Troy Allan Wheeler, 39.

A jury in May found Ray guilty of second-degree murder in the killing that took place in a Hazel Avenue house.

Despite 42 officers out the door of the Sacramento Police Department, most residents likely won't notice a big difference right away: There are the same number of black-and-whites patrolling the streets today as there were last week.

Where the difference is most likely to be felt, officials say, is in the wake of a crime.

"For the most part, you won't notice any difference in the streets," said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. "However, what you'll notice primarily is (the difference in) what we follow up on."

This week, 42 police officers and 66 non-sworn employees - such as forensic investigators and community service officers - turned in their badges and equipment. As a result, significant changes in police services are effective today, the start of the fiscal year.

A heavy object was thrown, possibly from an overpass, onto the windshield of a Sacramento Police Department squad car traveling on Highway 99 this morning.

It is the second similar incident in the area this week,

The K-9 officer was responding to a burglary-in-progress call in the south area about 7:30 a.m. when the object broke his windshield and dented the hood of his car. The officer was on southbound on Highway 99 near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with his lights and siren activated.

Police said that the object might have been thrown from the MLK overpass.

Other police officers could not find a suspect or the object that hit the car. The officer was not injured.

The CHP said that earlier this week a private citizen's car was struck by a brick on Highway 99. The brick was thrown from near a pedestrian overcrossing in the same general area where the police officer's car was hit, authorities said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Damage to the front end of a Sacramento police car show where an object, thought to have been thrown from a Highway 99 overpass, hit the vehicle.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has released the name of the man who died Thursday in a crash in south Sacramento County when his car hit a tree.

He was identified as Ryan Rheinhart Vlavianos, 19, of Valley Springs, Calaveras County.

The crash was reported about 6 a.m. on Twin Cities Road near Hardesty Lane between Elk Grove and Galt. Vlavianos was on his way to work in Sacramento County when the accident occurred, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Phil Lammie said.

Vlavianos was westbound on Twin Cities when his car apparently drifted off to the right side of the road. He then corrected to the left and braked, losing control of his car.

The car then slid down a steep embankment where the driver's car door hit a tree, the CHP said.

A missing 95-year-old Fair Oaks man safely returned home Thursday night.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department had sought help in finding Warren Estes. Deputies said Estes left his home in the 8500 block of Annette Engel Way in Fair Oaks at 2:30 p.m. Thursday to go to a doctor's appointment and did not return.

His family was concerned for his safety.

IPads, which were flying off the shelf earlier this year, were being tossed out the window of a speeding car by thieves this morning, Sacramento police said.

About 10 or 20 of the Apple computer notebooks were taken about 1 a.m. from the Natomas Best Buy store, 3690 North Freeway Blvd. Thieves used a pry tool to open the glass sliding doors and a car floor jack to ratchet up a drop-down metal door.

Once inside, the two burglars grabbed the iPads, but didn't get away without setting off a burglar alarm. They ran with the loot to a car where a third person was waiting.