Sacto 9-1-1

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sacramento State Police Chief Dan Davis will retire in November.

Davis, who has been on the campus police force for a decade, has been chief since Sept. 1, 2009. Before that, he was a lieutenant with the department.

Davis, who started his law enforcement career in 1981, also served on the San Francisco State University force and the Fremont and BART police forces. As Sacramento State's chief, he managed a staff of 21 sworn officers, 5 dispatchers, 30 community service officers, 8 office staff and student assistants.

"Law enforcement has been a challenging and rewarding career," said Davis in a university press release. "But now I'm looking forward to focusing on other matters, such as playing more golf."

By Ron Trujillo
rtrujillo@sacbee.com

A 20-year-old man was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with an argument on a light-rail train that escalated into a shooting behind a discount store in Rancho Cordova.

Deandre Brooks was found guilty by jury of killing Juan Carlos Sanchez, 21, of Rancho Cordova, on Nov. 21, 2009, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's news release today.

Brooks and Sanchez, a father of two young boys, began talking trash on the light-rail train and decided to settle the dispute with a fistfight. But Brooks pulled out a handgun and shot Sanchez six times, including at least once when he was face down on the pavement.

Brooks will be sentenced Aug. 5. He faces a 50 years-to-life sentence.

Editor's note: An earlier version of the story had the incorrect last name of Brooks due to information provided by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Steven Navarro of Sacramento was arrested today by federal agents on charges of trafficking in counterfeit Viagra and cultivating marijuana.

Navarro, 29, advertised on the Internet what he represented to be Viagra, a prescription drug used to treat erectile dysfunction, a grand jury indictment says. A year ago, according to court documents, he sold 16 tablets to an FBI informant, and laboratory testing showed that, while the tablets did contain some sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient of Viagra, they were not authentic. The tablets and their packaging looked legitimate and could easily be confused for genuine Viagra, the documents say.

Subsequently, agents intercepted two packages from China addressed to Navarro that contained counterfeit Viagra and, in a search of his residence, found more of the bogus tablets and approximately 400 marijuana plants, court papers say.

Navarro advertised his pills as "100% real" at "the cheapest price around," according to U. S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner. "The pills....were manufactured somewhere in China by an unknown entity," he said. "This case is a reminder to consumers that they should only obtain prescription pharmaceutical drugs by prescription. Otherwise, they may be putting themselves at risk."

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Sacramento police have identified the masked man who freaked out Land Park parents by loitering at children's sporting events and even outside homes in recent weeks.

But officers confirmed what seemed likely before - that the man isn't doing anything illegal and cannot be arrested, said police Sgt. Norm Leong.

The man, who police did not identify because he is not a suspect, is not on probation or parole and has nothing in his history to bar him from being around children, Leong said.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A 37-year-old Wilton woman is charged in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday with embezzling $27,800 from a job-training program at La Familia Counseling Center in Sacramento, where she worked as an employment training specialist and job developer.

Tammy Pacheco is accused of falsely listing five individuals as participants in an intensive, on-the-job training program. Between Oct. 31, 2009, and Dec. 17, 2009, Pacheco collected money she claimed was used for their training, and then put it in her pocket, according to the indictment and other sources.

La Familia receives federal funds to help people find and qualify for employment.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

The mother accused of killing her infant daughter in a microwave earlier this year was arraigned this afternoon on charges of murder and assault causing death to a child under the age of 8.

Ka Yang, 29, also faces a special circumstance that the murder was intentional and involved torture, which, if found true, could make her eligible for the death penalty or life without parole.

A man convicted of running down and killing a Loaves & Fishes volunteer will be sentenced in Sacramento Superior Court on July 15.

A jury on Wednesday convicted Jeffrey Crayton Yelverton of voluntary manslaughter and felony hit and run in the death of Loaves & Fishes volunteer worker Thomas William Deollos. Yelverton will be sentenced at 9 a.m. July 15 in Dept. 18.

A news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office said Yelverton had been seen speeding past patrons in front of the homeless service center last March. Loaves & Fishes workers tried to stop him, but Yelverton drove directly toward Deollos, striking him.

Yelverton then drove from Loaves & Fishes at 1321 North C St. to the Arden Fair Mall. There, he claimed the incident was an attempted robbery and that he acted in self-defense.

Deollos died two months later from his extensive injuries.

Neighbors are being asked to help protect Sacramento schools now that students are dismissed for the summer.

School will not be back in session until Sept. 6 in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Police say that during the summer, when staff and students are not present on campus, schools are especially vulnerable.

By Ben Schenkel
bschenkel@sacbee.com

At least two people appear to have been injured in a shooting reported about 11:30 p.m. Friday in the 5800 block of Sampson Boulevard off Fruitridge Road, according to Sacramento County Sheriff's Department officials.

Deputies received calls about the shooting, but by the time they arrived, there were no witnesses or apparent victims, sheriff's officials said. They found only a few bullet casings.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A man was shot early this morning during a suspected robbery attempt in south Sacramento, the Sacramento Police Department reported.

Officers responded to the 4800 block of Tangerine Avenue near Mack Road at about 12:25 a.m., after a man called police from that location saying he had been shot, said police Sgt. Sherry Bell. A 29-year-old man was found at the location with a gunshot wound to the lower back, Bell said.

By Bee Staff

Audrey Ann Jackson was not sane when she shot Francisco Salvador Perez at a downtown bus stop, a Sacramento Superior Court jury ruled Friday.

During the sanity phase of the trial, the same jury that convicted Jackson of attempted murder June 9, found her sane on felony gun violations.

Perez died 13 months after he Jackson shot him. Jackson had been panhandling near the bus stop at Sixth and J streets when Perez rebuffed her.

Jackson, 50, had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

A hearing is scheduled July 22 to determine Jackson's placement, according to a press release from District Attorney Jan Scully's office.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall sentenced reputed street gang members Marquel Dixon and Ronald Grant to life in prison with no chance of parole today, District Attorney Jan Scully announced.

Dixon and Grant, along with Marcus Scott Jr., were convicted by separate juries in the killing of Perrell Marquise Waters in 2009.

Scott was sentenced last week, also to life in prison.

In addition to life in prison without possibility of parole, Dixon received an additional 25-year sentence, Grant received 39 additional years and Scott got an added 35 years.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police released video images of what they have termed "a unique suspect vehicle" they believe is connected to the May 19 shooting death of Balbir Singh Dhami.

At the same time, they have released a sketch of the suspect in the shooting, who is described as a short, thin, African American male, who had short hair and a yellow sweatshirt at the time of the shooting.

Dhami and his wife were shot at the door of their Marla Way home.

Dhami was dead at the scene. His wife was treated at the hospital.

By Max Ehrenfreund

Several gunshots were fired in the Parkway neighborhood of south Sacramento this morning. Police have no information about the shooter or a motive.

A woman in the 100 block of Audia Circle heard four to five shots, according to an entry in the Sacramento Police Department's activity log at 12:37 a.m. She found a bullet hole in her garage door and discovered that a window had been shot out.

She did not see any perpetrators, police said.

Department spokesman Norm Leong said that because the department had no more information, police would not be able investigate the incident.

The Sacramento Police Department will operate sobriety checkpoints Friday and Saturday nights.

The checkpoints will be at Del Paso Road and Five Star Way on Friday and at 21st Street and Broadway on Saturday. They will begin at 8:30 p.m. and continue for several hours.

As many as 10 people were treated by medical personnel Monday evening after a multiple-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 near Florin Road in south Sacramento, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

The collision occurred just after 6 p.m., said CHP spokesman Officer Michael Bradley. A preliminary investigation indicated the collision occurred when the driver of one involved vehicle overcorrected after trying to make a lane change, Bradley said.

Four ambulances were dispatched to the scene and transported multiple patients to UC Davis Medical Center and Kaiser South Sacramento Medical Center, Bradley said.

A 29-year-old man is expected to survive after being stabbed Monday during a confrontation at a south Sacramento care facility, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman said.

Officers responded to a report of a fight between two clients of the facility in the 1600 block of Belinda Way at about 2:30 p.m., said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck.

Three men were shot Sunday night following an argument at a bar near 15th and R streets, officials said.

Sacramento police said a man pulled out a gun when the argument spilled out into a parking lot across the street from the bar.

One victim was identified as a man in his 20s. Police did not have descriptions of the other two victims. Their injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

The shooter has not been arrested, police said.

The California Highway Patrol is taking over the investigation because the shooting was at a state-owned parking lot, police said.

Sacramento police are investigating an attack on a jogger that occurred Friday evening in the North Natomas area, a police spokesman said.

The victim told police she was running on a trail in the area of Town Center Drive and New Market Drive at about 7:35 p.m., when she was grabbed from behind by a male assailant, who pulled her to the ground and began choking her, Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said. She was able to free herself and escape, Leong said.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall today sentenced reputed street gang member Marcus Scott Jr. to life in prison with no chance of parole for murdering a man two years ago.

Scott, 22, was convicted last month in the Dec. 15, 2009, gang-related shooting death of Perrell Marquis Waters, 19.

The sentences on two co-defendants in the case, Marquel Lamar Dixon, 18, and Ronald Delano Grant, 21, were continued.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A man in his 20s was shot during a robbery late Thursday in south Sacramento.

The victim was walking with a friend in the area of Mack Road and Center Parkway at about 10 p.m. when they were approached by at least three and as many as five black juveniles who attempted to rob them.

A homeless woman at a downtown bus stop who shot a man who died 13 months later was acquitted of murder charges today by a Sacramento Superior Court jury.

The panel did convict Audrey Ann Jackson of attempted murder in the Sept. 22, 2008, shooting of Francisco Salvador "Frank" Perez.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Sacramento police Chief Rick Braziel this afternoon decried budget cuts to his department as "devastating" and said the city's residents will bear the brunt of the consequences.

"The loser in all this is the Sacramento community," Braziel told reporters in a news conference.

The City Council voted Tuesday night to cut 163 positions from the Police Department, including 81 filled by sworn officers and 68 filled by civilian employees such as forensic investigators. The move - which appears unprecedented in the agency's history - is part of the city officials' efforts to bridge a $39 million budget deficit.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Former real estate executive Michael Lyon was released from jail this morning, online jail records indicate, and will be spending the next several months in detention at his Carmichael home.

Lyon, 55, is expected to be fitted with an electronic monitoring device and allowed to leave home for work, medical appointments and other trips.

But he will be under curfew and required to spend most of his time in the home he shares with a girlfriend.

A man suspected of pointing a potentially blinding laser at a law enforcement aircraft has been arrested.

Don Watson, 43, was arrested early this morning and booked into Sacramento County jail for allegedly pointing a small laser at a Sacramento Police helicopter.

The chopper was up in the air around El Camino Avenue and Del Paso Boulevard about 12:30 a.m. looking for a stolen vehicle when officers saw someone aiming a green laser at them several times. Air 1 was able to direct officers in squad cars to the house from which the beam was originating.

Officers eventually found a laser and Watson.

Two teenage girls are recuperating after their just-purchased mini-motorcycle collided with a pickup in Sacramento.

Sacramento police said that the little motorcycle had been purchased earlier in the day Sunday by one of the girls' parents. The girl steering the mini-motorbike drove from Hermosa Street onto busy 47th Avenue near Sacramento Executive Airport about 6:45 p.m.

The motorcycle traveled directly into the path of an on-coming full-sized pickup truck. The passenger on the bike jumped off but the driver of the motorcycle stayed on and was hit by the truck.

Both girls were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Former real estate executive Michael Lyon is expected to be released from jail this week after a month in custody, and is scheduled to complete the rest of his one-year sentence in home detention.

Lyon reported to the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center on May 7 to begin serving his sentence, and at the time Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said he expected to assess Lyon's case after a month to determine if he could be released to home detention.

Jones did not respond to a request for comment this morning.

Citrus Heights police have arrested a man on suspicion of molesting boys -- and detectives believe other children might also have been sexually abused.

Police on May 17 arrested Ryan Matthew Haley, 30, of Rancho Cordova, on suspicion of child molestation and child molestation by force. He is still in custody today in Sacramento County Jail.

Detectives began an investigation in April that resulted in Haley's arrest. Police allege that the investigation uncovered several other victims.

By Carlos Alcala and Andy Furillo

A man with a beer and a Bible who may have been sitting on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near 20th and C streets in midtown was run over and killed by a train today.

Authorities did not release details on the death that was reported to Sacramento police at 2:17 p.m. One UP employee who asked not to be identified said the man had a 24-ounce can of beer and the Bible and was sitting in the middle of the tracks underneath a trestle when he was struck by the the three-engine, 4,500-foot train.

One witness said the engineer apparently saw the man from a block and a half away and tried to stop the train well before it struck the victim. Unable to come to a halt, the train dragged the man several dozen feet.

The train cut off east-west access across almost all of midtown for about two hours until coroner's investigators removed the body and UP and Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials got the training moving north again.

By Max Ehrenfreund
mehrenfreund@sacbee.com

A woman hijacked a man's car in South Hagginwood shortly before midnight last night. He had arranged online to have a sexual encounter with her, said Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The man picked her up in his car near the intersection of Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard in south Sacramento. They drove north near Rio Linda Boulevard and Eleanor Avenue until she pulled out a knife, according to Leong.

The man jumped out of the vehicle, and the woman drove away.

She is described as an African-American woman in her 20s, weighing about 120 pounds.

A Sacramento County Superior Court jury has found a 40-year-old man guilty of committing sex acts with a child, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced Friday in a news release.

Mahend Vikash was found guilty of 13 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, and one count of attempted lewd and lascivious act by force on a child under 14, according to the release.

By Matt Kawahara

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has released the name of the man found stabbed to death along the American River Parkway on the night of May 31.

Adam Michael Steinbach, 29, of Gold River, died from stab wounds to the upper body, the Sacramento Police Department reported. He was found in the area of Del Paso Boulevard and Northgate Boulevard.

Officers were responding to reports that came in about 11:20 p.m. about a noisy disturbance in the wooded area, Sacramento police reported.

Police have not released details about what Steinbach was doing in the area or the circumstances that led to his killing.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A mentally disturbed woman who drowned her 3-year-old daughter two years ago was sentenced today to a possible life-time placement in Napa State Hospital.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Marjorie Koller said that if doctors at the psychiatric facility ever find that Anul Malik Ram regains her sanity, the 34-year-old defendant will then be transferred to the state prison system to complete a 15-to-life term.

The dual sentences resulted from Ram's April 29 guilty plea to second-degree murder in the Nov. 15, 2009, drowning death of her daughter, Divya Ram, in the defendant's bathtub. Along with the guilty plea to the second-degree murder charge, Ram also claimed that she was not guilty by reason of insanity in the attempted murder of her then-7-year-old son.

At the time of the killing, Ram had been taking a variety of medications for schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and seizures.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White today found Priscilla Ramirez guilty of second-degree murder in the July 21, 2009, shooting deaths of Everett Antonio Taylor and Deshawn Dante Holloway in the Seavey Circle housing project.

White gave his verdict following a one-day court trial for the 21-year-old defendant on May 9. Ramirez was accused of prompting her cousin and another man to kill Taylor, 28, her boyfriend at the time, because he had been seeing other women. Evidence showed that Ramirez had lied to her two accomplices that Taylor had raped and beat her.

The judge scheduled Ramirez for a June 24 sentencing. Two separate juries convicted her cousin, Philip Perez Gonzales Jr., 27, and gunman Michael Leepatrick Armstrong, 23, of second-degree murder on April 15.

Gonzales also is scheduled to be sentenced on June 24. White on May 27 sentenced Armstrong to a 25-to-life prison term.

The name of a person who died earlier this week in a head-on collision on South Watt Avenue near Elder Creek Road has been released by the Sacramento County Coroner's office.

Her has been identified as Pedro Mendoza Perea, 28, of Sacramento.

Perea was a passenger in a car Tuesday morning that was traveling north on South Watt Avenue that crossed into an oncoming lane and hit a southbound pickup, police said.

Police said they have not yet determined why the car crossed into the oncoming lane.

The Sacramento Police Department said this morning a missing mentally disabled woman has been found.

According to Sacramento police department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong, Carole Slaughter left her home on foot at 9 a.m. Thursday. She had last been seen in the neighborhood east of Grand Avenue and Marysville Boulevard in Del Paso Heights.

Slaughter has a disability limiting her mental capacity to that of a 3-year-old, according to a press statement.

Early this morning she was found about a mile away from last seen in the 3200 block of Del Paso Boulevard in good condition. A security guard had called police to help send her away from a property.

Three Sacramento residents have pleaded guilty to a federal indictment charging them with sex trafficking of a minor, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced Thursday that Deanijiniqe Cail, 23, Christian Demitris Dotson, 20, and Veraniquie Wallace, 40, pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court.

According to court documents, Dotson approached a 14-year-old acquaintance in June 2010 and asked her to be a prostitute. Court documents indicate Dotson took sexually explicit photographs of the girl, which Cail and Wallace posted online, advertising her for prostitution, according to the Department of Justice release.

By Bee Staff

The Sacramento Police Department is searching for a missing woman who last seen this morning in North Sacramento.

According to Sacramento police department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong, Carole Slaughter left her home on foot at 9 a.m. and has not been seen since. She who was last seen in the neighborhood east of Grand Avenue and Marysville Boulevard.

Slaughter has a disability limiting her mental capacity to that of a 3-year-old, according to a press statement issued by Leong.

Carole Slaughter is described as black, 46-years-old, 5'4", 150 lbs, black hair, brown eyes. She was wearing a gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes.

The Sacramento Police Department urges anyone with information pertaining to this missing person to contact us at (916) 264-5471.

By Bee staff
A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Zang Her of murder and burglary in connection with the death of John Lone Eage in his Carmichael home in 2004, according to a release from Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully.
The jury also determined the murder was committed during a burglary, a special circumstance, according to the release.
No verdict was reached on the charge that Her personally used a deadly or dangerous weapon during the crime, the release said.
Lone Eagle, a 65-year-old real estate foreclosure speculator, died during a home invasion robbery. His employees told The Bee at the time of his death that he kept tens of thousands of dollars in cash in his home office.
Her was arrested Jan. 22, 2009, on a cold DNA hit.
Sentencing was scheduled for July 28.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

After earlier eluding officers in three high-speed car chases, state parolee Anatoliy Rudan was finally cornered and arrested Tuesday, according to U.S. Marshal Albert Najera.

On May 12, the 32-year-old Rudan was spotted in North Highlands driving a stolen Audi S5. He fled when a California Highway Patrol officer attempted to stop him, running red lights at more than 100 mph and losing the officer, Najera said in a press release.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Juan Carlos Carranco of second-degree murder in the fatal Oct. 31, 2009, shooting of Carlos Cervantes Jr. at a party in the south area.

Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan scheduled the sentencing on the 18-year-old Carranco, a reputed street gang member, for June 24.

Cervantes, 23, died nearly four weeks after the shooting on Clover Manor Way.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Testimony got under way today in the trial of a homeless woman accused of murder in the death of a man who died 13 months after she shot him at a downtown Sacramento bus stop after he swore at her as she panhandled him.

When Audrey Jackson, 50, asked Frank Perez for spare change so she could catch the bus, "He says, 'Why don't you get a job?' or, 'Why don't you get your family to help you, you 'effing b,' " witness Francisco Garcia testified in Sacramento Superior Court.

Scam artists are going door-to-door fraudulently saying they are raising money for Sacramento hospital patients.

The scammers say they are seeking donations to purchase books or other items for patients at UC Davis Medical Center and UC Davis Children's Hospital.

A man was found stabbed to death along the American River Parkway late last night, Sacramento police said.

The man, only described as being in his 30s, was found in an area frequented by the homeless near Northgate Boulevard and Del Paso Boulevard. Reports came into the police department about 11:20 p.m. about some kind of noisy disturbance in the wooded area, police said.

A police sergeant who happened to be patrolling nearby, quickly responded to the scene but it was too late. The man, who has not been identified, died from at least one stab wound.

The Sacramento County Coroner's office has released the name of the man shot by deputies in south Sacramento earlier this week.

He was identified as Miguel Eduardo Negrete, 29, of Sacramento.

Sacramento County sheriff's investigators are trying to piece together the events that led to the fatal early-morning shooting of Negrete by deputies in south Sacramento.

Sacramento police announced Tuesday the arrest of a 28-year-old man in connection with a robbery that occurred at a church in Sacramento's Southside Park neighborhood on Good Friday.

The robbery occurred in the early morning hours of April 22 at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in the 700 block of T Street.

The victim, who had arrived at church for the early service and was carrying $2,000 to give to a friend who needed to buy a car, was robbed at gunpoint as he exited a church restroom, The Bee reported.

On April 27, at 1:36 a.m., a Sacramento police officer stopped a suspicious subject in the area of 28th and C streets after responding to an activated alarm in the area, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

Two Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies fatally shot a man in south Sacramento shortly after midnight this morning.

The deputies opened fire after the man pointed a handgun at them, according to the Sheriff's Department.

The deputies arrived on Pomegranate Avenue near Delta Pointe Way after dispatchers received several reports of an armed man in the area.

UC Davis is asking the public to be wary of an apparent fundraising scam in which people are going door-to-door soliciting donations for the university's marching band and students in two of its academic departments, according to a university news release.

A similar warning was issued by Sacramento State earlier this week.

Several people have called UC Davis reporting they were asked for money to support a trip to London for either the university's marching band or students in the departments of Music or Theatre and Dance, the UC Davis release states. Neither the band nor the two departments are raising funds to support a trip to London, and they do not solicit money door-to-door, according to the release.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department is reporting that a Sacramento man was arrested Thursday in connection with a nationwide fraud case.

Michael Stephen Moynihan, left, was arrested by Placer County Sheriff's detectives and Sacramento Police Department officers after a short foot pursuit in Sacramento, according to a sheriff's department release. The sheriff's department had been seeking Moynihan, and he had fled from investigators on two prior occasions, the release states.

The release states that Placer County Sheriff's detectives were recently contacted by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Colorado Springs, Colo., which had been conducting an investigation involving Moynihan.

Sacramento police arrested a man on suspicion of attempted kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl on her way home from school.

Rojelio Cuevas, 27, was booked in Sacramento County Jail.

Police said that on May 16 a girl was walking home from school near Belmar Street and Wissemann Drive when a man told the 12-year-old she was sexy. The girl ignored him and kept walking away in the neighborhood near Watt Avenue and Highway 50 .

The Sacramento Fire Department announced Thursday that it is providing "emergency medical treatment information sheets" for city residents to complete before they require emergency medical aid.

Officials hope that if citizens have the information sheet already filled out, it will help streamline the medical aid process in the event of an emergency, according to a fire department news release.

The sheet asks for details related to medical history, medication allergies, hospital preference for transportation and telephone numbers and names of family members to be notified, according to the release.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Sacramento police and the city's Department of Transportation are asking for the community's help in stopping a rash of copper thefts from street lights and traffic signals, the police department reported Thursday.

Thieves have stolen several thousand feet of copper wire from street lights and traffic signals throughout the city this year, according to a police department news release. Replacement costs for the wire have already reached $30,000, while labor and other associated costs have put the city's total loss at close to $60,000, according to the release.

North Natomas neighborhoods have been the hardest hit, especially those with fewer residents, the release states.

The public is asked to watch for suspicious activity near street lights and intersections, and is reminded that legitimate city work crews will have a white pick-up truck with the City of Sacramento seal on it and workers with city identification badges. Anyone who sees individuals working on the wire of street lights or traffic signals without a city vehicle present is asked to call police.

Sacramento police said a man reached out the passenger side window of a sport utility vehicle on Wednesday and grabbed at a woman's handbag, dragging the 77-year-old victim along the street.

The woman was walking to the store in the 5100 block of Stockton Boulevard about noon Wednesday when the man in the SUV grabbed at the purse she was carrying with a strap around her shoulder.

The woman fell and possibly suffered a broken wrist as she was dragged along. The male driver and male passenger got away with the purse.

The suspect vehicle was described as an older dark blue Chevrolet Suburban.

Sacramento police today released the description of the suspected getaway car in the killing of 53-year-old Balbir Singh Dhami.

The suspected getaway car is described as a 1990s, gold, four-door Mazda Protégé or 323.

Dhami was killed May 19 when a man came to his home and shot him as he stood just inside the front door of his North Laguna house. His wife was also shot and critically injured.

Two young women posing as Sacramento State students are running a magazine-selling scam, university officials said.

The young women claim to be students from the university's Department of Theatre & Dance. They purport to be selling magazines to win a trip to London and they claim the department will use magazine sales proceeds to put on a production of "The Taming of the Shrew."

A press release from California State University, Sacramento also states that the two women falsely claim they are raising money for Shriner's Hospital.

Neither Shriners nor Sacramento State solicits funds in the manner being conducted by the two women, the university said. The Theatre & Dance Department is not sponsoring any trips to London.

Once again, thieves posing as repairmen have burglarized a residence after distracting the homeowner.

In the most recent ruse, two men posing as repair company workers came to a home Monday morning in the 4300 block of Fallow Drive near Franklin Boulevard and Mack Road. The men wore hard hats and uniforms.

While one of the men spoke with the victim at the front of the house, the other entered the residence through a side door and took items from the home. Police said the theft is similar to previous scams where suspects posed as plumbers.

A woman was hit with her own cane by a man who accosted her in Meadowview.

The 68-year-old woman was going for a walking near her home in the vicinity of Esterel Way Monday morning about 11 a.m. when a young man approached her. Sacramento police said the man grabbed the walking cane from her hand and struck her on the leg several times.

The suspect said nothing and took nothing from the victim before fleeing on foot, police said. The suspect was described as white, about 19 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall and 170 pounds with black hair.

The Sacramento County coroner's office has identified the man who allegedly killed his sister before killing himself Saturday evening as 44-year-old Robert Dean Carrillo.

Sheriff's authorities allege Carrillo shot his sister, 34-year-old Dolores Tornel, after they got into an argument in the garage of a North Highlands home.

The shooting occurred as family and friends were celebrating the birthday of Tornel's son.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said detectives believe the argument started when Tornel told Carrillo he had to leave her home. He had been staying at his sister's place, Ramos said, because he was down on his luck.

Related post with video:
Coroner IDs woman shot by brother in North Highlands

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has identified the woman shot to death in a murder-suicide Saturday afternoon as 34-year-old Dolores Lucero Tornel.

Sheriff's authorities say Tornel's 44-year-old brother shot her before turning the gun on himself during a birthday party for Tornel's son at their North Highlands home.

The coroner's office has not released the identity of Tornel's brother.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A birthday party for a North Highlands child turned tragic Saturday afternoon when a man and his sister began arguing and the man shot her to death, then killed himself.

The shooting in the 5800 block of San Ardo Way began in the garage of the home when the brother, a man in his 40s, began yelling at his younger sister and shot her to death with a handgun, Sacramento sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos said.

The man then went into the home, yelled some more, returned to the garage and shot himself. The birthday party was for the dead woman's child, and some family members who fled the house saw the woman's body through the open garage door, Ramos said.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

At least it wasn't Father's Day.

Sacramento police say they were called out Friday afternoon to the Hagginwood area for reports of a fight between two people.

When they arrived at a home in the 1100 block of Sonoma Avenue police discovered the combatants had been father and son. The son had run away before officers arrived, police said, and the father was found to have "sustained injuries in an attack including several bite marks."

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

A federal judge in Sacramento has denied Unabomber Ted Kaczynzki's bid to halt an auction of his belongings while he is under investigation in the 1982 Tylenol poisoning mystery.

U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. issued his order Friday, rejecting a hand-written motion Kaczynski filed with the court after he discovered the FBI was investigating whether he had anything to do with the unsolved 29-year-old poisonings that killed seven people in Chicago.

Kaczynski said in his motion, filed earlier this month, that he wanted the government to stop plans to auction off belongings that might pinpoint his whereabouts in 1982.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

It was a little more extreme than Ferris Bueller's day off.

Prosecutors say a Sacramento area man was convicted Friday of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by allowing his son to skip school dozens of times.

District Attorney Jan Scully said in a news release that a jury convicted Dino Otto after "an extremely long history of neglecting his obligation as a parent to make sure his child attended school."

At least three people reported being robbed in the 3000 block of Altos Avenue over the past week, after answering ads on Craigslist, two of them for televisions, Sacramento police reported.

One victim picked up the suspects in Roseville and drove them to Altos Avenue, where they robbed him at gunpoint.

In the other incidents, victims answering the advertisement were directed to the area, where they were robbed after meeting the purported sellers.

Sacramento police chased and arrested a man after he fled when officers approached a group of six in Oak Park.

Police approached the group near 14th Avenue and La Solidad Way, police reported.

When one subject fled, police chased him behind a house described in the official activity log as "a known gang hangout."

A gunman on foot fired shots into a crowd near the Capitol Garage at 15th and K streets early this morning, wounding two bystanders.

Police believe those hit were not the intended targets.

Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

David Scott Denson was sentenced today to 153 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder of a 29-year-old woman in April 2009.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury last month convicted Denson of the shooting death of Dusty Rose Vasquez at a Del Paso Road residence.

He also was found guilty of two counts of attempted premeditated murder, using a firearm in the attempted murders and for being a felon in possession of a gun.

Sacramento police urge North Natomas residents to be on the lookout for a man who has been approaching children and adults in a suspicious manner.

The man went up to a home Thursday evening in the vicinity of Loggerhead Way and Myotis Drive and spoke to a female resident.

He told her he was looking for his lost dog, but when she asked for a description of the dog, he hesitated as though he had to make it up.

Sacramento police have arrested Raymond Brau, left, 33, after a pair of girls accused him of exposing himself and grabbing their buttocks on different occasions.

Police were contacted May 12 after the two victims, 16 and 17 years old, were walking home and a man called to them from a house in the 4400 block of 73rd Street.

The juveniles said he was exposing and holding "his private parts," according to a news release from the Sacramento Police Department.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Attempted murder charges have been dismissed against a witness in a recent murder case who had been charged in a shooting last year that injured two people.

Jeremy Don Humphries, 25, had been in jail more than five months before the case was dismissed May 13 on a motion by the District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors dismissed the case for insufficient evidence.

Humphries testified as a key witness in the murder trial of Alex Brown Jr., Terry Larell Alexander and David Jacob Carrera. The three were convicted in the robbery murder of James Ramirez at his parents' Land Park home.

Before he testified, Humphries had been arrested in the Nov. 4, 2010, shooting of two men in the Hollywood Park neighborhood.

By Matt Kawahara and Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com

A 7-year-old girl who was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive near her home Thursday night had a heart condition, her family told sheriff's deputies, investigators reported today.

Uliana Shevchuk of Fair Oaks was pronounced dead after she was found in bushes near the Fair Oaks apartment complex where her family lives.

Investigators found no signs of foul play at the scene, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has confirmed that Balbir Singh Dhami, 53, was the victim of a shooting Thursday in the 7900 block of Marla Way that also left Dhami's wife wounded.

The wife's name has not been released by investigators.

Police are still investigating the death of Dhami, who had a criminal history involving a drug conspiracy conviction and a son who is a fugitive in a murder case.

Read The Bee's earlier story on the Dhami shooting here.

Sacramento police arrested two teens and the mother of one of the juveniles in the wake of a Wednesday burglary in the 2100 block of Bell Avenue.

Investigation indicated that burglary was carried out by the 17- and 16-year-old grandsons of a neighbor, according to the police report.

Furthermore, the 54-year-old mother of the 17-year-old was believed to have sold some of the stolen property at a pawn shop. The mother was not identified.

Police arrested all three Thursday.

A man convicted of shooting an ice-cream vendor in south Sacramento because he would not give out free items was denied a parole and told he can't apply again for seven years.

The state Board of Parole Hearings denied the parole to Paul Earl McIntosh, now 34, and put the seven-year restriction on him earlier this month. (Photo at left is of McIntosh at a 1994 court hearing.)

McIntosh is serving 20 years to life for the March 1994 shooting of Ranbir Singh Bansel.

According to police, a swarm of youths surrounded Bansel as he canvassed a Meadowview neighborhood. The youths demanded free ice cream and soda, The Bee reported.

When Bansel, 46, refused, he was shot several times.

A man who pleaded guilty last month to the 1981 first-degree murder of a blind, deaf 88-year-old Sacramento woman has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Leroy Veal, 60, pleaded guilty to the murder of Pauline Colombatto and was sentenced by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Savage. Veal also admitted to three special circumstance allegations that the crime occurred during the commission of burglary, attempted robbery and rape.

In exchange for a plea to these offenses and a waiver of appellate rights, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office agreed not to pursue the death penalty, but instead have Veal sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, according to a news release.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

The man killed in this morning's double shooting found himself in the midst of turmoil in recent years, as he fought a federal drug trafficking case while authorities tried to track down his fugitive son in connection with a 2008 homicide, The Bee has learned.

However, police will not say whether they believe either of those cases is connected to today's events.

Balbir Singh Dhami and his wife were gunned down inside their Marla Way home in North Laguna Creek shortly after 10 a.m. Dhami was pronounced dead at the scene; his wife, who has not yet been identified, is in critical condition.

A Sacramento man has been accused of conspiring to travel abroad to have sex with children.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that a federal grand jury has returned a four-count superseding indictment charging James E. Johnston, 69, with conspiracy to travel in foreign commerce for the purposes of having sex with a person under the age of 18, conspiracy to produce child pornography, receipt and distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.

The indictment alleges that between May and September 2006, Johnston conspired with another person to go to the Philippines to have sex with a child.

Sacramento police arrested a suspected burglar after first convincing her to put on her clothes and get out of the tub.

Police said officers were summoned to a residence in the 2100 block of V Street about 8 a.m. Wednesday on a report of a burglary in progress. The resident told officers that a burglary suspect was in the tub.

"Apparently when confronted by the homeowner, she decided she would state she lived there," read a police crime log. "When that didn't work, she undressed and jumped into the tub for a quick bath."

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

The California Supreme Court this morning upheld the death penalty imposed in Sacramento Superior Court on Sean Venyette Vines in 1997 for murdering Ronald Joshua Lee while Vines and a companion were sticking up a McDonald's on Florin Road.

Vines, now 37, was found guilty of shooting Lee, a 21-year-old manager trainee at the restaurant, in the back of the head. Vines, who had previously worked with Lee at the fast food outlet, was later to say he killed "my friend" because Lee recognized him and uttered his name.

A unanimous high court rejected arguments by Vines' lawyer that capital punishment itself is unconstitutional and that the more than 13 years Vines has spent on death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the federal and state constitutions.

The suspicious package that Sacramento County sheriff's deputies responded to in Arden Arcade this morning turned out to be a creatively decorated lighted gift box.

The suspicious object was described as a 8-inch-by-8-inch, glass brick-shaped package with wires and plugs attached. The suspicious object was near a car in the 3600 block of Marconi Avenue.

Further investigation revealed it was not a danger. A woman who works in a nearby building wraps boxes in a clear wrapping with lights inside.

A gang-related confrontation led to a teenager shooting a man in Oak Park on Wednesday evening, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said.

Police received a report of a shooting in the area of 8th Avenue and 40th Street at 5:43 p.m., said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. Officers responded and located a male adult suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach that was believed to be non-life-threatening, Leong said.

The man was apparently walking in the area when he and a teenager riding by on a bicycle began exchanging words, Leong said. The confrontation, believed to be "of a gang nature," led to the teen shooting the victim, Leong said.

A former Sacramento business owner was arrested today by federal agents in Florida,

A federal grand jury in Sacramento in April returned a 16-count indictment charging Carlos B. Jerez, 34, with fraud, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to the indictment, Jerez, owner of the Sacramento-based 1st Class Mobility, advertised medical mobility products, such as motorized wheelchairs and scooters, and accepted payment without the ability to deliver the products. The indictment alleges that Jerez made false representations about shipping delays, the availability of refunds and the status of missing orders.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad, called out this afternoon to investigate a suspicious object lying in the street in a south Sacramento neighborhood, has determined that the object appears benign, a sheriff's spokesman reported.

Sheriff's deputies received a call just before 3 p.m., regarding a body down in the street at 44th Street and 23rd Avenue, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said. Deputies responded and determined that there was an object that was dressed in clothing and made to look like a person lying face-down in the street, but that it was not a person, Ramos said.

The sheriff's bomb squad responded as a precaution and deputies established a perimeter in the area, Ramos said. However, in examining the object with a robot, the bomb squad found that it appeared to be a combination of "stuffed animal parts and other items, constructed to give the appearance of a person," Ramos wrote in an email.

"It appears fairly benign, and is most likely someone's bad idea of a prank," he wrote.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced this morning that her office has filed 34 charges against a former Sacramento police officer accused of falsifying his police reports and lying under oath.

Brandon Mullock, who resigned from the police force after initial questions were raised about his credibility, surrendered himself to authorities this morning, Scully said. He was booked into the Sacramento County Main jail on 24 counts of falsifying a police report and 10 counts of perjury, she said.

If convicted of the charges, Scully said Mullock, 26, faces a maximum sentence of 23 years and eight months in prison.

Sacramento police have arrested a man on suspicion of homicide tied to his attack on a fellow student a decade before at John F. Kennedy High School.

Demarcus Lavell Mason, left, 28, had already been tried and convicted in the attempted robbery of JFK student Christopher Thompson, who was injured in the crime on Jan. 22, 1999, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

During the robbery attempt Mason assaulted the then 16-year-old Thompson, causing him to fall.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Ted Kaczynski may be the most famous former hermit/terrorist in the country, but his personal musings are not exactly flying off the shelves.

The Unabomber's personal belongings went on sale this morning on a U.S. government website, and so far only nine people have bid on his personal journals. The current bid is $1,000 for the journals, but other items are drawing more interest, including his birth certificates and various driver's licenses, which 10 bidders have driven up to $2,025 so far.

His mental health records so far are drawing a bid of only $500, while his bank statements have been bid up to a paltry $175.

Drawing the most interest, as expected, is a handwritten copy of Kaczynski's "manifesto," which is currently at $6,825 and the subject of six bids.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Two separate Sacramento Superior Court juries have returned murder convictions against two Stockton men charged in the shooting deaths of two residents of an Arden Arcade apartment complex last year.

One panel today found Dominique Amos, 21, guilty of second-degree murder in the Jan. 14, 2010, killings of Eleea Langley Jr. and Marcus Thompson at the Villa Capri apartments on Trussel Way.

On Tuesday, the other jury convicted Ronnie Brown III, also 21, of second-degree murder in the same two deaths.

The Sacramento County District Attorney will announce criminal charges this morning against a former Sacramento police officer whose alleged misconduct led to the dismissal of 79 cases.

The charges filed today against Brandon Mullock will be presented by District Attorney Jan Scully at an 11 a.m. press conference downtown, according to a DA's news release. She will also present the findings of the DA investigation.

Last year, 79 defendants in Sacramento County had their cases thrown out after Mullock's actions rendered the cases impossible and unethical to prosecute, Scully's office previously announced.

Q: What happened to the guy who raped several women in Sacramento, was paroled and then killed two men at a bar? - Anonymous, Sacramento

A: Charles Edward Case, now 70, is on death row for killing the 1993 Father's Day murder and robbery of Val Lorraine Manuel, 71, and Gary Duane Tudor, 39, who were shot to death in a bar at Bradshaw Road and Jackson Highway.

Case, left, also was earlier convicted of sexually assaulting five women in Sacramento County over a two-month period in 1978. He was nicknamed the "Midday Rapist" from his habit of stalking women at their shops during the day, then attacking them.

He threatened to kill several of his rape victims.

He was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 1979, but was paroled in 1991.

Eight people have been arraigned in a federal mortgage fraud case involving losses that allegedly exceed $9 million.

An indictment returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Sacramento charges the eight Sacramento-area residents with wire and mail fraud in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud scheme that involved multiple properties in the Sacramento area and operated from late 2006 to late 2007.

The indictment alleges that the defendants were responsible for originating more than $16.3 million in residential mortgage loans on 14 homes purchased through so-called straw buyers. All of the homes went into foreclosure, causing losses of approximately $9.6 million, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Sacramento Sheriff's detectives are asking the public's help in identifying the man who robbed and sexual assaulted a woman Monday at the Pavilions shopping center. A composite sketch of the man, left, was released today.

Shortly before 6 p.m., the armed man entered the business near Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue. He robbed and sexually assaulted the lone female employee, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

He then fled the store, and was seen leaving in a black four-door "boxy" vehicle through the parking lot of the shopping complex.

The man is described as black, between 21 and 30 years old, with short black hair. He is between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall tall, weighing 150 to 160 pounds.

By Tony Bizjak
tbizjak@sacbee.com

Think your parking ticket is unfair ?

As of today, the city of Sacramento allows drivers to go online, type in their citation number, and view a photo of their vehicle taken by the parking enforcement officer.

The photos will show if the parking meter next to the car or the "pay and display" sticker in the vehicle window have expired. If the driver agrees he or she has parked illegally, the program allows the driver to pay automatically online.

A Sacramento man who killed his girlfriend in 1995 after charges were dropped over him attempting to stab her has been denied a parole and told he must wait five years to apply again.

A panel of the state Board of Parole Hearings made the decision earlier this month on Ajani Abdel Wahid Imarogbe, now 61.

He is serving 15 years to life for the murder of Leslie Watson, 33, inside her I Street apartment, The Bee reported.

Sacramento police have arrested a man they say is a suspect in at least one attempted burglary in the Pocket Area.

Officers were dispatched to a report of a suspicious incident at a home near Parkway Oak Park late Monday morning. The resident said a man rang the doorbell and then tried to open the front door.

The resident made noise, prompting the stranger to ride away on a bicycle.

While officers were on their way to that call, another request for service from a resident was received to police dispatch that was similar.

A Sacramento man who beat twin 18-month-old brothers - killing one - because they wouldn't stop crying is due a parole hearing.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Len Ray Willeford, now 46, on Nov. 10, 1992 to 15 years to life after Willeford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and corporal punishment on a child, The Bee reported.

Willeford was baby sitting the children for their mother, whom he had been dating for about four months.

A woman was slashed in the faced Monday with a box cutter by her former boyfriend's new girlfriend, according to the Sacramento Sheriff's Department.

The victim, a 36-year-old woman, was at a private healthcare school she attends on Lincoln Village Drive about 11 a.m. Monday when the attack occurred, deputies said.

According to a sheriff's crime summary, the two women had previously argued over the boyfriend.

Q: A man tried to kill two Sacramento County deputies about 12 years ago after he tried to kill two CHP officers in the '60s. Is he still alive? - Dave, Sacramento

A: Yes. Robert Earl Olmsted, now 60, is serving 36 years plus 195 years to life at Pleasant Valley State Prison, Coalinga, records show. (Bee staff photo of Olmsted at left is from a 1998 court proceeding.)

The sentence was designed so Olmsted would never get out of prison, The Bee reported. He must serve the 36-year sentence before starting the 195 to life.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed an employee of an art gallery in the Pavilions shopping center near Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue on Monday.

The incident happened at about 6 p.m. Monday, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. The suspect entered the Ventana Art Gallery around closing time and brandished a gun at a female employee, Ramos said.

The suspect then sexually assaulted the employee and robbed her of some personal belongings before leaving the gallery, he said.

A 33-year-old Sacramento man has been convicted by a Yolo County Superior Court jury of discharging a firearm at a Sacramento police officer as he tried to elude officers during a foot pursuit in 2009.

Ronnie Mauricio Barahona was convicted May 11 of one count of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, with an enhancement for personal discharge of a firearm during commission of a felony, the Yolo County District Attorney's Office announced in a news release.

The same jury acquitted Barahona on one count of assault on another peace officer and did not reach a verdict on two other counts, according to the release.

The young driver who died after being from thrown from her car in a crash on Interstate 80 early Saturday has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Krystal Somer Sigler, 19, of Sacramento.

The crash occurred about 2 a.m. Saturday and involved two vehicles traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 near Interstate 5, according to Todd Van Lindt, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol's North Sacramento office.

Sigler and another woman were in a green 2001 Mercury SUV when, for unknown reasons, it clipped a blue 1995 Toyota Tercel in a lane ahead of it.

By Kim Minugh and Cathy Locke
kminugh@sacbee.com

A 51-year-old man died this morning while awaiting release from the Sacramento County Main Jail.

His cause of death is not yet known, although sheriff's officials said it appears he died of natural causes.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said the man was booked into the Main Jail about 11 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of public intoxication.

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

The young driver killed in an early morning accident on Saturday has been identified as 19-year-old Krystal Sigler by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office.

The Rio Linda High School graduate was thrown from her car and killed when the 2001 Mercury SUV she was driving clipped a car while driving eastbound on I-80 near Interstate 5 around 2 a.m. Both the SUV and car spun out of control.

The driver and passenger of the car were not injured, said Todd Van Lindt, spokesman for the North Sacramento office of the California Highway Patrol.

A pedestrian walking across Marysville Boulevard in Del Paso Heights was killed early today in a hit-and-run collision involving the driver of a large sports utility vehicle, Sacramento Police report.

Police said the victim, a man in his 50s, has not yet been identified. He is believed to have been crossing Marysville Boulevard at Roanoke Avenue when he was struck by the dark-colored SUV traveling north on the boulevard, according to the preliminary investigation.

The driver fled the scene in the SUV, police said, and is being sought by the department.

By Phillip Reese
preese@sacbee.com

One person was killed and another seriously injured in a car/motorcycle collision this evening north of downtown Sacramento. (Photo at left is courtesy of the Sacramento Police Department.)

The driver of a Chevy Cobalt heading west on Richards Boulevard ran a red light at 5:30 p.m. and hit a motorcycle carrying a man and a woman, said Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong.

The female passenger died later this evening, Leong said. The motorcycle driver was "very serious," Leong said, No one in the Cobalt was injured.

Police closed 16th Street at Richards for several hours.

A young driver was thrown from her car and killed early today, closing down Interstate 80 near Interstate 5 for a few hours in the early morning, California Highway Patrol officials reported.

The incident involved two vehicles driving eastbound on I-80 at about 2 a.m. said Todd Van Lindt, spokesman for the North Sacramento office of the CHP.

Two women in their early 20s were in a green 2001 Mercury SUV when, for unknown reasons, it clipped a blue 1995 Toyota Tercel in a lane ahead of it.

Police arrested a man for possession of methamphetamine Friday after seeing him involved in a domestic argument, Sacramento officials reported.

Officers came across a couple involved in a verbal dispute in a gas station at Julliard Drive and Folsom Boulevard, according to the police activity log.

After the man walked away, officers attempted to question him and found him acting nervously.

A 59-year-old man with a history of sexual assaults has been convicted by a Sacramento County Superior Court jury of engaging in sex acts with a child.

Lorenzo Jimenez was convicted Thursday on seven counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child age 14 years or younger and oral sex acts with a child age 10 years or younger, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release.

The 8-year-old relative stayed with Jimenez and his wife. Over several months, Jimenez repeatedly fondled the victim, forced her to fondle him and sodomized the victim, officials said. The victim told her mother four months later.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones will hold a chat with community members on Wednesday, May 18, in Foothill Farms.

The event is scheduled at the Foothill Community Center, 5510 Diablo Drive, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The chat will allow members of the public to meet Jones and pose questions or concerns.

Those in attendance will have the opportunity to speak with the sheriff one-on-one, on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the release.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Two men and a woman convicted of murdering a man over a stolen goods ripoff were sentenced today to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge David De Alba imposed the terms on gunman Randall Powell, 30, accomplice James Allen Howard, 31, and a third co-defendant, Jennifer Ella Kane, 34.

The three were convicted of first-degree murder in the June 8, 2008, shooting death of Samuel Alex Wilson, 31, who was gunned down in the 5500 block of Florin Road.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Three north area Sacramento street gang members have been convicted of first-degree murder in a robbery killing that took place in an apartment complex on San Juan Road.

Jurors today convicted Marquel Lamar Dixon, 18, in the Dec. 15, 2009, shooting death of Perrell Marquis Waters, 19. A separate jury on Thursday found 22-year-old Marcus Scott Jr. guilty. A third panel on Tuesday returned the first-degree murder conviction on Ronald Delano Grant, 21.

All three defendants also were convicted of the second-degree robbery of Waters.

Evidence at trial showed that Scott and Grant were the gunmen in the killing, although it was not conclusive which one fired the bullets that ended Waters' life.

Sacramento police returned to Discovery Park last night looking for clues to help find a man who raped a woman on Wednesday in a Discovery Park public restroom.

"We had officers out there for two reasons: to re-canvass some people who may have been out there the night before and to provide extra security," said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

However, police have nothing new on the attack.

Students have been returned this morning to Castori Elementary School after earlier being evacuated because of a bomb scare.

The Sacramento Police Department bomb squad was called to the Del Paso Heights school campus, 1801 South Ave., where a suspicious cylindrical object with a fuse was found.

The students were safely moved outside to the north side of the campus for safety after the object was found.

A homicide suspect reportedly seen earlier this week on the campus of California State University, Sacramento, has turned himself in to Antioch police, according to university officials.

Nineteen-year-old Michael Pulliambanks, right, was wanted in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old man in Antioch last December.

Investigators believe Pulliambanks was on the Sacramento campus Tuesday to visit an acquaintance who lives in a residence hall. The suspect is not a university student.

Q: There was a murder several years back involving a young man and his infant son. Were the suspects ever arrested? - Shocked in Elk Grove

A: No suspects have been arrested in the Sept. 14, 2007 killing of 21-year-old Sean Aquitania and his infant son, Sean Jr. (Photos left).

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies suspect Aquitania interrupted a home-invasion robbery on Country Greens Court in southeastern Sacramento County, The Bee reported.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department announced that three known gang members were arrested Wednesday in connection with a rash of graffiti incidents in the Arden Arcade area.

Dana Aviles (left), 18, Jesus Nava (right), 19,and a 14-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism and participation in criminal street gang activity, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Nava and Aviles were booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail and the 14-year-old was booked at Sacramento County Juvenile Hall.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is seeking to identify a man who may have information regarding a shooting in south Sacramento last week that claimed the life of 58-year-old Joe Baker.

About 12 p.m. May 4, Baker was a passenger in a vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 99 near Florin Road. The vehicle was struck by gunfire, with a bullet penetrating the car and striking Baker in the lower back. He was taken to a nearby hospital and died from his injury Saturday.

The driver of the vehicle in which Baker was riding reported seeing a vehicle right next to hers at the time the shooting occurred, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. The vehicle was described as an early model - possibly late 1970s or 1980s - light blue, compact or mid-size sedan, with faded or oxidized paint.

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Sacramento police officers received notice today they can now apply to replace their non-sworn counterparts in crime scene investigations, should proposed budget cuts be realized.

The city of Sacramento faces a $32 million budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, and the Police Department stands to lose $12.2 million. Under the scenario crafted by department leadership, that reduction would result in the layoffs of roughly 80 sworn officers and 69 non-sworn employees.

Among those non-sworn employees set to lose their jobs are the 14 CSIs who currently work in the field, collecting evidence and processing crime scenes. If the proposed cuts are approved, Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said those positions would be filled by sworn officers.

By Darrell Smith
dsmith@sacbee.com

Embattled tax attorney Roni Deutch Thursday said she will close her law firm of 20 years and surrender her license to practice law.

Deutch, the self styled "tax lady," struck a defiant tone in a brief press conference held at her law firm's North Highlands headquarters. Deutch said she employed 200 people.

"I want to apologize to all of my employees - these wonderful people who have lost their jobs," she said, adding that she was "honored to be your tax lady for the last 20 years."

California Highway Patrol officers will be conducting a drunken-driving checkpoint in southern Sacramento County on Saturday night.

Drivers will be stopped not long after officers begin setting up the checkpoint at 8 p.m. at an undisclosed location. The checkpoint is expected to conclude at 2 a.m.

The CHP will be evaluating the sobriety of drivers and handing out literature warning of the dangers of drinking and driving.

If rainy weather makes a checkpoint unsafe for the officers, the units will be assigned to roving DUI patrols.

Sacramento police are asking for help in finding a man who raped a woman last night in a Discovery Park public restroom.

The woman was at the park for a company barbeque when she was attacked about 8 p.m. Wednesday. She walked into the restroom at the park near the Garden Highway and Truxel Road when she was grabbed and sexually attacked, police said.

Sacramento police are asking for the public's help in identifying her attacker, only described as someone wearing dark pants and dark shoes.

A campus supervisor at Valley High School was slugged by a student after he confiscated the student's skateboard, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported today.

A sheriff's crime report gave this account of events:

The 26-year-old supervisor took a skateboard from a student on the campus at 6300 Ehrhardt Ave. at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. The 16-year-old student, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weights 177 pounds, tried to "aggressively retrieve the skateboard."

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

An Elverta man who crashed into a sports utility vehicle and killed a woman in north Sacramento County last year has been sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Travis Weldon Moore, 20, received the term Wednesday in Sacramento Superior Court from Judge Gary E. Ransom. Moore had pleaded no contest earlier this year to gross vehicular manslaughter.

Christine Ingle, 45, died at the scene of the Feb. 16, 2010, crash at 16th and C streets in the Rio Linda neighborhood.

Q: What happened to Sacramento resident Phyllis Robbins, a retired art teacher, who was tried for killing a woman? - Nellie, Sacramento

A: A Marin Superior Court judge sentenced Phyllis Yvonne Robbins, a retired American River College art teacher, to 11 years in prison in June 1996 for murdering her partner's lover, The Bee reported.

Robbins is no longer in prison, records show. Records also indicate she died in 2008.

At her sentencing, Robbins, then 68, told the judge that she didn't intend to kill Barbara Wilson, 71. "I would do anything to correct it, but I can't. I'm just sorry," Robbins said.

Animal Control officers seized seven birds after Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies found evidence of a cockfighting operation in south Sacramento on Wednesday, a Sacramento County Supervising Animal Control officer reported.

Sheriff's deputies responded at about 2 p.m. Wednesday to reports of subjects fighting with knives in the 3700 block of 46th Avenue, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos wrote in an email. Upon arriving, deputies found evidence of an illegal cockfighting operation and summoned Animal Control, Ramos wrote.

Deputies detained about 15 people at the location but did not arrest anyone, and reports of people fighting with knives could not be confirmed, Ramos wrote.

A C.K. McClatchy High School teacher has been arrested by Sacramento police on suspicion of molesting a female student in March, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said.

Brian Aguilar, 37, left, was arrested just before 4:30 p.m. today in downtown Sacramento, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. He was arrested without incident and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of molesting a child under the age of 18, a misdemeanor, jail booking logs show.

His bail was set at $5,000. He was released from custody tonight, jail booking logs show.

A man sentenced to prison two decades ago for burglary has been convicted of residential burglaries committed in East Sacramento in 2008.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully today announced that Kenneth Johnson, 41, was convicted by a Sacramento Superior Court jury on four counts of first-degree residential burglary.

Officials said Johnson targeted homes in East Sacramento from Sept. 29 through Dec. 30, 2008. He entered the residences during the night while family members were sleeping and stole various items, including televisions, cash, cameras and a laptop computer, according to a District Attorney's Office news release.

Q: In the mid-1980s, a college friend of mine, Erasmo Flores, went missing in Sacramento and was later found murdered. What happened in this case? - Anonymous Sacramento

A: Two men are serving long sentences for the 1982 murder of kidnap, robbery and murder of Flores, 22, a student at California State University, Sacramento, Bee reports and records show.

Dionisio Lewis Rendon Jr. is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Rendon, now 56, is incarcerated at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

Antioch police served a search warrant at a Sacramento State residence hall Tuesday searching for a 19-year-old man wanted in connection with a December homicide, according to a university news release.

Sacramento State police have ramped up security in the wake of the search, the release states.

Michael Pulliambanks (photo right), 19, who has a felony warrant for murder out of Antioch, was believed to have been on the Sacramento State campus Tuesday visiting an acquaintance who lives in Desmond Hall, the release states.

Pulliambanks is not a Sacramento State student, the release states. Antioch police served a warrant at a room in the residence hall and questioned the resident.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento man pleaded no contest today to drunken driving and other charges in the Feb. 20 collision that killed a north area teenager who was running across Northgate Boulevard.

Vincent Alfred Velasquez' conviction that resulted from his plea was his third on drunken driving charges in eight years.

Deputy District Attorney Caroline Park said Velasquez, who was on probation when his car struck and killed 18-year-old James Shiloh Jr., entered his plea straight up, with no offer of a deal.

A former part-owner of the Sacramento Capitals tennis team has been has been sentenced to seven years in prison for grand theft involving real estate-related transactions.

Lonnie Nielson, 47, of Wilton, pleaded guilty in Sacramento Superior Court to six felony charges of grand theft.

Nielson admitted that he embezzled more than $800,000 from 11 clients between May 2009 and July 2010, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release issued today.

Sacramento County officials say that a man was arrested after he drove a stolen car to meet with his probation officer.

Clifford Amey, on searchable probation with an outstanding warrant for fraud, went to the Sacramento County Probation office May 3 on Florin-Perkins Road.

Amey and a friend were allegedly driving a stolen gold Mercedes, according to probation authorities.

Q: Where is the "Thrill Killer" who killed six people in Sacramento? - Anonymous, Sacramento

A: Eric Royce Leonard, now 41, is on death row at San Quentin State Prison. (Bee staff photo at left is of Leonard at his 1992 trial.)

Leonard's crime spree began on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1991, when he went to a convenience story on Auburn Boulevard near Watt Avenue and gunned down store clerks Zeid Ahmad Obeid, 20, and Stephen Mark Anderson, 35, with a .25-caliber pistol.

After walking out of the market, Leonard saw Thor Johnson Sr., 42, walk into the store and decided to kill him, too, so he wouldn't call the police, evidence showed.

Exactly a week later Leonard struck again in the same area.

Sacramento firefighters responding to a house fire in south Sacramento on Monday night discovered a marijuana grow in the house, a Sacramento Fire Department spokesman said.

Fire crews found "a couple hundred plants at least" in the bedrooms and a bathroom of the two-story house in the 6700 block of Cunningham Way, said fire department spokesman Capt. Jon Burgess.

Sacramento police are trying to determine whether or not the grow is legal, Burgess said.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District crews extinguished a garage fire at a residence in southeast Sacramento County on Monday evening that left a teenager needing treatment for smoke inhalation, a fire district spokesman said.

The fire started at about 6:30 p.m., in the garage of a house in the 9700 block of Carmencita Avenue, said Sac Metro Fire spokesman Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum.

Occupants of the house went outside, noticed the fire and called authorities, Cockrum said.

The Sacramento County Coroner's office has identified the victim of a fatal south Sacramento car-to-car shooting Thursday that was the county's second such homicide in as many days.

Dutch Julius Adams, 20, of Sacramento, died Friday morning from injuries he sustained when he was shot Thursday evening near 47th Avenue and Franklin Boulevard, according to the coroner's office website.

Adams was reportedly sitting in the back seat of a vehicle that was shot at by occupants of another vehicle near that intersection, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department news release.

A 43-year-old homeless man who was dumped from a commercial trash bin into a garbage truck and "compacted" appears to have escaped without serious injury, authorities said.

Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum, spokesman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, said firefighters were called to 3437 Myrtle Ave. in North Highlands about 12:20 p.m. today after a man was accidentally dumped into a Waste Management garbage truck. The truck operator compacted the contents of the truck two or three times before realizing a man was inside, Cockrum said.

He said the man was yelling and screaming when firefighters arrived. They used ladder to rescue him from inside the truck.

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

Five people were cited late last week for allegedly poaching juvenile hatchery salmon only hours after the fish had been released into the American River.

In total, the suspects had 85 fall-run Chinook salmon in their possession, all of which died, said Patrick Foy, a state game warden and spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Foy said unscrupulous anglers catch the young salmon, often using nets or other contraptions, because they make good bait for striped bass and sturgeon. It is illegal to use nets to catch salmon, and illegal to use them as bait.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge ruled today there was no "actionable" juror misconduct in a murder trial where a woman who shot her husband to death was acquitted last week of first-degree murder charges.

Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley had refused to record the verdict pending today's hearing. Frawley said today that the juror acted "inappropriately" in hugging a courtroom spectator, expressing remorse about the case and then suggesting that their contact not be disclosed.

While Frawley said the juror's conduct was "wrong" and should have been reported earlier in the trial, it wasn't enough to overturn last Wednesday's acquittal of Jennifer Ann Dalton on first-degree murder charges in the July 13, 2009, shooting death of her husband, Craig Dalton. His refusal to sustain the misconduct allegation sought by Deputy District Attorney Chris Ore makes the first-degree acquittal official.

The first crosswalk sting of the year resulted in 44 tickets being written by Sacramento police.

Sacramento police were watching Thursday for motorists who didn't stop for pedestrians at crosswalks.

The tally released by the department today went this way:

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Former real estate executive Michael Lyon reported to jail over the weekend to begin serving his one-year sentence for secretly videotaping prostitutes in his homes.

Online jail records show Lyon, 55, reported to the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center and was booked at 5:47 p.m. Saturday. His release date is projected as being Nov. 4, 2011, although he is not expected to serve that long.

Lyon had originally hoped to serve his year sentence under home arrest, but Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones decided last month that the nature of his offenses and the fact that there were multiple victims merited jail time.

He has said he will review Lyon's conduct in jail after a month.

The name of the 74-year-old woman who died Sunday in a traffic collison on Truxel Road in North Natomas has been released.

She was identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Paulina Margretha Vankoetsveld of Sacramento.

Sacramento police said Vankoetsveld was driving southbound about 2:45 p.m. Sunday on Truxel Road. While making a left turn onto Arena Boulevard, she was struck by another vehicle that was northbound on Truxel.

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

A 74-year-old woman died Sunday following a car accident on Truxel Road in North Natomas.

Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman Laura Peck said the woman was driving southbound on Truxel Road. While making a left turn onto Arena Boulevard, she was struck by another vehicle that was northbound on Truxel.

The accident occurred at about 2:42 p.m. Sunday. Peck did not know if the victim was wearing a seatbelt.

A woman pedestrian struck and killed by a vehicle at Center Parkway and Arroyo Vista Drive Saturday night has been identified as 48-year-old Julia Audrey McGee of Sacramento, the Sacramento County Coroner's office said today.

McGee was crossing Center Parkway about 8:15 p.m. Saturday when she was hit by a motorist driving south on the parkway, police said late Saturday.

McGee was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said the driver stopped, and alcohol was not a factor.

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com

A pedestrian was struck and killed tonight by a vehicle at Center Parkway and Arroyo Vista Drive, Sacramento police said.

The woman was hit in front of Valley Hi Park at about 8:15 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Her identification was not released.

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com

A man shot on a Sacramento freeway in an apparent road-rage attack Wednesday died of his wounds this afternoon, Sacramento County Coroner's officials reported.

Joe Curley Baker, 58, of Clermont, Fla., was a passenger in a car traveling north on Highway 99 near Florin Road about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday when another motorist fired multiple gunshots at the car striking Baker in the lower back, said Sacramento County Sheriff's officials.

The driver, who was not hurt, took Baker to a local hospital where his wounds were not initially thought to be life threatening, sheriff's officials reported.

By Carlos Alcalá and Darrell Smith
calcala@sacbee.com

A single car crash killed a Michigan man early today on Hedge Avenue, near Florin Road, Sacramento Metropolitan Fire officials reported.

The Sacramento Coroner's Office tonight identified the dead man as Moises Enrique Pigg, 18, of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sac Metro crews responded to reports of a possible vehicle on fire at 2:19 a.m. in the 7200 block of Hedge Avenue.

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com

An Amtrak passenger was taken to a Sacramento hospital this afternoon after she was briefly dragged by a train and injured when she tried to re-board the train as it pulled away from the downtown station at I Street, officials said.

The incident happened about 3:15 p.m. when an unidentified woman aboard the Emeryville-bound California Zephyr briefly left her car.

The woman grabbed for the car's guard rail when the train began to depart, but she was unable to climb back into the car in time and was dragged alongside the car, official said.

A pedestrian killed by a car on Power Inn Road Friday night appears to have been a transient, Sacramento police said Saturday.

The woman, believed to be in her 30s or 40s, was pushing a shopping cart in the roadway.

The driver of the car that hit her reported seeing the cart, but not the woman, until it was too late to avoid her.

A woman came home Friday morning and found fires started in her home and some of her possessions stolen, Sacramento police reported.

The woman returned to her Leford Way home around 11 a.m. and smelled something burning, according to the police incident log.

She discovered the carpet was on fire and a fire had been set on her stove.

The Sacramento Sheriff's Department identified Marvin Barksdale, 22, as the gunman accused of leading the California Highway Patrol on a chase Friday, before holing up in an audio business.

Barksdale is a validated gang member, officials said.

The Sheriff's Department responded at 5:24 p.m. Friday to aid the CHP with a pursuit.

A driver trying to avoid a Sacramento police DUI checkpoint in north Sacramento on Friday night was hospitalized after he led police on a short chase and then caused an accident in an intersection, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said.

The driver, a male in his 40s, drove into the checkpoint at Marysville Boulevard and Harris Avenue late Friday and tried to back out when he realized it was a checkpoint, said Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. He then led officers on a short pursuit before pulling over at Marysville Boulevard and Grand Avenue.

As officers exited their car, the driver accelerated his vehicle through a red light and was T-boned by another vehicle in the intersection, Leong said. The driver, a parolee, was extricated from the vehicle and taken to the hospital with injuries believed to be non-life-threatening, Leong said.

Sacramento Police are investigating a collision on Power Inn Road near 14th Avenue in which a female pedestrian died.

Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said the pedestrian was crossing Power Inn in the middle of the block about 8:30 p.m. and the driver did not see her until the collision occurred. Leong said the driver stopped and alcohol does not appear to have been involved.

He said Power Inn Road is expected to remain closed in both directions until about 11:30 p.m.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies have arrested a man who holed up in an Arden Way business for nearly two hours this evening after fleeing from a California Highway Patrol Officer.

Sheriff's spokesman Officer Jason Ramos said that shortly before 5:30 p.m. a CHP officer attempted to stop a vehicle that was speeding and traveling in the wrong direction on Fulton Avenue near Hurley Way. At Fulton and Arden Way, the driver jumped out of the vehicle and took off running, and the officer saw that the man had a handgun.

The man also left his vehicle in gear, and it continued rolling after he got out, striking another vehicle.

The Sacramento Police Department is seeking the community's help in identifying a suspect in an assault that occurred Thursday night.

Police say the victim was running in the area of Broadgate Way and Westlake Parkway in the North Natomas area about 8:15 p.m. She saw the suspect playing basketball and then saw him approach her. The man knocked the victim to the ground and began choking her, according to a Police Department news release. The woman fought her attacker and was able to get free. The man then fled.

The suspect was described as Hispanic or Asian, with dark skin, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, wearing a black baseball cap, light-colored shirt and dark-colored baggy shorts.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Sacramento police have arrested a 48-year-old man in connection with a 1987 homicide in midtown, after cold case detectives and the Sacramento County Crime Lab were able to use DNA to identify a suspect, the Sacramento Police Department reported.

Gregory Samuel Olguin was arrested Friday morning in the 9100 block of Elk Grove Boulevard in Elk Grove, nearly 24 years after the killing of 52-year-old Richard Schultz near 21st and K streets, according to a police department news release.

At 9:39 p.m., on June 1, 1987, Sacramento police officers responded to a report of a subject lying in blood at 21st and K streets, the release states. Officers arrived on scene and located a male white adult who had been stabbed in the chest.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Prosecutors obtained a third conviction today in the Memorial Day 2008 gang killing of a north area man who was holding his baby in his arms just before he was pistol whipped and shot to death.

Hugo Torres, 22, pleaded no contest in Sacramento Superior Court to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in the May 26, 2008, shooting of 47-year-old Jose Guerrero.

The shooting took place in front of Guerrero's house at Lindley Drive and Edgewater Road in a neighborhood called the "The Flats."

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento jury today convicted a 33-year-old Carmichael man of gross vehicular manslaughter for the May 2, 2010, traffic wreck that killed a woman on westbound Interstate 80.

Jesse Kenneth Oran faces a 10-year maximum term at his scheduled June 3 sentencing in front of Superior Court Judge Gerrit W. Wood.

Authorities charged that Oran side-swiped a 1993 Mercedes driven by Tessa Canavarro, 22, in a case of road rage, sending her vehicle into the center guardrail and killing her instantly.

Sacramento Fire Department Station 19 will hold an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The station, at 1700 Challenge Way near Cal Expo, will be the first of the city's 21 fire stations to participate in the department's third annual open house series.

The open houses offer an opportunity for people in the community to talk with members of the department, tour the station, and get some life safety and fire prevention tips. Educational materials also will be available to take home.

Light refreshments will be provided by fire station personnel and the firefighters union, Local 522.

Sacramento police reported that a man got stuck up to his thighs in river mud and had to be rescued last night.

Sacramento Fire Department firefighters were the first to respond to the banks of the Sacramento River near Interstate 5 and Sutterville Road.

They found a 20-year-old man stuck mid-thigh in mud.

Hard looks apparently preceded a near-fatal shooting in south Sacramento County.

The violent confrontation occurred about 6 p.m. Thursday near 47th Avenue and Franklin Boulevard. Deputies responded to the area after calls were received by authorities regarding shots being fired.

Initial reports indicated that shots had been fired from one vehicle to another. About a half hour later, deputies went to a local hospital.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Billy James Ray of second-degree murder in the July 5 stabbing death of Troy Allan Wheeler.

The panel began deliberations Wednesday. Ray, 20, was charged with retrieving a steak knife and stabbing Wheeler during a pre-dawn altercation in the Hazel Avenue home of the defendant's uncle.

According to the prosecutor's trial brief, Wheeler, 39, and his girlfriend were staying at the uncle's house after the couple had been evicted from their own residence.

Ray, who also stayed at the house on occasion, got into an argument with his uncle around the time of the murder. Wheeler woke up during the argument and was killed when Ray directed his anger toward him, the jury found.

Ray, his uncle, Wheeler and Wheeler's girlfriend all had a history of methamphetamine abuse, according to the prosecutor's brief.

Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard scheduled Ray's sentencing for June 3.

Firefighters and sheriff's department personnel have determined the suspicious container found on the side of a road in north Sacramento near Elverta Road was not hazardous, a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District spokesman said.

Sac Metro Fire and Sacramento County Sheriff's Department personnel had responded Thursday afternoon to Cherry Brook Drive and Stetson Court, where a taped-shut Styrofoam ice chest was sitting along the road for an unknown reason, said Sac Metro Fire spokesman Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum.

A team from the Sheriff's Department Explosive Ordinance Bureau X-rayed the ice chest and determined it was not an explosive hazard, Cockrum said. A hazmat team then opened the chest and found no hazardous materials inside, he said.

Law enforcement personnel have cleared the scene.

A man has been sentenced to 67 years 4 months, plus 40 years to life, plus life without the possibility of parole for a series of shootings which occurred between February and March 2005, according to Jan Scully, Sacramento County district attorney.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena R. Gweon sentenced Roy Houston on Friday.

Houston was convicted by jury earlier this month for the February 2005 murder of Donald McCall and the attempted murders of Randall Hudson and Joseph McCoy. The jury also found the special circumstance of shooting from a vehicle, personal use of a firearm and gang enhancement to be true, Scully said.

A shooting in south Sacramento late Friday night left a child with minor injuries caused by flying debris, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said.

Police received multiple calls at 10:03 p.m. of shots heard in the 2500 block of 50th Avenue, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. Officers in the area on a DUI stop also heard the shots and responded to the block.

Officers found that a house had been shot into, and that a small child in the house had suffered minor injuries believed to be from debris caused by the bullets going through the wall, Leong said. The child, believed to be between 8 and 10 years old, was not hit by the gunfire and the injuries were reportedly superficial.

Police believe the shooting may have been gang-related, Leong said. Witnesses reported hearing a car leaving the area, but no car was seen.

A C.K. McClatchy High School employee has been placed on administrative leave while allegations of "misconduct" with a student are investigated, the Sacramento City Unified School District reported Friday.

School officials were informed Thursday evening that the employee had engaged in "inappropriate contact with a student," according to a school district release. They notified district officials, who placed the employee on leave and are now assisting Sacramento police in an investigation into the allegations, the release states.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said police are investigating "sexual allegations between a student and a teacher," and that the investigation is ongoing. No one has been arrested in connection with the allegations, Leong said.

Students were notified of the incident through a letter passed out Friday afternoon. Parents were notified via phone messages, and a staff meeting was held on campus.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A woman accused of drowning her 3-year-old daughter in a bathtub pleaded guilty to murder today in Sacramento Superior Court.

Anul Malik Ram, 32, is facing a term of 15 years to life in prison when she is sentenced May 20 by Judge Marjorie Koller.

Ram also entered a plea today of not guilty by reason of insanity. Under the terms of her dual plea, she still must serve at least 15 years, Deputy District Attorney Charles Gonzalez said, either in a state mental hospital or prison.

The Sacramento Police Department announced that it will use new surveillance cameras to help monitor large-scale events and specific areas within the city.

The Police Department was awarded $600,000 by the California Emergency Management Agency to purchase the equipment as part of Mayor Kevin Johnson's efforts to obtain additional funds for public safety, according to a news release.

The monies will be used to purchase:

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge today sentenced Pedro Alonso Meza to 68 years and four months in prison for the gang-related shooting death of Johnnie Brinsfield three years ago.

Jurors last month found Meza, 25, guilty of voluntary manslaughter for the May 5, 2008, killing of the 27-year-old Brinsfield outside a store in the 2300 block of Marconi Avenue.

Superior Court Judge Helena R. Gweon imposed the term on Meza, who also was convicted of three additional counts of attempted murder.

A co-defendant in the case, Luis Serrato, was acquitted of all charges.

An Oak Park man has been sentenced in Sacramento to more than 24 years in federal prison for drug trafficking.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia today sentenced Edward Mallory, 45, to 24 years and four months in prison for his conviction on two counts of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and two counts of possessing crack cocaine for distribution, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Mallory pleaded guilty on Feb. 11.

Between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 18, 2005, Mallory supplied large quantities of crack cocaine to a drug trafficker in and around Sacramento, according to court documents. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration made controlled purchases of crack cocaine from the drug trafficker on six occasions.

Jacob Risch, 19, is wanted by the Sacramento Police Department after he failed to complete conditions of his probation for a felony conviction of pointing a laser light at a California Highway Patrol airplane, according to court records and police reports.

Risch, left, pleaded no contest on Sept. 13 to a felony count of discharging a laser at an aircraft. Police said he hit the CHP plane with a green laser light six times from ground near the 100 block of Mike Gartrell Circle in North Natomas, police said.

Responding Sacramento police officers arrested Risch.

Risch was sentenced to 60 days on the sheriff's work project and five years probation, court records show. On Nov. 30, his probation was revoked for failure to complete the terms of his sentence, records show.

Sacramento police said a man was arrested after he caused a disturbance at the city pound in an effort to get his dog back.

Police said they initially arrested Timothy Parkinson, 38, for having an open alcoholic container and warrants. His dog was taken by animal control for safekeeping.

Parkinson later showed up at the Sacramento City Animal Care Services, 2127 Front St., looking for his dog.

A suspected robber was apprehended this morning, in part thanks to the help of a man delivering The Bee to a midtown gas station, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Police said a man entered the AM-PM gas station, 2225 16th Street, and pretended he had a weapon under his shirt during a hold-up at about 3:30 a.m. The suspect then ran with money from the station.

The clerk yelled that he had been robbed, which was overheard by a man delivering newspapers to the business, police said. The Bee delivery man and his relative chased after the suspect in their vehicle, eventually catching up with him nearby.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department homicide detectives have arrested a 57-year-old homeless man in connection with the January shooting death of a woman in south Sacramento, according to a department news release.

Teng Thao, 57, left, was taken into custody Wednesday near 37th Street and 41st Avenue -- just blocks from where Jennifer Cha, 25, was found shot to death in the early morning of Jan. 9, according to the release.

Sacramento police are searching for the occupants of a car that sideswiped a north Sacramento home tonight, severing a gas main and water line, a police spokesman said.

Police responded at 9:17 p.m., to reports of a car running into the house in 900 block of Alamos Avenue near Rio Linda Boulevard, Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said. They found the car, a white Chevrolet Monte Carlo, but the occupants of the vehicle had fled, Leong said.

Responding Sacramento firefighters shut off the gas main, Leong said.

There were no injuries reported and surrounding areas were not evacuated.

The Sacramento Police Department has announced an option for families seeking to protect loved ones who are in danger of becoming lost due to cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's, dementia or autism.

The department has partnered with EmFinders, which provides a service using the EmSeeQ wearable locator system to quickly locate individuals who are prone to wandering due to cognitive disorders. EmSeeQ can track the location of a missing person anywhere in the United States where cellular service coverage exists, according to a police department news release.

The wearable watch-like device uses the nationwide U-TDOA cellular technology to determine the location of the person wearing the device, enabling rescuers to quickly find the individual.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The lawyer for the accused gunman in a fatal 2006 Land Park pot robbery where a teenager was shot to death argued today that prosecutors did not prove their case against his client.

Defense attorney C. Emmett Mahle said that the case against Alex Brown Jr. fell short because five of the key prosecution witnesses all had "agendas" that undermined their credibility.

Mahle mostly targeted witness Sophia Garduno in his argument. In her testimony, Garduno identified Brown, 34, as the gunman in the Jan. 3, 2006, shooting death of James Ramirez, 18, inside his parents' Land Park home.

A Sacramento man who killed his girlfriend in 1995 after charges were dropped over him attempting to stab her previously is due a parole hearing.

Ajani Abdel Wahid Imarogbe, now 61, is serving 15 years to life for the murder of Leslie Watson, 33, inside her I Street apartment, The Bee reported.

Imarogbe walked into the Sacramento County Jail on Nov. 30, 1995, and told deputies he had killed his girlfriend three days ago and stabbed himself.

Q: My friend Linza Johnson was murdered by her husband approximately nine years ago. Is he still in prison and will he ever be released? - Bev, Sacramento

A: George Edward Johnson Sr., now 69, is in prison, serving 78 years to life for killing Johnson on Dec. 12, 1996, Bee reports and records show.

He could become eligible for parole in about 20 years. He is incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

Sacramento Police Department SWAT officers have served a search warrant on a Natomas residence at the request of a neighboring agency.

SWAT officers made entry to a residence on Daggett Way near Natomas Boulevard and West Elkhorn Boulevard about 7:30 a.m.

Elk Grove police said they are looking for a person connected to an ongoing criminal investigation but would not provide any more detail.

Sacramento police said today that have arrested a suspected Natomas burglar with the help of home surveillance footage.

The suspect's image, left, was captured by a home surveillance camera when he allegedly attempted to burglarize a home near Natomas Boulevard and Club Center Drive on the afternoon of Dec. 20, 2010, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release.

The suspect is believed to have knocked on the front door of the home and, when there was no answer, gone around to the back of the home and attempted to force entry, police reported. He then fled when the alarm activated.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court judge found the Sheriff's Department negligent for a 2008 attack where two pit bulls bit a motel janitor while deputies were serving a search warrant for the dogs' owners.

The jury awarded Miguel Gutierrez $974,000 in damages, including $850,000 for pain and suffering.

But the jury found the Sheriff's Department found only liable for 20 percent of Gutierrez's injuries from the attack - about $170,000 of the pain and suffering award. The county did not contest Gutierrez's nearly $125,000 in medical bills.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Sacramento area law enforcement agencies are partnering with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to combat prescription drug abuse on Saturday by giving people a venue to dispose of unwanted or old prescription pills.

There are more than 30 free and anonymous drop-off sites planned in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., for the second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

About seven million Americans used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes in 2009, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Closing arguments got under way today in the murder trial of three defendants accused in the Jan. 3, 2006, shooting death of a teenager in the doorway of his parents' Land Park home.

"Let's say it like it is," Deputy District Attorney Sean Laird told the jury, then turning to Alex Brown Jr., Terry Larell Alexander and David Jacob Carrera and saying, "The evidence in this case revealed these three men to be monsters."

Brown, 34, Carrera, 33, and Alexander, 26, are accused of killing James Ramirez, 18, in a failed attempt to rob the victim of either marijuana or money.

A Mexican national who had been deported nine times pleaded guilty to illegal re-entry to the United States Monday, according to the federal attorney in Sacramento.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said that Humberto Moran-Torres, 42, of Mexico, pleaded guilty in mid-trial.

Moran-Torres had been deported from the United States on nine prior occasions, according to court records. He also had prior convictions for possession of heroin for sale and second degree assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.

Sheriff's deputies have called off their search for a man believed to have attempted an armed robbery at a home in a south Sacramento neighborhood Tuesday morning.

Deputies responded to the 4300 block of Greenwich Circle near Highway 99 at about 4:30 a.m., after a resident reported that a man had tried to rob him at gunpoint, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

The resident said he had been in his garage when he was confronted by a man wearing dark clothing and brandishing a firearm, Ramos said. The resident ran inside his home and called law enforcement.

A 56-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with a fire this morning that damaged the Crestwood Manor psychiatric facility.

Wendy Vergeson, an occupant of the facility, was arrested a few hours after the fire on suspicion of arson and is being held in Sacramento County Jail, a Sacramento Fire Department news release states.

The fire broke out at 7:25 a.m. at the psychiatric facility at 2600 Stockton Blvd. It was contained to one room due to activation of the fire sprinkler system and fast action by firefighters, fire officials said.

Sacramento police arrested a 20-year-old woman Sunday who was pushing her infant child in a stroller when she allegedly got into an argument with another person, brandished a gun and turned her pit bull on that person, according to police department activity logs.

Alissa Clark, 20, left, was pushing the stroller and walking her dog in the 3700 block of Astoria Street in the north area when she started arguing with the victim, police reported. Clark allegedly pulled a gun and then ordered her dog to attack the victim, who suffered bite wounds to the upper thigh, police reported.

The dog did not puncture the victim's skin, said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Former real estate executive Michael Lyon will have to do time in jail rather than serve a year of home confinement following his guilty plea last month to four felony counts.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said today he had rejected Lyon's application to serve his sentence under home arrest with an electronic monitoring device attached to his ankle. Lyon and his attorney had expected routine approval of the request, which would have allowed Lyon to go to work each day and to conduct visits with doctors and run other errands.

"The facts of his offense caused me grave concerns," Jones said, adding that he had received letters from alleged Lyon victims urging him to order Lyon to jail. Jones said the fact that Lyon's crimes occurred in his home -- and that one of them occurred after Lyon knew he was under investigation -- played into his decision. He also said the fact that Lyon's behavior allegedly went back decades and involved numerous victims was a factor.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The attorney for a 57-year-old Motel 6 janitor asked jurors today to award his client $1.1 million in pain-and-suffering damages in a lawsuit filed against Sacramento County as a result of a pit bull attack the man suffered three years ago.

Miguel Gutierrez was making his rounds at the motel on College Town Drive and Howe Avenue when four sheriff's detectives who were arresting two strong-armed robbery suspects knocked on a door and the two dogs bolted outside and tore into the janitor.

Gutierrez suffered serious injuries to his left arm and left hand. The detectives saved him from further injuries in the attack by shooting and killing one of the dogs.

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced today that it will not file charges against two people who allegedly were involved in an assault on a Fox 40 news crew outside a Natomas International House of Pancakes restaurant in late February.

The altercation occurred on the afternoon of Feb. 20 outside the restaurant in the 2900 block of Advantage Lane. Mourners had gathered for a vigil for 27-year-old Chester Jackson, who had been shot to death in the parking lot of the restaurant about 13 hours earlier.

According to a District Attorney's Office release, media members who approached the mourners were told mourners did not want to be interviewed or filmed. Those media crews remained on scene at a distance.

Sacramento Fire Department crews have contained a two-alarm fire that broke out this morning at a mental health care facility near the UC Davis Medical Center, a fire department spokesman said.

Fire crews responded shortly before 7:45 a.m., to the Crestwood Center in the 2600 block of Stockton Boulevard, said spokesman Capt. Jon Burgess.

They located fire in one of the facility's rooms, Burgess said. The building's sprinkler system had held the fire in check, allowing firefighters to get inside and extinguish the flames, he said.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has identified the 20-year-old man who was gunned down at a Foothill Farms apartment complex Friday evening.

Alex E. Toliver, 20, of Citrus Heights, was found by Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputies who responded at about 8:30 p.m., to a call of shots fired and a man down at the Logan Park apartments in the 4100 block of Palm Avenue.

Paramedics responded and pronounced Toliver dead at the scene, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Investigators were trying to determine why Toliver was at the complex and did not provide a suspect description Friday evening. No new information has been released.

A man stabbed to death last week at a Stockton Boulevard apartment complex has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Victor Vincent Cepeda, 41, of Sacramento.

Cepeda was allegedly stabbed by a juvenile family member last Tuesday following an argument at the apartment complex in the 7300 block of Stockton Boulevard, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported.

Deputies found medical personal tending to Cepeda after arriving at the complex at about 10 p.m. He had been stabbed several times in the chest and other parts of his body, according to a sheriff's department release.

An unidentified man was shot in the arm during a conflict at 40th Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard in south Sacramento shortly before 2 p.m. today, Sacramento County Sheriff's officials said.

Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said a man reported to be the shooter was then severely beaten by other people at the scene.

Both men were taken to area hospitals.

A stolen Sacramento Fire Department vehicle was recovered by Sheriff's deputies today before it was even reported missing, officials said.

A resident of Berkshire Way in the Arden area called at 11:25 a.m. to report that the yellow utility truck with Sacramento Fire Department markings was parked on the street with a known drug dealer going in and out of it.

"It's not a fire truck used to fight fires," noted Deputy Jason Ramos, Sheriff's Department spokesman.

San Francisco police have arrested a suspect in the April 14 shooting death of Francisco Flores in Sacramento, local police officials reported today.

Based on information from the Career Criminal Apprehension Team, Vincent Rivera (photo below, left), 25, was located and taken into custody today.

No further details on the arrest were available.

Two children were placed into protective custody after their parents were arrested in Sacramento on suspicion of sexual abuse.

Officials at a Solano County correctional facility contacted Sacramento Police Department after an inmate received a photo that showed an adult male doing something sexually inappropriate with a child in the presence of another child.

Officials identified an address on Bonfield Way in the Robla area as the source of the photos.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

A man in his early 20s was shot to death in the parking lot of a Foothill Farms apartment complex Friday night, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

At about 8:30 p.m., sheriff's deputies were called to the Logan Park apartments in the 4100 block of Palm Avenue, by a resident who reported hearing multiple shots and seeing a man lying motionless on the ground, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

When deputies arrived at the complex, northeast of Watt and Madison avenues, they located a man with a gunshot wound to the head, Ramos said. Paramedics responded and pronounced him dead at the scene.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A former state correctional officer who took bribes from inmates to smuggle cell phones into California State Prison, Sacramento, admitted his guilt today to a single felony conspiracy count.

Terry Ray Lane, 25, was immediately sentenced by Superior Court Judge Gary E. Ransom to 45 days in jail and three years probation, court officials said.

Along with jail and probation, the judge also fined Lane $5,700. Sacramento prosecutors said in a news release it was the same amount of cash he received from the inmates at the maximum security prison to bring the cell phones inside.

Inmates have increasingly gained access to cell phones inside California prisons in recent years. Authorities have blamed correctional officers and non-sworn staff for much of the problem that they say is a serious security threat in the prisons.

The Sacramento Police Department will conduct a DUI/ driver's license checkpoint on Saturday at Truxel Road and Pebblewood Drive.

The operation will at 8:30 p.m. and run for five to seven hours, according to a Police Department news release.

Office will check for alcohol and/or drug-impaired drivers. Officers will also check driver's licenses.

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

Q: Has anyone been caught in the slaying 18-year-old Emanuel Michel a couple of years ago? - E.M. and LisaLisa

A: The slaying is unsolved. A $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Michel's killer or killers is outstanding.

Michel, left, was gunned down the morning of Oct. 18, 2008 at a home in the 2100 block of 57th Avenue in Sacramento, The Bee reported.

He had gathered with friends, according to Sacramento police, when a group of uninvited people showed up.

After being asked to leave, the uninvited group fired gunshots at the house as they fled.

Police have said that the uninvited group shouted gang affiliations, though detectives do not believe Michel or his friends had gang ties.

Anyone with information about Michel's killing is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP.

For a complete list of questions answered by Sacto911, click here

Those who say that God moves in mysterious ways need look no further than Our Lady of Guadalupe church this morning.

That's where a parishioner, shortly bound for seminary, was robbed on Good Friday of $2,000 - money he wanted to give to a friend for a much-needed car.

Then, a couple hours after the hold-up, a stranger showed up at the Southside Park church with $2,000 for the robbery victim so that his plan to help a friend could still be realized.

A 13-year-old male was hospitalized Thursday evening after being found with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound in south Sacramento, a Sacramento County Sheriff's spokesman said.

At about 6:10 p.m., a woman in the 7600 block of Loucreta Avenue reported that a teenager had showed up at her door with a gunshot wound to his chest, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Deputies responded and found the wound was actually in the teenager's shoulder, Ramos said. The victim was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

A man who died after being shot early Sunday morning at a south Sacramento nightclub has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office as Jesse D. Fowler, 29, of Elk Grove.

The shooting occurred about 1:20 a.m. at Warners Rendezvous nightclub in the 7100 block of Governors Circle, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. Deputies found Fowler with a gunshot wound to the head and up to 150 people at the scene. Fowler was taken to a hospital where he died later in the day.

A second victim, who suffered non-life-threatening wounds, arrived at a hospital later Sunday and told authorities he and his vehicle had been fired upon.

Q: Have there been any developments in the disappearance of that Sacramento restaurant owner about 12 years ago? Anonymous, Sacramento

A: No developments have been reported in the disappearance of Henry Moreno.

In August 1998, Henry Moreno, 46, was on the brink of opening his dream restaurant on the Sacramento River. He was seen at Home Depot on Aug. 6, and at a local cafe he frequented. Then he vanished, The Bee reported.

His disappearance is a mystery in every sense of the word. There have been no bank account or credit card charges, no cell phone activity. His car, a 1997 white Nissan Pathfinder with a California license plate of 3VLP084, has never been found.

His restaurant was foreclosed on and sold.

For a complete list of questions answered by Sacto911, click here

The name of the man killed in a bloody knifing outside a pot dispensary in South Sacramento on Wednesday has been released this morning by the Sacramento County Coroner.

The man was identified as Jesus A. Galvan-Mendoza, 24, of Sacramento.

Galvan-Mendoza was one of three victims stabbed outside the R&R Wellness Center on Quinta Court near Stockton Boulevard. Two of the victims went by private vehicle to a local hospital, including Galvan-Mendoza, who was pronounced dead at 12:04 p.m.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

Four people were shot late Wednesday in a south Sacramento neighborhood, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Police responded about 10:30 p.m. to a call of multiple shooting victims in the 7700 block of 51st Avenue.

The four male victims -- in their late teens and early 20s -- were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said.

Sacramento police are asking for the public's help in locating two suspects in a fatal south Natomas shooting that left a 19-year-old man dead last week.

Police are searching for Vincent Rivera, 25, bottom left, and Fred Huante, 19, bottom right, according to a police department release. Rivera is described as a male black adult, 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, with shaved black hair and brown eyes. Huante is described as a male white adult, 5-foot-8, 120 pounds, with shaved brown hair and green eyes.

They are wanted in connection with an April 14 shooting in a parking lot at Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road that left Francisco Flores, 19, dead, and his 20-year-old brother with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to the release.

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police now believe a stabbing outside a medical marijuana dispensary this morning may have been gang-related, said Sgt. Norm Leong, police spokesman.

Rival groups may have run into each other in the dispensary and then got into a fight outside.

Police said several people were stabbed, one fatally, outside a medicinal marijuana dispensary on Quinta Court near Stockton Boulevard in south Sacramento at about 11:45 a.m. today.

Sacramento police have arrested two suspects, including an 11-year-old girl, after an attempted home invasion robbery in the Valley Hi area.

The incident began around 1 p.m. Tuesday when four juveniles knocked on the door of a home in the 6500 block of Valley Hi Drive, according to information from the Sacramento Police Department.

When a 16-year-old answered, the juveniles demanded her cell phone.

U.S. Coast Guard and Sacramento County Sheriff's Department crews are on scene near a houseboat that ran aground this morning at the 47 and 49 marker buoys in the San Joaquin River.

No one was injured and there is no pollution threat, according to a Coast Guard news release.

The houseboat was being towed from Sacramento to Helen's Marina when it ran aground early Sunday morning near Webb's Tract.

At the time, it did not pose a navigation hazard, and the owner stated that he would hire a commercial towing company to move the tug and houseboat, officials said.

Federal security personnel found a loaded handgun in the carry-on bag of a passenger on Monday at Sacramento International Airport, official said.

A Transportation Security Administration officer discovered the pistol about 3:45 p.m. Monday at an airport checkpoint.

The weapon was described as a .38 caliber pistol. A "speed loader" with five rounds of ammunition was also found in the bag.

A man was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after being shot in the hand and buttocks at a south Sacramento apartment complex, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the complex in the 6500 block of 47th Street just after 4:42 p.m., after the apartment's manager reported hearing six or seven gunshots, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Deputies located a man suffering from gunshot wounds, who said he had been working on his car in the complex parking lot when two men approached him and started shooting, Ramos said. Paramedics responded and transported the victim, a Sacramento man in his early 20s, to a local hospital, Ramos said.

The suspects, described as two black male adults, one wearing a black jacket and the other wearing a white jacket, may have fled in a red four-door vehicle, Ramos said.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento jury today returned a first-degree murder conviction against a man who stabbed a friend of his to death last year.

The verdict came back against William Michael Todd Jr., 37, for the May 31 death of David Paul Endres, 44, in an apartment in the 3200 block of Azevedo Drive.

Todd stabbed Endres twice, including once in the heart, after Endres looked at the defendant's wife, according to Deputy District Attorney Charles Gonzalez.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Three people were killed in Sacramento on Sunday in a rash of violence.

A hail of bullets outside a bar, a fight settled with a knife and gunfire at a house party resulted in three men dying in three different neighborhoods, law enforcement authorities reported. Homicide detectives continued to search for suspects and coroner's deputies were kept busy notifying relatives of the dead this morning.

The most recent death occurred Sunday night about 8 p.m. when an 18-year-old man was knifed in the neck outside a home in the 4600 block of Galbrath Drive in North Highlands. He was identified by coroner's deputies as Vladimer Y. Korets.

By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com

The Sacramento Police Department has arrested a suspect in connection with shooting five people - one of whom died - at a party in Del Paso Heights early Sunday.

Police said their investigation identified the shooter as 23-year-old Michael Walton, who was arrested at 8:20 p.m., in the 2500 block of Cottage Way. Officers said they stopped a vehicle in which Walton was a passenger and arrested him.

Police responded to the 3800 block of Fig Street about 3:30 a.m. and found two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were taken to the hospital, where one man in his 30s died, according to the police report.

By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com

An 18-year-old man has died from a stab wound sustained Sunday night in North Highlands, according Sacramento County Sheriff's Department officials.

The victim was found with a wound in the neck shortly before 8 p.m. in the 4600 block of Galbrath Drive.

Investigators said a suspect in the stabbing also sustained an injury and was hospitalized Sunday night. The suspect was identified as a male who is "a similar age as the victim."

Five people were shot at a party at Del Paso Heights early today, and one died from his injuries, the Sacramento Police Department reported.

Police responded to the 3800 block of Fig Street about 3:30 a.m. and found two victims suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the report. Both were taken to the hospital, where one man in his 30s died, according to the report.

Three other victims took themselves to the hospital.

A piano teacher who provided piano and music lessons to about 150 students in the south Sacramento area over the last five years has been arrested for investigation of molesting a 9-year-old music student, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reported.

The piano teacher, 41-year-old Hao "Henry" Nguyen, was booked into the Sacramento County jail Saturday and was held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

He was held for investigation of committing a lewd act with a child and sexual assault, according to Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

A Sacramento parolee, 27-year-old Jose Martinez, was taken into custody early today for investigation of possessing a firearm, discharging it at an occupied vehicle and drug possession, the Sacramento Sheriff's Department reported.

Sheriff's authorities said they were called to an apartment complex in the 1200 block of Fulton Avenue shortly after 1 a.m. following a citizen's complaint of shots being fired at a sports utility vehicle.

The caller told deputies that the shooter had gone into an apartment unit inside the complex after the shooting, according to Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

A man was killed, another injured when gunfire erupted outside a south Sacramento nightclub, sheriff's deputies said.

Deputies arrived at the Warners Rendezvous nightclub in the 7100 block of Governors Circle about 1:20 a.m. Sunday after receiving a call of shots fired in the area, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said.

Outside the bar, deputies found one man on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head and a crowd of up to 150 at the scene, Ramos said. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died later in the day.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 33-year-old man for investigation of kidnapping, assault with intent to commit rape and other charges in connection with a home invasion assault Saturday on an elderly victim in her south Sacramento home.

Renell Thorpe, who was on parole in another case, was being held today in lieu of more than $1 million bail after his arrest about 4:40 p.m. Saturday, Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos reported.

Authorities received a first call in the case shortly before 11 a.m. when the woman said a man had come into her home, restrained her and sexually assaulted her. She told police he then spent time in her home trying on some of her clothes before fleeing.

A man gunned down Friday night at an Arden-Arcade apartment complex has been identified by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department as 21-year-old David Neider.

Department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said Saturday that Neider is in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital and has not been able to give detectives a full acount of the incident.

"They shot him five times, so they obviously want him dead," said Ramos, in explaining why the department does not want Neider's location known.

Thus far, Ramos said, detectives have no information regarding what led up to the shooting. He said witnesses saw two individuals running away from the scene after the shooting. Both were wearing hoodies, and there are conflicting statements about their gender, he said.

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

A man has been hospitalized after being shot multiple times at an Arden-Arcade apartment complex, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

The sheriff's department received a call at 10:12 p.m., from a person who reported hearing about six gunshots and a man screaming that he had been shot, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

Deputies responded and located a man with multiple gunshot wounds, Ramos said. He was transported to a local hospital, and was conscious and breathing when transported. However, his condition was not known, Ramos said.

Witnesses said they saw two people running from the scene, but gave conflicting descriptions of those people, Ramos said. Deputies are canvassing the area looking for other potential witnesses.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has identified the 19-year-old man who was shot to death in a south Natomas parking lot Thursday afternoon.

He was identified as Francisco Flores, 19, of Sacramento, according to the coroner's website.

The shooting, which occurred in the parking lot of a small shopping center at Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road at about 4:45 p.m., also left Flores' 20-year-old brother with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, police said.

A man who kidnapped a couple in a Del Paso Boulevard parking lot has been sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced today that Jeffrey Elder, 27, was sentenced by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen H. Summer.

In March, Elder was convicted by a jury of kidnap for robbery, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and inflicting great bodily injury.

On Dec. 18, 2009, Elder waited in a parking lot on Del Paso Boulevard as the two victims, who were husband and wife, got out of their van and entered a check cashing business. Elder then climbed into their unlocked van and hid.

A man who shot a Contra Costa County probation officer as she was driving home from work has been sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.

Alfonso Valeriano-Delacruz, 44, was convicted by a Sacramento Superior Court jury of seven felony counts, including discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon or firearm, causing great bodily injury to a peace officer and evading a police office by driving in a reckless manner, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney's Office news release. He was sentenced by Judge Allen H. Sumner.

In September 2009, Valeriano-Delacruz had been drinking and stocked his car with alcohol, a loaded 22-caliber rifle and additional magazines. He then went driving in search of a random victim on whom to take out his aggressions, officials said.

Jurors deliberated for barely a day before they convicted David Scott Denson of first-degree murder today for the April 10, 2009, north area shooting death of Dusty Rose Vasquez.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McCormick's scheduled Denson's sentencing for May 20.

Police and prosecutors said Denson, 32, was angry that his girlfriend had sex with another man and that he went over to the man's house with the intent to shoot him. Vasquez, the man's sister, greeted Denson at the door, and he then shot her in the face.

The jury also found Denson guilty of attempted murder for shooting the brother as well as Vasquez' mother, all of whom were at the Del Paso Road residence where the shooting took place.

-Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Two separate Sacramento juries returned second-degree murder convictions today against two men in the shooting deaths of two other men two years ago in the Seavey Circle housing project.

Michael Lee Armstrong, 23, and Philip Perez Gonzales Jr., 27, are scheduled for a May 27 sentencing for the July 21, 2009, killings of Everett Antonio Taylor, 28, and Deshawn Dante Holloway, 35.

Evidence in the Sacramento Superior Court trial showed that the two defendants shot the victims at the urging of Taylor's girlfriend, Priscilla Ramirez, 21. Ramirez told the men Taylor had raped her, an accusation that the prosecution in the case termed a lie.

Ramirez is scheduled for a May 9 trial in front of Judge Steve White.

-By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A man accused of the 1981 first-degree murder of a blind, deaf 88-year-old Sacramento woman has pleaded guilty to the crime.

Leroy Veal, 60, admitted killing Pauline Colombatto and to three special circumstances allegations that the crime occurred during the commission of burglary, attempted robbery and rape, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced today.

In exchange for the plea to these offenses and a waiver of appellate rights, the District Attorney's Office agreed not to pursue the death penalty, but to instead have Veal sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A Sacramento judge today sentenced Michael Bruce Weisz to four years in state prison for his hit-and-run conviction last month in a nightclub parking lot traffic collision that killed a security guard.

Weisz, 24, had been charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 23, 2009, death of Leroy Berry Fisher III, but a jury acquitted him of manslaughter as well as the murder charge.

Superior Court Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard also sentenced Weisz to a concurrent six-month term for a drunken driving arrest he picked up while he was out on bail in the murder case.

Sacramento police have closed Stockton Boulevard from Fruitridge Road to Lawrence Drive because of a gas leak in the area, authorities said.

The road is expected to be closed until as late as 6 p.m. Drivers are being advised to avoid the area in the meantime.

Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said Pacific Gas & Electric crews were doing work in front of a Stockton Boulevard strip mall when they struck a gas line, creating a leak.

One of two Monk Mobb gang members today received four 25-to-life prison terms, plus an additional 45 years, for the Halloween Night 2008 shooting death of party host Patrick Razaghzadeh.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall imposed the sentence on 21-year-old Elijah Rasean Fields, who crashed the party with other gang members.

A jury last month convicted Fields of murder and three counts of attempted murder for the killing of Razaghzadeh, 24, and injuring three of his friends at the Halloween party on Rogue River Drive in the Larchmont-La Riviera area.

Q: Several years ago a man died in an altercation having to do with a road rage incident at Arco Arena after a Kings game. Was anyone ever arrested in this case and if so what was the outcome? - mkline2408, Roseville

A: Mark Leidheisl died after a fight following a Sacramento Kings game on April 20, 2005, but the Sacramento County District Attorney declined to file charges against the two men he fought, The Bee reported.

Prosecutors said Leidheisl, 39, was drunk and possibly under the influence of opiates,

Leidheisl, a bank senior vice president, first attacked one man and then another before being punched in the face, according to the statement from Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully. That blow sent him to the pavement, where his head slammed against the asphalt. He died two days later of a severe brain injury.

The man killed Thursday in a traffic collision in southern Sacramento County has been identified as Jesse Rene Venegas, 25, of Elk Grove.

The Sacramento County coroner this morning released the identification.

The crash happened on Gerber Road west of Power Inn Road.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District interim Fire Chief Kurt Henke has been appointed to the position full-time, the district's Board of Directors announced late Thursday night.

Henke had served as interim Fire Chief since the April 1 departure of former Chief William B. Sponable, according to a district release. Sac Metro Fire officials announced on March 11 that the agency would be severing ties with Sponable.

Henke was hired as Deputy Chief of Operations for Sac Metro Fire on Oct. 1, 2009, according to the release. Prior to that, he held the position of Assistant Fire Chief, and manager to the Suppression and Fire Prevention divisions, for the City of Vallejo Fire Department.

A 25-year-old man was killed this evening and four other people were injured in a traffic collision on Gerber Road, east of Palmer House Drive.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer Michael Bradley said the crash occurred about 8:15 p.m. The 25-year-old man was driving an Acura and coming out of the Save Mart parking lot onto Gerber Road at a high rate of speed when his vehicle was broadsided by a Chevy truck that was eastbound on Gerber.

Bradley said the driver of the Acura, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene. The three passengers in his vehicle were identified as the man's nephews, who were age 15 and younger. Bradley said they were taken to UC Davis Medical Center with minor to moderate injuries.

The driver of the truck was taken to Kaiser South Medical Center with unknown injuries.

By Matt Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com

One man died and his older brother was taken to the hospital following a shooting this afternoon in a small shopping center at Northgate Boulevard and San Juan Road in south Natomas, according to Sacramento police.

Police responded about 4:45 p.m. and found two men -- a 20 year old and his 19-year-old brother shot at the strip center

The 19-year-old man man was pronounced dead at the scene, while his 20-year-old brother was taken to a local hospital. The extent of his injuries was unknown at 6 p.m.

A Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy shot a pit bull that was charging at him this morning near a north Sacramento homeless camp, according to a sheriff's department release. The dog is expected to survive.

The incident occurred at about 10:15 a.m., outside a homeless camp near the Camp Pollock area at Del Paso Boulevard and Northgate Boulevard, the department reported.

The deputy, a five-year veteran of the department assigned to the Sheriff's Work Project detail, was supervising a group of inmates who were cleaning up homeless and transient camps in the area, according to the release. The deputy was preparing to check a camp for the presence of illegal campers prior to bringing inmates into the area, when he was confronted by the pit bull.

Sacramento County Sheriff's detectives arrested today the sixth and final suspect in the south Sacramento barbershop shootout that left two people dead last December, according to a sheriff's department news release.

Larry Dean Jones, Jr., 29, was taken into custody today at about 1:30 p.m. without incident, in Sacramento County, according to the release. (Photo at left is a jail booking from a prior arrest of Jones.)

Detectives from the Sheriff's Major Crimes Bureau and Gang Suppression Unit arrested Jones without incident at a residence in the county, the release states.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

The Sacramento County grand jury and District Attorney Jan Scully have launched a probe of plans by Isleton to allow a massive medical marijuana growing operation to open in the small Delta town, The Bee has learned.

Isleton officials - from the city council to the police chief - were served with subpoenas issued Wednesday night and have been told to appear before the grand jury as witnesses starting April 27.

The officials said they know little about the investigation other than it is apparently aimed at the city's deal with Delta Allied Growers, which plans to open a 4,000-square-foot cannabis growing operation in Isleton and has agreed to pay 3 percent of its proceeds - or at least $25,000 a month - to city coffers.

Burglars struck a longtime family-owned jewelry store in downtown Sacramento early this morning.

The thieves smashed the front door of the Grebitus & Sons store at 10th and L streets with rocks about 2 a.m., a store spokesman said.

While the glass did not completely break, the burglars were able to get the door off the hinges.