Sacto 9-1-1

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Sacramento woman reported missing Friday has returned home, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said.

Donna Delgadillo, 43, left her home Friday afternoon and had been considered at risk because of her mental and emotional state.

Delgadillo "has returned home and is OK," said Deputy Jason Ramos, in a Sheriff's Department release.

No other details were provided.

Two reputed street gang members were ordered today to stand trial for murder in last year's shooting deaths of three bicyclists in Rancho Cordova.

Saul Isidro-Aucencio, 25, and Francisco Ignacio Delgado, 21, were held over by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage for the Feb. 13, 2011, killings of Robert Corpos, 20, Richard Ward, 16, and Jamir Miller, 15.

The judge scheduled their trial for April 10.

A one-time Sacramento street gang member was sentenced to two life terms with no chance of parole today for the 1991 double killing of two men who were standing outside a club on Stockton Boulevard.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley imposed the term on Ricky Tran, 39, for the Oct. 25, 1991, drive-by shootings of Huy "Joey" Nguyen, 23, and Quon Anh Tran, 23, outside the Craven Club.

Tran was not arrested until January 2010 in Pennsylvania when his two children reported him to police for a domestic attack on their mother. Fingerprints taken from Tran in that arrest identified him as the suspect in the 1991 killing of the two innocent bystanders.

A man who murdered a woman in Rancho Cordova during a sexual assault last year was sentenced today to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Demetrius Shaffer, 33, also was sentenced to seven additional 15-to-life terms by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard for another sexual attack on a second female victim.

"Mr. Shaffer has lived a predatory, perverted life," Gilliard said from the bench in sentencing Shaffer. "For that, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars."

Jurors last month convicted Shaffer for the sex killing of Rajneet Kor Singh, 37 (pictured). According to testimony at trial, he had met up with her in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2011, and the two of them then went to the Rancho's Club Casino on Folsom Boulevard.

Singh's body was discovered the same day about a block from the casino.

By Bill Lindelof

blindelof@sacbee.com

A 53-year-old woman died this morning in a head-on crash south of Yuba City.

A California Highway Patrol press release said that a 20-year-old woman was driving northbound on Highway 99 north of Messick Road about 6 a.m. when she fell asleep at the wheel and drifted toward the southbound lanes.

A car driven by the 53 year old woman traveling in the opposite direction tried to take evasive action and veered to the left into the center two-way left turn lane to avoid a crash. She was unable to avoid a collision and the two cars crashed head on.

An oncoming northbound car was unable avoid the collision and struck the crashed vehicles. Another car, heading southbound, also was unsuccessful in stopping and struck the car of the 20-year-old woman.

The woman initially hit head-on by the dozing driver died at the scene, according to the CHP.

The 20 year old, identified as Angela Elizabeth Mah, 20, of Concord, suffered a broken leg.

The drivers of the other two cars did not suffer major injuries.

A second defendant pleaded no contest today to the videotaped attack on a mentally ill woman outside a south Sacramento donut shop.

Donnell Damone Wade, 19, entered his plea in front of Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley to a single count of participating in a gang-related event.

Under the terms of a plea deal, Wade will be placed on three years probation and can be sentenced to no more than a year in county jail. He has been in custody since Nov. 13. Wade is scheduled to be sentenced March 23 by Judge Kevin J. McCormick.

Another defendant in the case, Rasaan Ali Zawadi, 21, entered his no contest plea last week. Zawadi will be sentenced on March 1. Under the terms of his plea deal, Zawadi is expected to be placed on probation, ordered to stay away from the site of the attack and directed to obtain services for himself from the Alta Regional Center for the developmentally disabled. Zawadi also is expected to be sentenced to the four months he's already served in jail plus 60 more days of electronic monitoring.

Two Sacramento Superior Court juries have found three defendants guilty of murder in the March 17, 2010, shooting death of Marque Alexander Johnson while he was walking to a bus stop in south Sacramento to go to school.

One of the juries came back today with a first-degree murder verdict against Robert Maurice Hunt, 20, and a second-degree conviction against Khalief Raheem Taylor, 19. The panel concluded that Hunt was the shooter in the killing of the 17-year-old Johnson.

On Tuesday, another jury found a third defendant, Marquice Devon Wallace, 20, guilty of first-degree murder. The panel also convicted Wallace of arson for setting fire to a street memorial put together by friends and relatives of Johnson at the site of his killing on Summersdale Avenue just south of Mack Road.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Alfredo Daniel Tafoya on two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Carlos Montes and Efrain Zambrano at a Nov. 28, 2009, quinceanera celebration in Galt.

The jury had deliberated for four days and appeared unable to reach a verdict until Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall announced this morning that prosecutors had amended the complaint against Tafoya to dismiss the first-degree murder charges as well as a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders.

Tafoya, 20, faces a potential term of 80 years to life in prison at his scheduled March 23 sentencing in front of Judge Greta Curtis Fall. Defense attorney Pete Harned said after the verdict he will ask the judge to sentence Tafoya to a concurrent term of 40-to-life on the two second-degree murder convictions.

A standoff in the Woodbine area that started with a traffic stop and ended with a suspect holed up in a house concluded with the man surrendering peacefully to officers this evening.

The situation began at about 1 p.m. when Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies attempted to pull over a driver for a traffic violation near Meadowview Road and Amherst Street in the Meadowview area, authorities said.

They spotted what appeared to be a rifle or shotgun in his car. The man fled, leading pursuers on a chase for more than two miles. Near 24th Street and Yreka Avenue, he abandoned his car and fled. He holed up inside the house of a friend or relative, said Officer Laura Peck, Sacramento police spokeswoman.

Witnesses have told Woodland Police that a woman involved in a single-car collision in Woodland had been drinking alcohol shortly before the crash that killed her Monday afternoon.

The driver, Vanessa Del Toro, 20, of Woodland, was driving a 1999 Range Rover through a residential area at speeds of about 80 mph, when police gave chase, authorities said.

The SUV struck a tree in front of a house in the 1600 block of College Street just after 4 p.m. Photos from the scene show the SUV partially wrapped around the large tree, its wheels lifted off the ground.

The Yolo County Coroner's office is awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine Del Toro's blood alcohol level, police said in a news release.

Woodland police and the California Highway Patrol's Major Accident Investigation Team are investigating the accident.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Woodland Police Department at (530) 666-2411.

One of two men arrested last year in the videotaped assault on a mentally ill woman outside a south Sacramento doughnut shop has pleaded no contest in the case.

Rasaan Ali Zawadi Jr., 21, entered his plea last Thursday on the date of his scheduled preliminary hearing.

A second suspect, Donnell Damone Wade, 19, remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail. Wade's preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Thursday.

The video was apparently filmed Oct. 1 by friends of Zawadi and Wade. It went viral a couple weeks later when it was posted on a hip-hop website.

The film depicts a man Sacramento police identified as Zawadi laughing while the camera shows the woman walking slowly back and forth in front of Eric's Donuts, which authorities have described as a some-time gang hangout on Mack Road at Center Parkway.

Zawadi is then shown slapping the woman once before running away while she gave chase.

The camera then picks up a man authorities identified as the 5-foot-9, 216-pound Wade, who hauls off with a left hook and knocks the woman to the pavement.

Bill Lindelof

blindelof@sacbee.com

A charred body was found after a passing bicyclist summoned authorities this morning to Discovery Park.

The bicyclist initially thought the smoke he was seeing near the archery range off the Garden Highway was simply burning leaves.

He contacted authorities to put out the fire. Sacramento firefighters arrived and discovered the badly burned body, according to Officer Laura Peck, Sacramento Police spokeswoman. Police were called at about 6:30 a.m. to investigate.

The body could possibly be that of a woman, according to Peck.

The preliminary hearing of six defendants accused of murder in the death of an innocent woman who was killed by a stray bullett during a shootout at a south area barbershop was delayed today due to a conflict on the part of one of the defense lawyers.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed in Sacramento Superior Court today that a seventh defendant has been arrested in the case. He is Ernest Burton Stoute, 28. According to jail and court records, Stoute was arrested Jan. 6 and charged three days later. His case is expected at some point to be joined with the other six defendants, attorneys said court today.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett did not say what role Stoute might have played in the Dec. 14, 2010, shootout in which a stray bullet killed Monique Nelson, 30, as she wrapped her body across her 2-year-old son to protect him when the gunfire erupted. The boy had been strapped in his security seat in her sports utility vehicle.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury failed to reach a verdict today on three defendants accused of murder in the shooting death of a man who prosecutors say was targeted over a $16,000 win he had scored at a local Indian casino.

Judge Roland L. Candee then declared a mistrial in the case of Genneledward Miles Jr., 29, Derrick Dwayne Sam, 33, and Shannon Shorter, 35.

The jury, which deliberated for six days before it hung, had voted 11-1 for conviction.

The case against the three men was scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 17. Deputy District Attorney Andrew Smith said prosecutors will retry the case.

In what could be a watershed moment in the Davis "sweethearts" murder trial, a judge today denied a motion by defense lawyers to delay the case to mid-June.

Jury selection is currently scheduled to begin on March 19 for defendant Richard Hirschfield, who is accused in the Dec. 20, 1980, stabbing deaths of UC Davis students John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves.

Defense attorneys Linda Parisi and Ken Schaller asked Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet to move the case back to give them more time to nail down a commitment from a mitigation expert they intend to hire if the Hirschfield case proceeds to the death penalty phase.

California Highway Patrol officers have arrested three suspects parked in an area near Cisco Grove that had been the site of wire thefts and equipment vandalism.

The suspects, all from North Highlands, were in possession of stolen copper wire and tools used for taking the wire.

Officers Schuyler Bell and Chris Crabtree found the trio early Tuesday morning in an area where several Caltrans electrical boxes for message signs had been vandalized.

By Hundson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A Yolo County judge sentenced Marco Antonio Topete to death this morning for the June 2008 assault-rifle slaying of Sheriff's Deputy Jose Antonio Diaz.

Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul K. Richardson called the weight of the aggravating circumstances in the case "simply enormous."

Topete, wanted on suspicion of DUI, led Diaz on a high speed chase with his infant daughter in the car. He stopped on an isolated dirt road, grabbed an assault rifie and took cover behind a house. Then he fired on the deputy, who had gone to check on the girl instead of pursuing Topete.

By Hundson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A Yolo County judge is scheduled to sentence Marco Antonio Topete this morning for the assault-rifle slaying of sheriff's Deputy Jose Antonio Diaz in June 2008.

Jurors in the case recommended that Topete receive a death sentence. Judge Paul K. Richardson will decide whether to follow that recommendation, after ruling on yet another motion for a new trial by defense attorneys.

The hearing begins at 8:30 a.m. in Dept. 4 at the Woodland courthouse.

Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A jackknifed semi truck has been cleared from where it was blocking northbound traffic on Interstate 5 near Laguna Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol reports

The truck driver lost control in the rain about a mile north of Laguna Boulevard at about 6:20 a.m., said Officer Rich Wetzel, CHP spokesman.

All lanes are now open, though the backup had stretched back into San Joaquin County, so it may take time for the traffic jam to clear.

No injuries or spilled cargo was reported.

Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A bicyclist riding on Highway 70 at Lake Oroville was killed Monday when he was hit by a pickup truck, California Highway Patrol officials reported.

The 22-year-old cyclist, who has not been identified, was crossing the West Branch Bridge over an arm of the lake in darkness at about 7:25 p.m.

According to witnesses, he was in a lane of traffic and not equipped with lights or reflectors.

The cyclist was struck by a 2012 Ford F350 driven by a motorist from Grants Pass, Ore.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A crash involving a Regional Transit bus is blocking southbound lanes on Watt Avenue at Winona Way in North Highlands.

The collision involved a Dodge Durango and Chevrolet HHR in addition to the bus.

Minor injuries are reported and the California Highway Patrol is on scene.

Drivers are advised to use alternate routes, including Roseville Road, to avoid the area of the accident.

Sacramento prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against a woman charged with murdering her 6-week-old daughter by putting her in a microwave oven.

Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore disclosed his office's decision at a brief hearing today for defendant Ka Yang in Sacramento Superior Court.

Ore, in an emailed statement, cited Yang's lack of criminal background among the factors that went into the office's decision against pursuing capital punishment.

A body found in the American River beneath the Foresthilll Bridge has been identified as an Oregon man.

The Placer County coroner's office identified the man today as Peter Matthew Wynters, 30, of Newport, Ore. An autopsy revealed that Wynters died of injuries from jumping off the bridge, the coroner said in a written statement.

Wynters was found Tuesday by a hiker who reported seeing a body floating in the American River directly under the bridge, officials said.

An Elk Grove running store was burglarized early this morning in the second break-in since November, a co-owner said.

Elk Grove police responded to an alarm at about 1:15 a.m. at The Running Zone, 8470 Elk Grove Blvd., Officer Christopher Trim said. Police found the front glass door smashed by a rock and the cash register stolen, he said.

"It appears to be a smash-and-go," Trim said.

The register had "less than $100," store co-owner Mimi Veiga said. Nothing else was taken, she added.

The Running Zone, at 8470 Elk Grove Blvd., suffered a similar burglary in late November, Veiga said. Owners plan to install video surveillance equipment, she added.

Robert Davila

rdavila@sacbee.com
A parolee has been arrested in Redding after allegedly crashing his car into another vehicle and then fleeing with his toddler, who was riding with him, police said.

James Richard Atkinson Jr., 39, of Redding initially gave a false name when he was arrested Thursday, according to a written statement from the Redding Police Department. After learning his true identity, he was found to be on active state parole, officials said.

Officers also found his 2-year-old daughter in the vehicle with him, along with suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, the statement said. He was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse, parole violation and hit and run.

Police said officers heading to a report of a reckless driver around 11 a.m. Thursday received another call about a vehicle that was hit by a car that failed to stop near Park Marina Drive and South Street in Redding.

The hit-and-run victim followed but lost sight of the suspect vehicle, a 2001 Suzuki Esteem, near Lake Boulevard and Boulder Drive. Officers found the vehicle in an apartment parking lot, where the hit-and-run victim arrived and identified the driver as the suspect, police said.

A man was found dead after he was hit last night by a Union Pacific train on railroad tracks south of the Arden Way overpass, officials said.

Train workers reported they stopped the train after hitting an unknown object around 10:15 p.m. and found the body of an unidentified man, Sacramento police Sgt. Andrew Pettit said.

The victim was described as a black man, possibly in his 40s. The accident is being investigated by Union Pacific authorities, Pettit said.

Citrus Heights police arrested two people today in connection with the operation of an illegal marijuana dispensary.

The arrests of Steffany Vilas (pictured, left), 27, and Richard Garland (right), 55, followed a lengthy investigation involving unlawful sales of marijuana, according to a Citrus Heights Police Department news release.

Detectives served search warrants at the dispensary and two private residences in Granite Bay and Roseville early this morning. During the investigation, they discovered evidence that indicated Vilas and Garland were profiting from the criminal sale of marijuana, according to the news release.

All lanes are open and traffic is clearing up on southbound Interstate 5 at Arena Boulevard in Natomas, where a Toyota Corolla collided with a big rig, officials said.

The small car flipped over on its roof during the collision, which happened around 7 a.m. The driver reportedly was taken to a hospital with undetermined injuries.

Three lanes were closed and southbound traffic was backed up on Interstate 5 beyond the Highway 99 split for almost an hour before the road was cleared.

By Robert D. Dávila
bdavila@sacbee.com

The driver of a stolen commercial van was booked into Yolo County Jail after leading law enforcement officials on a highway chase from West Sacramento to the Tracy area, officials said.

Jeremy Allan Pratt of West Sacramento was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of several felonies, including possessing stolen property and evading arrest, California Highway Patrol Officer Adrian Quintero said Wednesday.

Officials said the chase began around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when an officer from the CHP's auto theft unit saw Pratt get behind the wheel of the parked commercial truck on Jefferson Boulevard in West Sacramento. The officer was investigating cases involving stolen commercial vehicles in West Sacramento when he spotted the van and found it was reported stolen.

By Robert D. Dávila
rdavila@sacbee.com

An explosion and fire that ripped through a North Highlands home early this morning were intentionally set, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

"We've confirmed it's arson," Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum said.

Crews were called at 2:45 a.m. today to a fire caused by a blast at a house in the 6500 block of Grattan Way, Cockrum said. Firefighters arrived to find flames and thick smoke coming from the house and signs of an explosion outside.

By Robert Davila
rdavila@sacbee.com

A standoff between Sacramento County sheriff's deputies and a gunman barricaded in a Florin area apartment ended late last night with the arrest of a suspect.

William Hearn, 29, was arrested around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and booked into the Sacramento County main jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and an active felony warrant, officials said in a written statement.

Hearn was arrested at the Meridian Apartments after holding officers at bay for eight hours in a standoff that forced the evacuation of residents in the large complex at 7475 Stockton Blvd. A teenage girl who was with him in the apartement during the standoff was not injured.

A Sacramento woman pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving Monday in the Oct. 24 death of a 64-year-old motorcyclist on the Capital City Freeway, according to Sacramento Superior Court online records.

Sequoia Monay Jones, 22, entered her plea in front of Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Brown, who scheduled her sentencing for March 12.

Driving a Volkswagen Beetle, Jones sideswiped Robert Wilson's motorcycle on the northbound freeway north of El Camino Avenue. Wilson was knocked off the motorcycle in the 8:50 p.m. collision and then struck by another vehicle.

Jones, who fled the scene of the crash, has remained in custody since her arrest two days after the collision.

Several cameras captured the chaos and in one instance the actual shooting death of one of two men who were killed when gunfire broke out at a quinceañera celebration in a Galt ballroom two years ago, a prosecutor said today.

In his opening statement in the murder trial of Alfred Daniel Tafoya, Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall showed jurors still photographs from the Nov. 28, 2009, party at the Estrellita Ballroom on C Street where Carlos Alonso Montes, 24, and Efrain Zambrano, 20, were shot and killed.

The pictures showed Tafoya, who is now 20, walking across the ballroom's dance floor approaching the area where a fight had broken out between a friend of his and other people who were at the party. Kindall said that Tafoya's friend was wearing a blue baseball cap emblematic of his affiliation with a Sureno street gang faction.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

A suspected burglar shot Friday by a Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy is expected to survive, an official said Saturday.

The man will not be identified until he is released from the hospital and booked by the Sheriff's Department, according to Deputy Jason Ramos, spokesman for the department.

The incident took place around 2 a.m. Friday, when deputies were summoned to a burglary alarm call at It's a Grind coffeehouse on Twin Cities Road in Galt.

Officers had entered the business to investigate, and the burglar was shot in the store while running toward the door where a deputy was standing, law enforcement officials told reporters.

He was believed to be armed with a hammer and did not respond to shouts to show his hands, according to the officials.

Gunfire struck the suspect in his upper and lower body.

A second suspect, George Jett, 22, was arrested after he was found hiding under a recreational vehicle in the area.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police officers conducting a traffic checkpoint overnight Friday and early Saturday arrested four people on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Officers contacted 917 vehicles during the operation, which was held at 24th Street and Fruitridge Road.

They screened 59 drivers for license violations, issued 56 citations and had 21 vehicles towed.

The four arrests were the result of screening six drivers for possible impaired driving.

An arraignment has been scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. on the suspect who was arrested in the Monday morning shooting death of Cordova Recreation and Park District superintendent Steve Ebert.

The suspect, Dupree Pierre Barber, 47, will appear in Sacramento Superior Court in front of Judge Lawrence G. Brown.

No complaint had been filed as of late this morning, according to the court system's online records.

A judge today ruled that portions of a suicide note written by Richard Hirschfield's dead brother can be used against the defendant who is accused in the 1980 sex murders of UC Davis sweethearts Sabrina Gonsalves and John Riggins.

"I was there," the defendant's brother, Joseph Hirschfield, wrote in a note he authored before killing himself in 2002, the day after Sacramento sheriff's homicide detectives questioned him the Gonsalves and Riggins case.

Sacramento prosecutors hope Joseph Hirschfield's admission, combined with other evidence that he lived close by where the victims bodies were found in the Lake Natoma area, will help convince jurors his brother also was at the scene of the killings. The D.A.'s office claims that DNA from a semen stain retrieved from a blanket in Riggins' van matches Richard Hirschfield.

Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet also sought to introduce portions of the suicide note where Joseph Hirschfield claimed his brother killed the teen-aged college couple. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet excluded that portion of the note from trial.

Hirschfield's lawyers sought to exclude the entirety of the note on grounds it is inadmissable hearsay. The judge ruled that the selected portions of the note qualified to be shown to the jury as exceptions to the hearsay rule.

Defense attorney LInda Parisi said she and her co-counsel, Assistant Public Defender Ken Schaller, may appeal Sweet's ruling. It is not expected that such an appeal would further delay the trial now scheduled for March 19.

A judge hit with several late sentencing motions in the Sacramento library corruption scandal today postponed his imposition of the terms on the three defendants convicted in the case.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen H. Sumner rescheduled for next Friday the sentencing of the library's former facilities director Dennis Nilsson, former security chief James Mayle and Mayle's wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle.

The three were convicted in a kickback scheme on outsourced maintenance contracts that purportedly looted the library of $780,000 from 2004 to 2007.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina is seeking terms of 18 years and four months on Nilsson and 11 years and four months on the Mayles.

Nilsson is seeking a reduced term from the D.A.'s proposal while the Mayles are asking for probation.

A man who murdered his girlfriend by hitting her 10 times in the head with a hammer and then stuffing a sock in her mouth was sentenced today to 26 years to life in prison.

Donald Joseph Fernandes, 37, received the term after his conviction in November for the murder of Karen Ann Curtin, 50 (pictured).

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A Sacramento jury today convicted Demetrius Shaffer of murder in last year's sex killing of Rajneet Kor Singh.

The Superior Court panel also found Shaffer guilty on seven other counts of sexual assault on a second victim in an attack that took place on Thanksgiving Day 2010.

Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard scheduled the sentencing on the 32-year-old defendant for Feb. 16.

A man already serving life without parole on one murder conviction pleaded guilty Tuesday to another murder he had previously committed.

Langimaa Faulolo, 29, entered his plea in Sacramento Superior Court in the Jan. 11, 2004, attempted drug robbery stabbing death of 17-year-old Eddie Heydaragha in Citrus Heights. Faulolo is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 15 by Judge Marjorie Koller.

A second defendant, Benjamin Philmath Taholo, 33, last year pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges and was sentenced to six more years in state prison -- on top of the life term with no chance of parole he also was serving already.

Faulolo and Taholo both were convicted in 2007 in the robbery murder of Danny Johnson, 21. The Johnson killing took place about three months before Heydaragha was slain.

Jurors began deliberations today in the rape-murder trial of Demetrius Shaffer who is charged in the New Year's Day 2011 strangulation death of Rajneet Kor Singh in Rancho Cordova.

Shaffer, 33, also is charged with seven additional sexual assault charges on a second victim.

Deputy District Attorney Thienvu Ho told a Sacramento Superior Court jury that Shaffer raped and killed Singh when she refused his sexual advances after he had given her methamphetamines and gambling money. Her body was found about a block away from the Rancho's Club Casino on Mills Park Drive and Folsom Boulevard.

Assistant Public Defender Michael Nelson said a jealous boyfriend killed the 37-year-old victim.

With rulings pending on two key motions, jury selection for the Davis "sweethearts" murder trial is now tentatively scheduled to begin on March 19.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge MIchael W. Sweet today scheduled hearings for later this month to resolve two of the stickier issues in the case against defendant Richard HIrschfield.

The judge is expected to rule in a hearing set for Jan. 23 on whether prosecutors can admit a suicide note written by the defendant's brother, Joseph HIrschfield. In the note, Joseph Hirschfield said he was at the scene of the killings 30 years ago of UC Davis students John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves at a ravine near Lake Natoma. The brother also said in the note that Richard HIrschfield killed the couple.

A man who pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of a co-worker in Elk Grove was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in state prison.

Patrick S. Koenig, now 27, entered his plea Dec. 8 to the Sept. 14, 2009, killing of Eric Williams Lange, 27, of Vacaville. The stabbing took place at the Extended Stay Hotel on Longport Drive where the two men were both employed.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Brown imposed the term on Koenig.

Attorneys delivered their opening statements today in a murder trial over the torture killing of a Sacramento man three years ago.

Defendants Derrick Dwayne Sam, 33, Genneledward Miles Jr., 29, and Shannon Raymond Shorter, 35, are on trial for the Dec. 19, 2008, shooting death of Timothy Brodie, 30, who was killed in an apartment complex on Laurelhurst Drive in Rancho Cordova.

According to police and prosecutors, Brodie had won $16,000 at an Indian casino prior to his death. They said Brodie knew Sam through a marijuana growing and distribution ring they operated together. An autopsy showed that Brodie had been beaten in his legs and on his head before he was shot and killed while trying to escape.

A south area man who stabbed his wife to death in what his lawyer described as a psychotic break spawned by post traumatic stress disorder was sentenced today to 16 years to life.

Sy Choy Saeteurn, 66, had pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the fatal Dec. 8, 2010 attack on his wife of 40 years, Muang Saeteurn, 60.

Saeteurn also was found not guilty by reason of insanity to endangering his then-10-year-old daughter who escaped the family's Pinot Noir Way residence and reported to authorities her father's knife assault on her mother.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com

A thief on Christmas Eve stole the bronze plaque from a church's cornerstone, the church's pastor said Sunday.

The Rev. Jeanie Shaw of Northminster Presbyterian Church said the plaque was ripped off the wall of the church, near Del Paso Country Club, sometime Saturday. It marked the construction of the church's sanctuary in 1965.

"It's a very sad thing on Christmas Eve to lose the physical cornerstone of our church," she said.

Increasing demand and rising prices have led to spate of thefts of copper, bronze and other metals, authorities say.

Woodland police are investigating the robbery of a 63-year-old woman shortly before 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve at the local Target store.

The victim said a man approached her in the parking lot, threatened her with a knife and ordered her to turn over her purse, police said.

Her purse had her ID, credit cards and a small amount of cash, the department reported.

Police said the suspect is white or Hispanic, 20-25 years old, 5-foot-8, thin build, wearing a stocking cap, a dark coat with a belt, and dark colored pants.

-- Bee staff

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The vice principal of a Fairfield elementary school was sentenced to eight years in state prison today on his conviction for molesting two juvenile male relatives in his North Highlands home.

Christopher Vargas, 39, had served at Cleo Gordon Elementary School in the Fairfield school district.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland L. Candee imposed the term on Vargas despite a recantation by one of the victims at today's sentencing that his molestation ever took place.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge today ordered a stroke-impaired man accused of murder in a 1980 killing to be transferred to Napa State Hospital.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary S. Mullen last month found defendant Robert Blockton, who turns 59 on Wednesday, incompetent to stand trial in the Nov. 3, 1980, stabbing death of 22-year-old Charles Redmond, whose body was found in Miller Park.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Robert Adams returned to court this morning in the molestation case the former Citrus Heights principal faces, but there are few signs that the matter will be decided anytime soon.

The case was pushed back to Feb. 24, although Adams' attorney, Linda Parisi, said she now has most of the discovery materials prosecutors gathered as evidence during the investigation into activities at Creative Frontiers School and that she can begin a serious evaluation of it.

Adams, accused of molesting students at his private school over the course of years, has denied the allegations, which led to the closure of the school in July.

The former security chief of the Sacramento Public Library and his wife were both convicted of grand theft and bribery today in connection with a billing scheme in which they and a third defendant split an estimated $780,000.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury returned the verdicts against James E. Mayle and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, who ran a company that handled billing for the library system on maintenance projects.

James Mayle also was convicted of conflict of interest.

A bail review motion scheduled for today on a Catholic priest accused of child molestation was put off until Jan. 5 amid suggestions he may be a flight risk.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, who served in parishes in Woodland and Redding, is accused in seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14. The criminal complaint filed against him said the acts took place between June 28, 2007, and Aug. 30, 2009.

Ojeda's attorney, Jesse Ortiz, asked for the delay in order to obtain his client's personnel records from the Sacramento archdiocese.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

This time of year, hands are often covered for the cold and screwdrivers are often used to put toys together, but police arrested two people in North Natomas Friday morning, thinking they had something else in mind.

Police reported that an unspecified number of subjects, including at least one juvenile, were seen ringing doorbells in the area of Duckhorn and Saintsbury drives.

The subjects had socks on their hands and screwdrivers in their pockets, according to police.

One adult and one juvenile were arrested on suspicion of prowling and possession of burglary tools.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police arrested a man early this morning, after he was discovered to be a parolee in possession of a Japanese throwing star.

Police conducted a traffic stop at Franklin Boulevard and 26th Avenue around 12:30 a.m. this morning.

The driver, Tom Vang, 27, was on parole.

Police said he was in possession of a "shuriken," a concealed weapon that comes in various shapes, and may be used for throwing, stabbing or slashing.

Vang was taken into custody.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A 22-year-old Olivehurst man was killed Friday, just before midnight, when he lost control of his car on Highway 99, a few miles north of the Sacramento-Sutter county line, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Witnesses told CHP the car was traveling north at a high rate of speed when it drifted onto the shoulder and then partially back onto the highway before overturning several times.

The driver, identified as Jesus Estrada-Vasquez, was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car.

The car came to rest on the driver, partly in a southbound lane of Highway 99.

Estrada-Vasquez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Alcohol and/or drugs are believed to be factors in this crash.

A 30-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to felony battery charges in an attack outside an Elk Grove bowling alley that police had labeled a hate crime, according to online court records.

Joel Baltazar Olivarez faces a maximum term of four years in state prison when he is sentenced Jan. 27 by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White for the beating in the parking lot of the Strikes Family Entertainment Center.

Detectives have said Olivarez confronted Seth Parker, 26, of Sacramento on the night of June 5. Olivarez allegedly punched Parker in the face during an argument, then fled with a companion. Parker suffered facial fractures.

Elk Grove police characterized the beating as a hate crime because Olivarez directed an anti-gay remark at his victim.

A drunken driver whose car crash led to the death of a 19-year-old Rocklin man pleaded no contest Thursday to vehicular manslaughter.

Jacinto Roy Mendoza, 21, is scheduled for a Jan. 26 sentencing by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Brown for the death of Matthew Jacob George.

Mendoza is facing a 10-year state prison term with a promise of getting half of his time off if he behaves in prison, according to his attorney, Larry Pilgrim.

Pilgrim said Mendoza on Aug. 13 had taken light rail and walked to Paradise Beach where he met up with a crowd of young people who had gathered at the popular American River party spot near Sacramento State.

According to Pilgrim, Mendoza, after a day of drinking, agreed to drive when the crowd left the river. He then crashed on Highway 50.

George, who was riding in the trunk of the car, was ejected from the vehicle. Authorities said his body was found the next day in a field beneath the freeway.

Mendoza registered a .15 blood-alcohol level in a reading taken several hours after the crash, Pilgrim said.
.

A jury convicted a one-time Sacramento street gang member today on a 1991 double murder that took place outside a Stockton Boulevard club.

The verdict came back against Ricky Tran, now 38, for the Oct. 25, 1991, drive-by shooting deaths of Huy "Joey" Nguyen, 23, and Quon Anh Tran, 23, outside the Craven Club.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Laird described the two men who were killed as innocent bystanders who were not involved in street gangs.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A second Sacramento Superior Court jury began deliberations today on two more defendants in the library corruption scandal that already has produced one conviction.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina concluded his rebuttal arguments this morning before Judge Allen H. Sumner ordered the jury to begin deliberations.

Attorneys Stan Kubochi and Robert J. Saria finished their closing arguments Tuesday on behalf of their respective clients, former library security chief James E. Mayle and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle. She handled contracts for the companies that did maintenance work for the system that includes 27 branches as well as the downtown library.

The Mayles are accused in a kickback scheme that authorities say padded 1,400 invoices by a total of more than $730,000 over a three-year period.

Another jury in the same trial returned a conviction last week on all 16 counts filed against former library facilities director Dennis Nilsson.

A man who took a couple of bites out of python earlier this year has pleaded no contest to animal cruelty charges, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

David Elmer Senk, 54, entered his misdemeanor plea Thursday in front of Judge Marjorie Koller, who sentenced him to 60 days in jail.

Senk was arrested Sept. 1 in the 3600 block of Marysville Boulevard. Animal control authorities said after his arrest that the python had been stitched up and was expected to recover.

A man accused of killing another man in a knife fight in Elk Grove two years ago has pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges in Sacramento Superior Court.

Patrick S. Koenig, now 27, entered his plea Thursday in front of Judge Lawrence G. Brown, who scheduled the sentencing for Jan. 4.

Koenig had been accused of murder in the stabbing death of Eric William Lange, 27, of Vacaville, at a motel where they both worked.

Authorities said the two had engaged in an alcohol-fueled fight that ended with Lange's death. Koenig also sustained stab wounds in the altercation at the Extended Stay Hotel on Longport Drive, according to Elk Grove police.

Three convicted murderers were sentenced today to life in prison with no chance of parole for a drug-related shooting death in south Sacramento three years ago.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage imposed the terms on Brandon Theodore Morton, 25, Anthony Arturo Medina, 23, and David Whitehead, 21.

The three were convicted in the May 5, 2008, killing of Jason Fletcher, 35, on Brookfield Drive at Franklin Boulevard.

A man convicted of murder in the prison killing of a cellmate who had killed his brother was sentenced today to 45 years to life in prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage imposed the term of Roberto Canchola Jr., 39, for the Sept. 20, 2004, strangulation and beating death of Julian Joseph Barajas Jr., 27.

Canchola and Barajas had been celled together at California State Prison, Sacramento, even though Barajas had been incarcerated on a life term with no chance of parole for the 1993 murder of Canchola's younger brother.

A judge today denied a motion by defense attorneys in the Davis "sweethearts" murder case to have the trial moved out of Sacramento County.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet said that the defense's own expert said in a declaration that there hasn't been enough publicity in the case to prejudice potential jurors.

The judge delayed issuing a ruling on a motion by prosecutors to bring into the trial a suicide letter written by defendant Richard Hirschfield's brother.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted a former Sacramento Public Library official on 16 counts related to a bill-padding scheme that cost county taxpayers more than $730,000.

The panel found Dennis Nilsson, 65, the library authority's former facilities director, guilty of grand theft, bribery and conflict of interest.

Sheriff's officials took Nilsson into custody immediately after the jury's verdict.

Prosecutors say Nilsson was at the center of an operation where a billing service paid $562,000 to contractors out of the $1.3 million it received on 1,400 work orders from April 2004 through July 2007.

A second jury in the case will hear closing arguments next week in the trial of two other defendants in the case. They are the library's former security supervisor, James E. Mayle, 66, and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, 62. Rankins-Mayle set up the billing service that handled the payments to the contractors.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel will be taking reader questions Monday on sacbee.com from 11 a.m. to noon as part of The Bee's monthly series of live chats with area law enforcement leaders.

If you've got a question for the chief, please leave it here in the comments section and return to sacbee.com/sacto911 at 11 a.m. Monday, when Chief Braziel will be in our newsroom responding to reader questions.

By Kim Minugh and Sam Stanton
kminugh@sacbee.com

Four inmates injured during a riot at California State Prison-Sacramento this afternoon have been released from hospitals, and a fifth has been admitted, according to authorities.

Earlier, prison officials said at least nine inmates had been injured. This evening, prison spokesman Sgt. Tony Quinn said he did not yet have information about the status of the other four injured inmates.

He also said officials have not yet determined how many inmates were stabbed, how many were shot by correctional officers and how many suffered blunt force trauma injuries during the riot, which began on the prison yard about 12:30 p.m., Quinn said.

Correctional officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets and rounds from Mini 14 rifles to quell the fight involving about 50 inmates, officials told The Bee earlier today. This afternoon, officials found five inmate-made weapons on the yard where the riot occurred, Quinn said.

They stopped combing the yard when the sun went down, and they will resume their search tomorrow, Quinn said.

Paramedics from Folsom, El Dorado County and Sacramento County were summoned to the scene to transport inmates, who went to various hospitals in the region.

Photo caption: An ambulance leaves California State Prison, Sacramento after a riot there on Wednesday afternoon. Video caption: New Folsom prison Public Information Officer Tony Quinn talks to the media about a riot at the prison on Thursday involving about 50 inmates. Photo and video by Randy Pench / rpench@sacbee.com

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

Sometimes being kind to strangers can backfire.

That's the unfortunate lesson two Placer County women learned in April when a homeless Auburn man stole their cars after asking for help.

The three-day crime spree by James McMahon, 22, concluded with the attempted murder of an 81-year-old man with a tire iron and a high-speed car chase through Yuba County, said Dave Tellman, Placer County's supervising deputy district attorney.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A bail review hearing on a popular Catholic priest accused of child molestation was rescheduled today for Dec. 19.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda's attorney, Jesse Ortiz, asked for the continuance so that he could review additional reports in the case.

Ojeda, 32, is accused on seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts with an underage girl. She was 14 when the contact began, authorities said. The offenses took place over the next two years, according to investigators.

U.S. Marshals arrested a fugitive Friday who had been sought in connection with an ambush killing in Stockton in July, according to a press release from the Marshals Service.

Members of the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force surrounded Eric Mathew Tabin, 23, as he attempted to enter a gun store in the 2300 block of Fruitridge Road at about 5:30 p.m.

Tabin is suspected of having lured two people to an apartment complex in Stockton July 19, where a second suspect ambushed them and shot them with an automatic handgun.

The suspect wielding the gun was arrested, but Tabin escaped.

One victim died and the other was critically injured,

The Fugitive Task Force learned that Tabin would be attempting to buy a semiautomatic handgun at the South Sacramento dealer and conducted a sting to arrest him.

He was taken into custody without incident and was booked in San Joaquin County Jail.

By Loretta Kalb and Bill Lindelof
lkalb@sacbee.com

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, a young priest lauded for his work in the community and for his aid to the poor, faces arraignment Friday in a Sacramento courtroom on multiple counts of molesting a 14-year-old girl.

The 32-year-old priest surrendered to authorities Wednesday night after members of the Diocese traveled to Redding and brought him back to Sacramento.

He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $5 million bail.

The Diocese announced the charges today and said Ojeda has been placed on paid administrative leave, meaning he may perform none of the duties of an ordained Catholic priest.

Bishop Jaime Soto, head of the Sacramento Diocese, told reporters that the church received the complaint of the alleged molestations on Tuesday night from a member of the child's family and, within the hour, contacted county Child Protective Services and county prosecutors.

A 139 percent mark-up on three years of work two maintenance firms provided for the Sacramento library system "doesn't past the smell test," a forensic accountant testified today.

"Just look at the numbers, sir," the accountant, former state Department of Justice financial crimes auditor Edward Hudson said, when asked by defense attorney Robert Saria what didn't seem right with the amount.

Two firms controlled by defendant Janie Rankins-Mayle billed the library authority $1.3 million for maintenance work it contracted out for $562,000, prosecutors have charged.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge today declared a 58-year-old man about to go on trial for murder as incompetent to assist in his own defense and scheduled a hearing for next month to determine the defendant's placement options.

Robert Lee Blockton had been charged with murder in the Nov. 3, 1980, stabbing death of Charles Redmond, 22, described by authorites as a transvestite prostitute. A night watchman initially identified Blockton as walking away from the scene of the stabbing but testified "I don't know" at a preliminary hearing to pick out the defendant again, court records said. Charges were then dismissed on Blockton due to insufficient evidence, according to his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Sue Karlton.

An Auburn woman was assaulted with a baseball bat, kicked and restrained with duct tape on Thanksgiving morning by two intruders at her home, Auburn police reported today.

Police said the intruders, a man and a woman, wore dark clothing and gloves. They entered the woman's home about 2 a.m. and confronted the victim in her bedroom, demanding a specific item, which police did not divulge.

Officer in Charge James Dalton, in a written report of the case, noted that the man referred to the resident by a name other than her own.

By Darrell Smith

dsmith@sacbee.com

One man was arrested on a parole violation Saturday and Sacramento police were seeking another man on drug allegations after reports of weapons inside an Oak Park home.

Police were called to a house in the 3100 block of Fourth Avenue about 5 p.m., said Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Petit.

Two unidentified men inside the abandoned house fled. Police caught one of the pair, a parolee, and took him into custody, Petit said.

The second man eluded police, and for a time, police believed the man may have returned to the home. Police later determined he was not in the house and the man remained at large Saturday night, Petit said.

A 32-year-old man was arrested Monday at Sacramento International Airport after he reportedly concealed bags of crystal methamphetamine in his underpants, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reports.

About 4:30 a.m., sheriff's deputies assigned to the airport responded to a security checkpoint in Terminal A. Transportation Security Administration personnel had detained Enrique Garcia after he refused to submit to a secondary screening while attempting to travel on an outbound flight, according to a department news release.

An investigation revealed that Garcia had concealed the crystal methamphetamine, which was detected during the screening process. Garcia was taken into custody and transported to the Sacramento County Main Jail.

He was booked on suspicion of unlawful possession of methamphetamine for sale and transportation of methamphetamine for sale, and is being held on $1 million bail.

By Andy Furillo

afurillo@sacbee.com

A pastor accused of child molestation took the witness stand in his own defense and denied that he ever sexually abused any kids.

"No, absolutely not," Tommy Gene Daniels replied when asked by his attorney if any of the allegations are true that five children lodged against him in Sacramento Superior Court over the past two weeks.

Daniels, 49, the pastor of the Rio Linda First Baptist Church, testified only 10 minutes under direct questioning from defense lawyer Michael L. Chastaine.

The defense lawyer asked for details on one girl's story, a 12-year-old who testified that she was molested July 5, 2005, while she slept in a bedroom in the Daniels home in Citrus Heights were she had been in day care. The girl testified she fell asleep on the living room floor, was carried to a bedroom and that a man she identified in court as Daniels came in and touched her vagina.

The wife of the Rio Linda pastor accused of child molestation told a Sacramento Superior Court jury today that she believes her husband is innocent.

Brenda Daniels testified that if she thought her husband Tom had molested any children, "I'd take the kids out of the house and I'd call police, because it's not OK."

Tom Daniels, 49, is facing 12 counts involving five children in incidents that prosecutors say took place in 2003 to 2005 in a day care/foster care home his wife ran in Citrus Heights.

Under questioning from defense attorney Michael L. Chastaine, Brenda Daniels said one of the alleged victims reported an accusation about her husband to her. Daniels, a "mandatory reporter" who is required to forward such allegations to police, said she didn't because "I didn't believe her."

When Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Macy pressed Daniels on her failure to report the allegations, the witness said, "I've known Tom since I was 13-years-old. He never showed any signs of being a molester."

The trial recessed at the noon break until Tuesday. Brenda Daniels is scheduled to resume her testimony then.

By Whitney Mountain
wmountain@sacbee.com

Four people were arrested near Redding on Sunday morning after one man allegedly stole a firefighter's vehicle from a fire station.

Sgt. Mike Thomas of the Redding Police Department said police have already linked the suspects to more than a dozen crimes.

"They were on quite the crime spree," he said.

The suspects were nabbed in a joint operation between Anderson and Redding police.

By Tony Bizjak
tbizjak@sacbee.com

Two men were critically injured in a shooting incident early Sunday downtown, Sacramento police said.

The shooting took place just before 2 a.m. in the 900 block of 3rd Street, near J Street. Police said the victims' injuries were not believed to be life threatening. Both were shot in the upper body.

Police units responded to the scene and arrested a suspect a few blocks away. The 23-year-old suspect had left the scene running, police said. Officers said they saw him dump a gun while fleeing. Police have not released names of the persons involved.

The prosecution completed its case today against a Baptist pastor accused of child molestation by calling an expert witness who cited studies that he said undermined some publicly held "distortions" of child sexual abuse.

Anthony J. Urquiza, director of the UC Davis Medical Center's CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center for abused and neglected children, said it is common for children to keep their victimization secret. He said they also feel helpless about their molestation and entrapped by it. He testified it is not uncommon for them to delay reporting sexual molestation or maybe even retract their allegations after they make them.

Urquiza testified in the case of Tommy Gene Daniels, 49, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rio LInda. Five girls have testified in the trial that they were molested by Daniels while receiving foster care and day care services in his Citrus Heights home.

On cross-examination by defense attorney Michael L. Chastaine, Urquiza said it also is extremely rare for children to fabricate allegations of sexual abuse. He said studies have shown that only 1 percent to 6 percent of child sexual abuse allegations made to law enforcement turn out to be false.

Chastaine began his case today by calling a girl who lived in the Daniels home nine years ago. She said nothing sexually inappropriate ever happened to her there. The girl's mother also testified on Daniels' behalf, saying her daughter benefited from her stay in the home.

Daniels will testify in his own defense, Chastaine said in an interview.

A 12-year-old girl testified today that Rio Linda Baptist preacher Tommy Gene Daniels molested her six years ago at his Citrus Heights home that also served as his wife's day care center.

The girl said she was taking a nap in a bedroom at the Daniels' residence when "Tom...tried to wake me up by touching me inappropriately."

She is one of five victims prosecutors intend to bring to the stand in the trial against Daniels, 49, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rio Linda.

The Sacramento District Attorney's Office dismissed murder charges today against one of two defendants in the Feb. 8, 2010, sex killing of a 17-year-old girl in Van Maren Park in Citrus Heights.

Tyler Espinoza, now 19, had been accused along with co-defendant Anton Adolf Johnson, 20, in the beating death of Rebecca Renee Layson. Johnson still faces charges in the case. His preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court.

A D.A.'s press release said Espinoza, who was Layson's boyfriend, had initially made "several incriminating statements" when he spoke with investigators. Authorities later confirmed he was "highly intoxicated" the night of the killing, had blacked out and "just started filling in the facts and lying to detectives," the press release said.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Donald Joseph Fernandes of first-degree murder in the Jan. 24, 2010, hammer attack on his girlfriend, Karen Ann Curtin. It took the panel four and a half hours of deliberations to reach a verdict.

Judge David De Alba scheduled Fernandes' sentencing for Dec.16. He faces a 25-to-life term.

According to evidence at his trial, Fernandes, now 37, struck Curtin, 50, ten times in the head with the hammer. Fernandes testified that Curtin came after him with the hammer during an argument the morning of the assault, but that he blacked out and could not recall beating her.

The Rio Linda man accused in the axe murder of a victim he wrongly suspected of breaking into his house pleaded not guilty today by reason of insanity.

Deputy District Attorney Sheri Greco said Steven Zinda entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to the March 20 killing of David Valdez, 20, in a field at Q and Second streets near the defendant's home.

Zinda, 30, is due back in court Dec. 20 when the doctor's reports on his case are expected to be completed.

Photo caption: Steven A. Zinda listens to proceedings during a preliminary hearing in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. Photo by Randall Benton / rbenton@sacbee.com

Richard Lalo Ramirez was sentenced today to 40 years-to-life in prison for the May 24, 2009, shooting death of Christopher Richard Montejano,.

Ramirez, 32, received the term from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary S. Mullen. Ramirez was convicted of second-degree murder July 19 in the killing of the 20-year-old victim on 18th Avenue in Oak Park.

Ramirez, intoxicated on tequila, shot Montejano six times. Authorities said the two were involved over a dispute over Montejano's belief that Ramirez had disrespected the victim's estranged girlfriend.

A 24-year-old Sacramento gang member convicted of murder in the Memorial Day 2008 shooting death of a man who had been holding his baby in his arms was sentenced today to 50 years to life in prison.

Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McCormick imposed the term on Jose DeJesus Gonzalez for the May 26, 2008, killing of Jose Isabel Guerrero, 47, (pictured) in the front yard of his home on Lindley Drive in a north side neighborhood nicknamed "The Flats."

According to evidence at trial, Gonzalez and a group of Norteno gang members had confronted Guerrero because the victim's stepsons were reputed to be Surenos. A fight ensued and one of the gang members pistol-whipped Guerrero. Authorities said the gun popped loose and that Gonzalez picked it up and shot Guerrero in the head.

Gonzalez denied shooting Guerrero. Co-defendant Jaime Torres, 24, also was convicted and sentenced to the same 50-to-life term. Jurors acquitted Gonzalez' younger brother, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, 23. Four other members of Gonzalez' gang also were convicted in the case.

Four dozen Occupy Sacramento defendants charged with misdemeanor curfew violations pleaded not guilty today and had future court dates set for them by Sacramento Superior Court judges, officials said.

The protesters who had been arrested in late-night demonstrations at Cesar Chavez Plaza over the past month claim that the city's curfew codes violate their First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. The park demonstrations have been part of a national movement against income disparities and other issues.

Another 19 participants in the Occupy Sacramento movement made their first court appearance today on charges that they violated late-night curfews at Cesar Chavez Park.

An official with the City Attorney's Office said 49 defendants have now been identified over the past several weeks from the 11 p.m. and 12 midnight arrests that have taken place in the park during the local version of the "occupy" campaign.

Supervising Deputy City Attorney Gustavo Martinez said officials from his office will meet today with defense lawyers representing the protesters. Martinez said the defense attorneys "apparently are going to present a proposal to us on how to resolve the cases."

By Melody Gutierrez, Kim Minugh and Sam Stanton
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

T-shirts sold by the Twin Rivers Police Officers Association have this message: "U raise 'em, we cage 'em," surrounding a picture of a young child behind bars.

On Monday, community leaders and child advocates said the T-shirts are highly offensive and could validate feelings of mistrust for the Twin Rivers' school police force. The agency has been under intense scrutiny over complaints it has overstepped its authority.

"There is nowhere on the planet where it is OK to wear a shirt like this," said Ed Howard, senior counsel for the University of San Diego's Children's Advocacy Institute, after seeing the image of the shirt.

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

A Roseville man who fled while on trial for rape was arrested Friday in New York City by the FBI.

Patrick Gregory Baccari, 32, was out on $50,000 bail when he went on the run for 13 days beginning Oct. 17. The Placer County District Attorney's Office was prosecuting Baccari for rape, as well as burglary and assault with the intent to commit rape.

The trial continued while Baccari was on the run with a warrant issued for his arrest. He was convicted of four felony charges Oct. 19.

Baccari will be extradited to Placer County to be sentenced Nov. 4 for the four felony counts, as well as additional charges for failing to appear during his trial.

Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916)326-5521. Follow her on Twitter @MelodyGutierrez.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Nazir Fazel of first-degree murder for the Nov. 10, 2005, shooting death of Mohammad Samini in Elk Grove.

Fazel, 55, had been romantically involved with the 60-year-old Samini's wife years before the shooting, sheriff's investigators said. Authorities say he fled to Afghanistan after the shooting on Bertolani Circle and was arrested in late 2009 while crossing over into the country of Georgia. He was extradited to Sacramento in March 2010.

Judge Russell L. Hom scheduled Fazel's sentencing for Nov. 10.

A preliminary hearing got under way today in the February 2010 killing of Rebecca Renee Layson in Citrus Heights' Van Maren Park.

Prosecutors have charged Anton Adolph Johnson Jr., now 20, and Tyler Shawn Espinoza, 19, with murder and sexual assault in the death of the 17-year-old girl.

Layson's family identified Espinoza in the days after the killing as the girl's boyfriend.

A fired former Sacramento sheriff's deputy who ran her car into a Natomas-area Starbucks and injured an 85-year-old woman two years ago was sentenced today to two years in state prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary E. Ransom imposed the term on Lisa Gargano, 39, who pleaded no contest in June to two counts of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

Gargano was on pain killers and other medications at the time of the Sept. 6, 2009, collision that resulted in the injury to the woman in the coffee shop on Duckhorn Drive. Her attorney, Michael Bowman, said she began taking the pain killers as a result of a lower-back injury suffered in her deputy's job.

The prosecutor and defense attorneys have completed their closing arguments in last year's shooting death of a Natomas High School assistant football coach and the three separate juries today began their deliberations.

Dejon Wayne Murray, 19, Kenneth Oliver Owens Jr., 24, and Maurice Edward Reed Jr., 21, are accused of first-degree murder in the killing of Salvador Heredia-Arriaga, 26.

Heredia-Arriaga was shot and killed March 26, 2010, when he went to visit some friends at their apartment on River Plaza Drive in South Natomas and walked into a robbery in progress, authorities said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Salvador Heredia-Arriaga

Prosecutors in court filings have identified the second suspect arrested in the shooting deaths of Sean Aquitania and his 7-month old son as an alleged shooter in the case.

The suspect, Richard Noguera, 33, made his first appearance today in Sacramento Superior Court. He did not enter a plea. Local defense attorney Danny Brace represented Noguera at the hearing and told the court he will decide by Oct. 27 if he will be retained in the case.

Jaime Enrique Torres was sentenced today to 50 years to life in prison for his first-degree murder conviction in the Memorial Day 2008 shooting death of an innocent man in the front yard of his North Sacramento home.

Judge Kevin J. McCormick imposed the term on Torres, 24, for the death of Jose Isabel Guerrero, 47, on Lindley Drive.

The judge granted a delay in the sentencing of Jose DeJesus Gonzalez, also 24. Jurors also convicted Gonzalez of first-degree murder in the case and named him as the gunman in the fatal shooting.

The brothers Gary and Chong Vue each were sentenced today to life terms without parole for the Oct. 15, 2008, shooting death of state correctional officer Steve Lo in the garage of his south Sacramento home.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White gave Gary Vue another 20 years for his personal use of a firearm in the killing of the 39-year-old victim.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Juan Rangel Gonzalez of first-degree murder in the Nov. 21, 2009, shooting death of Francisco Medina-Tomas.

Prosecutors say Gonzalez, now 22, shot and killed the 16-year-old victim for the benefit of the defendant's street gang. The shooting took place in a south-area apartment complex on 49th Avenue.

Judge Kevin J. McCormick scheduled Gonzalez' sentencing for Nov. 19.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court judge this morning refused to reduce the $2 million bail an alleged child torturer is being held on in the county jail.

Instead, Judge Lawrence G. Brown said pictures he had seen of the injuries inflicted on the 12-year-old girl are "photos I won't soon forget," and he hiked the bail for Duewa Lee to $3 million.

"This case involves allegations of incomprehensible cruelty to an innocent little girl," Brown said as the alleged victim's family sat weeping and sobbing loudly in the courtroom.

It's costume season, and someone in Sacramento treated themselves to an early trick: stealing the "Quackals" mascot costume for the Quick Quack Car Wash franchise.

The "duck suit" was taken from the mascot performer's white minivan, which was broken into at around 6 p.m. Saturday near Front and O streets, according to city police.

The car wash company, which has six locations in the area, is offering anyone with information leading to the return of the costume a $1,000 reward.

"This is a sad day for us. It's hard to believe that someone would steal our beloved duck. We are assuming that it was just a prank by someone desperate for a Halloween costume," said Quick Quack President Jason Johnson. "We have no desire to press charges if we can just get him back."

Quick Quack is asking anyone with information regarding "Quackals" to contact the company at 916-971-3274, info@dontdrivedirty.com, or any Quick Quack location.

--Whitney Mountain

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

A Woodland woman escaped her burning home without injury Saturday afternoon, fire officials said.

Firefighters arrived to find flames shooting from a rear bedroom in a home on Grand Avenue. One person was home at the time of the fire, but managed to get out safely.

Three fire engines and one ladder truck were used to battle the blaze, which caused about $100,000 in damage, officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Matthew David Riley's wife admitted on the witness stand today that she lied several times to law enforcement officials who were investigating the stabbing deaths of his parents.

"I was protecting him," Jannilin Overton said of her 33-year-old husband, who is now on trial for murder in the killing of his parents, Steven Riley, 54, and his wife, Linda Riley, 53.

Assistant Public Defender David Lynch had Overton recount the lies in an attempt to undermine her credibility. She testified Wednesday he had left their Auburn apartment at 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, 2008, the day authorities believe Riley's parents were killed. She had originally told investigators he was home in bed with her all night.

The Sacramento County prosecutor said it was a "simple case" -- four people set out to rob a pot dealer and wound up killing a popular assistant coach at Natomas High School.

Two of the three defense lawyers countered that the key witness in the case can't be trusted and that their clients will be exonerated.

Testimony then got under way after the opening statements in the murder trial of Dejon Wayne Murray, 19, Kenneth Oliver Owens Jr., 24, and Maurice Edward Reed, 21.

The parents of one of the victims of the 1980 "Davis sweetheart" killings asked a judge today to not grant defendant Richard Hirschfield another delay in his Sacramento Superior Court trial.

"As we are getting older, this is something that is in our life every day," said Kate Riggins, 76. "We feel very strongly we need to keep to the date and at least get things underway so justice can be done."

Her son, John Riggins, and his girlfriend and fellow UC Davis student Sabrina Gonsalves, both 18, were last seen the night of Dec. 20, 1980. Their slain bodies were found two days later in a ravine near Lake Natoma.

A Nevada County man killed in a standoff by a member of the Sheriff's Department SWAT team has been identified as John Salazar, 53, a parolee with prior felony convictions on drug, weapons and assault charges, law enforcement officials said today.

The episode began as a domestic violence call about 12:30 p.m. Saturday three miles east of Lake of the Pines, Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Powell said.

After several hours of being unable to establish communication with the suspect, Powell said he gave the order for the SWAT team to enter the home at 3:30 p.m.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard has filed a claim against the U.S. government over failings by federal parole agents to detect her presence in the home of sex offender Phillip Garrido from 1991 through 1999, according to her publicist.

Dugard, kidnapped by Garrido in 1991 when she was 11, already has won a $20 million settlement from the state for failings by California parole agents who supervised Garrido from 1999 until she was discovered alive two years ago and freed.

Now, her publicist says she has filed a claim seeking payment for the period during which federal parole agents were supposed to be supervising Garrido at his Antioch-area home.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A father-and-son team of lawyers announced today they had filed the first lawsuit against the Creative Frontiers School and its principal Robert B. Adams on behalf of an 8-year-old former student and her mother.

Sacramento attorneys Joseph C. George and Joseph C. George, Jr., held a news conference on the steps of the Sacramento Superior courthouse.

George, Sr., said the mother was intent on filing the lawsuit for alleged negligence, fraud and sexual battery after she heard supporters defend Adams, who was known at the school as "Mr. Bob."

Two people were in stable condition in the UC Davis Medical Center today after they were shot about 1 a.m. at Tony's Bar in the 600 block of East Street in Woodland, police said.

Sgt. Tom Davis, spokesman for the Woodland Police Department, said multiple gunshots were fired, striking 41-year-old Dawn Milliken of Woodland and 38-year-old Tony Mares. No other victims were found.

The suspect was described as a black or dark-skinned Hispanic man, 5-foot-7, 300 pounds, wearing a white T-shirt and armed with a semi-automatic handgun. He fled the scene, traveling east on Alice Street, in a silver Dodge Charger or similar vehicle, police said.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A stranger jumped into a woman's car and stabbed her as she waited for her husband to finish work at a Florin-area gym on Saturday, authorities and the victim's husband said.

Omar Anguiano said his wife came to pick him up from the 24 Hour Fitness club on Florin Road near Stockton Boulevard where he works as a membership counselor.

She pulled into the parking lot and sent him a text message at 8:48 p.m., he said. Moments later he heard her screams and a horn blasting.

By Hudson Sangree

hsangree@sacbee.com

After a series of unusual delays, the trial of accused cop killer Marco Antonio Topete is scheduled to start next week in Yolo Superior Court.

A jury selection process involving more than 1,000 potential jurors is slated to wrap up Monday and opening statements are planned for Tuesday, court officials said.

A judicial gag order prevents lawyers from talking about the case.

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.

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.