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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport man has been indicted on federal weapons charges.

On Oct. 10, a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Northern Division of California indicted Christian Alejandro Estrella, 25, of Lakeport on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in violation of Title 18 of the United States Code.

On Aug. 14, Lakeport Police Officers had encountered Estrella, a person known to them as being an active gang member who was on parole and under the supervision of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and found him in possession of an unregistered and loaded 9 millimeter pistol, as Lake County News has reported.

Officers placed Estrella under arrest and he was booked into the Lake County Jail on felony charges of a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, prohibited person in possession of ammunition, concealed firearm not the registered owner, concealed firearm in a vehicle, possession of firearm by persons with prior weapons charges and a parole hold.

The Lake County District Attorney’s Office filed a complaint against Estrella accusing him of felony charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition and carrying a concealed firearm. Estrella was later released from custody on bail, the Lakeport Police Department reported.

Prior to Estrella being prosecuted on the California state charges, the Lakeport Police Department requested review of Estrella’s case by the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern Division of California and the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI conducted an investigation and filed a case with the US Attorney’s Office, which presented it to a federal grand jury. The grand jury, in turn, indicted Estrella on the weapon and ammunition charges in the United States Code.

On Tuesday, as a result of the indictment, FBI special agents contacted Estrella in Lakeport and placed him under arrest on a no bail warrant, police said.

Estrella was transported to a federal custody facility to be held pending court appearances. THe police department said the state case filed in Lake County is being dismissed.

Updating one’s estate planning documents involves changes to one’s trust, will and/or designation of death beneficiaries, as relevant.

To be effective such updates must be done correctly. Otherwise, if done ineffectively, the result can be disappointment and lawsuits for those concerned.

Under California law, a trust can be amended either using the method stated in the trust, or, alternatively using a document, other than a will, that is both signed by the settlor (or other person holding the power to revoke the trust) and delivered to the trustee.

The alternative (statutory) method, just mentioned, cannot be used if it is disallowed by the trust. Usually the trust uses the statutory approach anyway.

In the recent case of Margaret Pena v. Grey Dey, decided by the Third District California Court of Appeals, the deceased settlor Robert Anderson had made handwritten interlineations – i.e., he had crossed out existing trust language and handwritten in his revisions – to his most recently executed amendment of his trust. Mr. Anderson then mailed the interlineated trust amendment, with a signed “post it” note on top, to his attorney to draft an amendment.

Unfortunately, Mr. Anderson died unexpectedly before he could sign a trust amendment. The intended beneficiary, his close friend Grey Dey, argued that Mr. Anderson’s interlineations effectively amended the trust and that, if necessary, the signed post note satisfied the signature requirement.

The appellate court did not agree. Unlike with holographic (handwritten) wills a trust document cannot be changed simply by crossing out the existing language and inserting replacement language without any signature. Nor did the separate signed post it note satisfy the signature requirement.

Had Mr. Anderson signed and dated an attachment affirming each of his specific handwritten changes (interlineations) he made to his trust then he would have amended his trust.

Next, the will. Changing one’s will is done either by means of executing a codicil or executing a new will that revokes the old will. A codicil is executed the same as a will: it is signed by (or acknowledged by) the testator with at least two witnesses. Current California law no longer requires that the testator and the witnesses all be present together at the same time when they each sign the will or codicil.

Holographic (handwritten) wills unlike typed wills, however, do not require any witnesses. Also, handwritten changes to the holographic will can be made by the testator directly onto the original will – without requiring any further date or signature to be added. Such handwritten changes are automatically incorporated and integrated into the original will.

Death beneficiary designation forms – used to name primary and alternative death beneficiaries to life insurance policies and retirement plans – involve preprinted forms which must be completed following instructions.

In California, a community property state, a surviving spouse is limited in changing who inherits from their retirement plan, if it is a community property asset. That is, the signed, written consent of the non participant spouse while alive is required on the designation of death beneficiary form also signed by the participant spouse.

Unless the deceased spouse, while alive, signs a document revoking such lifetime consents to existing designation of death beneficiaries, any change of death beneficiary form signed by the surviving spouse alone is only effective with respect to the surviving spouse’s own one-half community property interest, and any separate property interest, in the surviving spouse’s retirement account.

If the deceased spouse’s will revokes the deceased spouse’s lifetime consents to the designation of death beneficiaries and permits the surviving spouse to say who inherits the surviving spouse’s own retirement account then the surviving spouse may control who inherits the entire account.

Changing one’s estate planning documents deserves the same level of careful consideration and counsel that was involved with preparing the original documents.

While it may be tempting to proceed with less caution or to delay updating one’s estate planning, both are unwise actions.

The result may mean that someone whom you care very much about will not get what you intended for them to receive.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A honey oil lab operation at a Sebastopol home resulted in injuries for the humans and animals who lived there and led to the arrests of four people.

On Thursday, Sebastopol residents Cameron Coull, 26, James Wood, 58, and Linzy Gingras, and Santa Rosan Douglas Baker, 39, were arrested in connection with the explosion, according to a report from Sgt. Juan Valencia of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, deputies were dispatched to the 1400 block of Industrial Avenue in the unincorporated area of Sebastopol to assist Gold Ridge Fire with a house fire that was the result of an explosion, Valencia said.

Valencia said that when deputies arrived, they first spoke with Wood, who was standing next to a fire engine, holding a small dog that had been burned in the explosion. Wood was outside the home smoking a cigarette and Gingras was at the home when the explosion occurred inside. Wood lives at the home with Coull and Gingras.

Coull and Baker were inside the home making honey oil from leftover marijuana when the explosion happened, Valencia said.

Valencia explained that honey oil is essentially concentrated cannabis, and the method to extract the oil from marijuana is a dangerous process.

Deputies and fire personnel found butane canisters and glass tubing that contained marijuana inside the home. Valencia said the explosion appears to be the result of an illegal butane honey oil lab.

Coull and Baker were transported by ambulance to an area hospital and admitted for their injuries. The two cats and dog were also taken by animal control for treatment, Valencia said.

The explosion caused the front door to be blown off the hinges and the windows to shatter. The dining room was blown off the foundation and pushed out approximately 18 inches. Valencia said there is also structural damage inside the kitchen. The home is a two-story building with five units, and the explosion occurred in the bottom center unit.

Sheriff’s property crimes and narcotic detectives responded to the home, and collected evidence and obtained statements. Wood, Coull, and Baker were issued citations due to medical conditions, according to Valencia.

Valencia said Wood was issued a citation for felony charges including manufacturing a controlled substance, animal cruelty, unlawfully causing a fire and a misdemeanor charge of violation of probation from a prior drug-related arrest.

Gingras was booked into the Sonoma County jail on felony charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, animal cruelty and unlawfully causing a fire. She remains in custody with bail set at $100,000, Valencia said.

Valencia said Coull was issued a citation for felony charges including manufacturing a controlled substance, animal cruelty, unlawfully causing a fire and misdemeanor violation of probation from a prior arrest.

Baker was issued a citation for the felony charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, animal cruelty, unlawfully causing a fire and misdemeanor violation of probation from a prior arrest, Valencia said.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their best look yet at an interstellar visitor — comet 2I/Borisov — whose speed and trajectory indicate it has come from beyond our solar system.

This Hubble image, taken on Oct. 12, 2019, is the sharpest view of the comet to date. Hubble reveals a central concentration of dust around the nucleus (which is too small to be seen by Hubble).

Comet 2I/Borisov is only the second such interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. In 2017, the first identified interstellar visitor, an object officially named 'Oumuamua, swung within 24 million miles of the Sun before racing out of the solar system.

"Whereas 'Oumuamua appeared to be a rock, Borisov is really active, more like a normal comet. It's a puzzle why these two are so different," said David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), leader of the Hubble team who observed the comet.

As the second known interstellar object found to enter our solar system, the comet provides invaluable clues to the chemical composition, structure and dust characteristics of planetary building blocks presumably forged in an alien star system a long time ago and far away.

"Though another star system could be quite different from our own, the fact that the comet's properties appear to be very similar to those of the solar system's building blocks is very remarkable," said Amaya Moro-Martin of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Hubble photographed the comet at a distance of 260 million miles from Earth. The comet is falling past the Sun and will make its closest approach to the Sun on Dec. 7, 2019, when it will be twice as far from the Sun as Earth.

The comet is following a hyperbolic path around the Sun, and currently is blazing along at an extraordinary speed of 110,000 miles per hour. "It's traveling so fast it almost doesn't care that the Sun is there," said Jewitt.

By the middle of 2020 the comet will streak past Jupiter's distance of 500 million miles on its way back into interstellar space where it will drift for untold millions of years before skirting close to another star system.

Crimean amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov discovered the comet on Aug. 30, 2019. After a week of observations by amateur and professional astronomers all over the world, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center and the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, computed a trajectory for the comet, which confirms that it came from interstellar space.

Until now, all cataloged comets have come from either a ring of icy debris at the periphery of our solar system, called the Kuiper belt, or the hypothetical Oort cloud, a shell of comets about a light-year from the Sun, defining the dynamical edge of our solar system.

Borisov and 'Oumuamua are only the beginning of the discoveries of interstellar objects paying a brief visit to our solar system, say researchers. According to one study there are thousands of such interlopers here at any given time, though most are too faint to be detected with current-day telescopes.

Observations by Hubble and other telescopes have shown that rings and shells of icy debris encircle young stars where planet formation is underway. A gravitational "pinball game" between these comet-like bodies or planets orbiting other stars can hurtle them deep into space where they go adrift among the stars.

Future Hubble observations of 2I/Borisov are planned through January 2020, with more being proposed.

"New comets are always unpredictable," said Max Mutchler, another member of the observing team. "They sometimes brighten suddenly or even begin to fragment as they are exposed to the intense heat of the Sun for the first time. Hubble is poised to monitor whatever happens next with its superior sensitivity and resolution."

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a nonfatal Thursday evening shooting that occurred in the Upper Lake area.

Lt. Corey Paulich said that at 1 a.m. Friday sheriff’s deputies responded to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for a report of a male subject with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

Deputies made contact with the victim in the emergency room. Paulich said the victim told deputies he was transient and for the past three days had been living on the side of Highway 20 in the Blue Lakes area.

Paulich said the man told deputies that on Thursday evening he was walking on a street in the Blue Lakes area when a male subject came up from behind and struck him in the head.

There was a scuffle and the victim was shot by the male subject. Paulich said the victim laid on the side of the road until a passerby stopped and offered to transport him to the hospital.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Major Crime Unit are continuing the investigation, Paulich said.

Paulich said the detectives are attempting to identify the passerby who transported the victim to the hospital.

Anyone with information regarding the identity of the passerby or who may have information regarding this incident is asked to contact Sgt. John Gregore at 707-262-4238 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – Despite heavy winds and dry conditions, firefighters who quickly got on the scene of a Thursday night fire near Hidden Valley Lake were able to contain it before it damaged nearby homes.

Sheriff Brian Martin said late Thursday that there were no injuries reported or structures lost in the Grove fire, which was first dispatched just after 8 p.m. Thursday in the area of Spruce Grove Road South at Highway 29, as Lake County News has reported.

Authorities quickly shut down a portion of Highway 29 in the fire area and Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, who initially served as incident commander, called for evacuations in the area of Conestoga, Eagle Rock and Deer Hill in Hidden Valley Lake.

He later told Lake County News that the evacuations were called because of the potential for the fast-moving fire to reach those areas.

Altogether, the evacuations were in effect about an hour – they were lifted shortly before 9:45 p.m. – with an evacuation center briefly established at Twin Pine Casino.

There was a good wind on the fire, Sapeta said.

In fact, there had been heavy winds around Middletown much of Thursday. On Thursday night, Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White, who responded to assist with evacuations, said he could feel the wind as he drove to the fire.

White said the fire was moving fast, but firefighters moved quickly to contain it.

He said he and three of his Clearlake Police officers, along with a Fish and Wildlife warden, responded to assist with evacuations.

Sheriff Brian Martin said his deputies, the California Highway Patrol and Hidden Valley Lake officials also assisted with the evacuation response.

Martin reported shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday that forward progress on the fire had been stopped.

Sapeta said the last size estimate he had on the fire was between five and 10 acres.

“We just really got lucky and had a lot of resources on scene,” Sapeta said.

Fire agencies that were involved included Cal Fire, Lake County Fire and Northshore Fire, with Sapeta noting that the fire is in the State Responsibility Area, which puts it under Cal Fire’s jurisdiction.

Sapeta said he didn’t have any idea what started the fire, with Cal Fire sending a prevention officers to investigate the cause and origin.

Sheriff Martin said one-way traffic control on Highway 29 in the fire area was expected to be in place until 11 p.m., with a full opening expected Friday morning.

At about 1:15 a.m. Friday, officials reported over the radio that Highway 29 was being fully reopened.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.