Executions back on?

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sent out a notice to media today, asking who wants to apply for one of 17 positions to witness the scheduled execution of Albert Greenwood Brown Jr., condemned in Riverside County. Despite contentions still very much up in the air, Corrections is moving ahead as though his execution will take place on Sept. 29.

I’ve been accused in the tweet-O-sphere of treating this “like they’re giving away tickets to a matinee…”

Please, no. Not at all.

Posted in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, death penalty | Tagged , | 0 Comments

Without fail

And I don’t blame them. Every time I file a Michael Angelo Morales story, like this one today,  I receive a call or an e-mail. It was an e-mail today.

Could you please take into consideration of all the people who knew and loved Terri Lynn Winchell! Stop putting his picture into the paper!!!!!!!!!! Do you not think that he and his attorneys want this!

It is bad enough that he murdered a very special person. When she would sing in the Church, you knew God made her special. I never saw her angry, and this man raped and murdered her just because his cousin asked him too! He was evil then, and he is even more so now. So please stop putting his ugly face in the paper, it hurts a lot of people who had ever met this special girl!!!!

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Of late

Of gang cases, this is a new and horrible one I’m tracking down these days. Seven alleged gang members – five of them juveniles to be tried as adults – are charged with murdering a fellow gang member. Recently, a search warrant surfaced, explaining that Stockton police believe 14-year-old Rin Ros was beaten and stomped to death in a rite of passage called a “stomp out.” In other words, gangs don’t take it lightly when you try to leave their ranks.

That story broke in Tuesday’s paper, the same day DDA Tori Verber walked out of a further preliminary hearing for the seven accused killers and pronounced that there needs to be more gang prevention to prevent this “very perilous situation right now.” Hard to argue with that.

What to look for next: I’ve filed a follow for the weekend on Percy Camel’s case. He underwent a preliminary hearing in June. That caught my eye because prosecutors put on testimony from an anonymous, unseen key witness via detectives. That’s becoming an issue again. We’ve also got an interesting Lodi dog-bite story, which I think will make a splash.

Posted in San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, San Joaquin County Superior Court | 0 Comments

Booking mugs

Leesa Ward

Leesa Ward

Alison Jensen

Alison Jensen

Since the story on Ward Real Estate ran, I’ve talked to a couple of people who knew these two. Court records have yet to be made public giving a glimpse into where all the money went, but word is that they lived large for a while.

Posted in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, San Joaquin County Superior Court | 0 Comments

Sound bite

Following Tuesday’s arraignment of six teens charged with stomping to death a 14-year-old, San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Tori Verber gave a briefing to me and other reporters. Listen here.

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Ward Real Estate follow

A call came in this morning from Tracy attorney John Doherty. It was a bit late to get his insights into today’s story on the indictments of Leesa Ward and her former colleague, Alison Jensen. Doherty represented several plaintiffs who sued Ward Real Estate more than two years ago, accusing them of an “elaborate pyramid scheme” in the guise of a lucrative house flipping investment deal.

What confused me yesterday was what happened to those civil lawsuits against Ward. They each trailed off with no apparent resolution. My answer came today with Doherty’s call. It is pretty obvious. He explained that with no real chance of winning their investments back, they had no recourse in court. Doherty said that back when he received many more calls from people wishing to sue than the three or five he filed. He turned them away, saying in short that it wasn’t worth it. They would be out another few hundred in court filing fees.

He compared Ward’s alleged scheme to the one perpetrated by New Yorker Bernard Madoff, who collected money from new investors to pay old investors. Once the market slowed down and money became tight, people stopped receiving payment and started getting mad.

“Her getting indicted is good news for me,” Doherty said. He added that it also does him no good, because there is still no money waiting for his former clients.

Posted in San Joaquin County Superior Court | Tagged , | 0 Comments

Galgiani letter re Herzog

State Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani sent this letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an undying bid to keep Loren Herzog from being paroled. In it, she quotes a Lodi News-Sentinel story by Layla Bohm, who drilled down into the mathematics of Herzog’s sentencing error that tacked on more time to his sentence. I call it math but it may in fact be algebra or some type of CDCR trigonometry.

Posted in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, San Joaquin County Public Defender's Office, San Joaquin County Superior Court | Tagged , , , , | 0 Comments

Columbus Allen Jr. II in prison

Columbus Allen DVIStockton man Columbus Allen Jr. II has been booked into Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy. On Monday he pleaded guilty to murdering CHP Officer Earl Scott — saying, “I shot Officer Scott with the intent to kill.” In the plea deal, prosecutors said they wouldn’t seek a death sentence if Allen admitted guilt to all charges and agreed to life without the possibility of parole. This mean’s he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. Where’s his shirt?

Posted in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Deuel Vocational Institution | 0 Comments

Live chat today at noon – Herzog

Herzog T38513Join me today at lunchtime for a live online chat about Loren Herzog and his controversial release. This story continues to supply emotional twists just about each day. Most recently, we learned that Herzog is expected to be released Sept. 17. Parole says they are considering fixing him with an ankle bracelet tracking him.

We’ll pick up the conversation today here at recordnet.com. The chat is free and a Recordnet.com subscription is not required to participate. Please read our chat FAQs below the chat window before participating.

Here is today’s story, and for more background you can visit the Loren Hezog Paroled page we put up with all of the recent stories on this case and some from years back. See you at noon.

Posted in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, San Joaquin County Public Defender's Office, San Joaquin County Superior Court | Tagged , , , | 0 Comments

Where’s dad?

Police shot 16-year-old James Rivera Jr. to death last week. This is not the first time his family has made the newspaper. I dug this from The Record’s archives:

Publication date : 1996-08-16
Edition: The Record Friday
Headline: Killers lawyer seeks new judge to hear motion
By Line: Hugh Wright

A convicted killers lawyer is seeking to disqualify a judge on grounds the judge is annoyed because of his clients courtroom outbursts. James Earl Rivera, 32, of Oakland is awaiting a hearing on his request for a retrial. But his lawyer, John C. Schick, argued in a nearly 50-page brief that Superior Court Judge Stephen G. Demetras should not be the one to decide whether to grant the motion. An independent judge will hold a hearing next Friday on Schicks request to disqualify Demetras from considering Riveras motion for a new trial. Rivera was convicted in February of first-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing but also is awaiting a hearing on the retrial motion. He was convicted in the Dec. 2, 1994, fatal shooting of Debra Elaine Nelson, 42, of Stockton, a bystander during an attempted robbery of a Brinks guard outside the Pacific Bell office on Feather River Drive. Lionel Dixon, 42, Riveras uncle, was convicted June 28 of first-degree murder in the case and is also awaiting sentencing. A jury is deliberating on the fate of the third defendant, Jerome Lee Moore, 26, of Oakland. Rivera and Dixon were taken into court during Moores trial in July at the request of prosecutor Lester Fleming so the jury could view the men because of references to relative heights and sizes cited by witnesses. Schicks brief said Rivera asked Demetras why his lawyer wasnt present and why he was taken into court, and he made a comment that the judge had already given him life. Demetras told Rivera to be quiet and said he would deal with him later, according to Schicks motion, filed Wednesday. A court owes a duty of impartiality, and it is the position of James Rivera that Judge Demetras has now finally put himself into a position where it is clear that he harbors bias against James Rivera and cannot be fair, Schick wrote. He said the word finally referred to Riveras feeling that Demetras has been biased toward him all along. Judicial ethics prohibit judges from commenting on cases before them. But Fleming said Thursday: There wasnt any hostility or threat, to me. Hes gotten annoyed with me during this trial, too, but I dont think hes taken it out on me. … There were times when the judge was more annoyed with me than he was with Rivera. He characterized the judges reaction to Riveras unwanted courtroom comments as maybe slightly annoyed. Moores lawyer, Charles Slote, signed an affidavit saying the judge appeared to be annoyed with Mr. Rivera. On Thursday, Slote said, I was annoyed with Mr. Rivera — I was real annoyed.’

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