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The girls, aged 5 and 6, were located at about 7:30 p.m., just before dark, according to a report from Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office. They were scared but unharmed.
Bauman said sheriff's officials were dispatched to the Hoberg area of Cobb Mountain just before 5 p.m. Thursday in response to the girls having gone missing from a fenced back yard.
Sheriff Frank Rivero and his deputies responded to Angelly Way in Cobb where they collected additional information and received descriptions of the missing girls, Bauman said.
Bauman's report said dozens of county safety personnel responded, coming from the sheriff's office, Cal Fire, Lake County Search and Rescue volunteers, Lake County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services personnel, South Lake County Fire personnel, Lakeport Police and California Highway Patrol.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Linda Green said her agency was contacted by the sheriff's dispatch after 5 p.m. She said a unit from Cobb and several Cal Fire personnel, including herself, responded.
When she got there, Rivero was at the scene. “He just needed help with the search,” Green said.
Bauman said Cal Fire, CHP and REACH all provided aerial support for the search, while neighbors and volunteers joined the officials on the ground.
Green said Cal Fire's helicopter 104 assisted in the search, focusing on an area on the ridgeline where someone was heard screaming for help.
The helicopter kept finding children and adults in the woods, who were taking part in the search, Green said. One of the missing girls was wearing pink, so they focused on looking for that color.
Green said the helicopter spotted the girls at about 7:20 p.m., and someone on the ground who had a radio confirmed it was them.
Bauman said a neighbor volunteer located the girls stranded in a ravine near Trinity Road in Cobb.
The children were found in a thick patch of manzanita. Green said it wasn't clear how the girls got into the manzanita, where rescue personnel had to crawl in to get them.
Bauman said the girls were airlifted out of the area by the Cal Fire helicopter and assessed by medical personnel. Lake County Sheriff’s personnel subsequently reunited them with their parents.
The girls' mothers, Ashley Williams and Nicole Reimers, posted their thanks to the community and officials on Lake County News' Facebook page Thursday night.
The girls were at Reimers' home when they decided to go exploring, according to the posts.
“I am overwhelmed by the amount of support and how quickly everyone jumped in. Thank you from the bottom of my soul. I am so proud to live in a community like this,” Reimers wrote.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge William McKinstry said that he found that Jerry Stanley, 66, was competent during the 1983 trial in Butte County.
Stanley and his attorney, Jack Leavitt, appeared via video conference from San Quentin State Prison, where Stanley has been housed on death row since February 1984.
The case now goes back to the federal courts, where appeals on the case have gone on for years, despite Stanley's sometimes contradicting claims that he actually wants to be executed.
In August of 1980 Stanley – who had worked as a hunting guide – used a high-powered rifle to shoot his wife, Cynthia Ann Rogers, from across Highway 20 as she was at her father's resort in Nice.
Five years earlier he had murdered his first wife, Kathleen Rhiley, and was linked to the disappearance on Feb. 14, 1980, of his second wife, Diana Lynn Ramel in Manton, in northern Tehama County.
The retrospective competency hearing in Stanley's case resulted from a March 2008 decision by federal Judge Frank C. Damrell, who ruled that because of juror misconduct in the penalty phase of Stanley's trial – during which his competency was considered – the retrospective hearing was necessary.
After Damrell's decision, the case went back to Butte County – where it was moved due to pretrial publicity – but earlier this year it was ruled that the matter could come back to Lake.
On Sept. 7 McKinstry had presided in a hearing in the case, during which Stanley – also appearing at that time by video conference – told the court he deserved to die for killing his wife.
At that appearance, both Stanley and Leavitt explained that Stanley's competency had been raised by his original defense team after he had objected to their desire to call his family members as witnesses.
Stanley, in turn, tried to stop the testimony of Dr. Allen Axelrad, and his attorneys questioned his competency. However, Leavitt said Stanley eventually allowed Axelrad's testimony to go forward.
Stanley's federal defenders – against his wishes, according to him and Leavitt – raised concerns about a female juror in the penalty phase who had been a domestic violence victim and had not informed the court of that fact. Yet Stanley testified that he and his original defense team were aware of the issue, and that he wanted to keep her on the jury anyway.
During the half-hour hearing Friday morning, Stanley waived his right to a jury trial in the matter under questioning by McKinstry, who indicated he had read numerous transcripts from both the original 1983 trial and more recent proceedings in Butte County.
The judge said the attorneys could argue if Stanley was mentally competent. District Attorney Don Anderson asked McKinstry for his intended decision.
“I'm inclined to find Mr. Stanley competent,” unless counsel wanted to point out something he hadn't considered, McKinstry said.
Anderson waived his right to offer arguments. Leavitt asked McKinstry to consider that in his Sept. 7 appearance Stanley had testified under oath that he was convinced that he was competent at the time of his original trial.
He also pointed out, “The only alleged basis for Mr. Stanley's incompetency was his early refusal to waive a privilege he had in being able to bar Dr. Axelrad from testifying,” with Stanley later allowing the testimony.
“The focus of these entire proceedings seems to be clouded,” said Leavitt. “They never should have taken place.”
Leavitt argued that all of the issues at the heart of the proceedings were cured in 1984. “On that basis we feel there should be no question of the competency findings and the lack of a need for a competency finding because the issue was moot.”
Leavitt asked McKinstry to request that the federal court investigate the allegations that the competency motion was made against Stanley's wishes, and that the federal defense team withheld the information that Stanley's original trial defense team knew of the female juror's background.
“We consider that Mr. Stanley was misrepresented deliberately and that an investigation is worthwhile,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt further requested that McKinstry ask the State Bar of California to take action on Butte County attorney Dennis Hoptowit's failure to provide Stanley's file in connection with recent Butte County appearances to Leavitt as ordered by the court.
“Other than that, Mr. Stanley and I concur in your tentative ruling” that he was competent, Leavitt said.
Leavitt asked Stanley if he agreed with McKinstry's finding that he was competent. “I absolutely agree,” Stanley said.
McKinstry said he found Stanley's testimony credible. He ruled that Stanley was competent during the original proceedings, and that he understood the nature and purpose of the original trial.
As to Leavitt's request that McKinstry make certain recommendations and findings regarding a federal investigation, McKinstry noted, “I believe that my jurisdiction in this matter is quite narrow.”
He said the federal court was exercising its habeas corpus powers when it ordered the retrospective hearing. If there was to be further review of that process, it would need to be at the federal level.
McKinstry said he would consider the matter of asking the state bar to look into the Hoptowit issue.
He executed a competency determination document and adjourned the hearing.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Forecasters have issued a severe weather alert for much of Northern California including Lake County as a series of cold fronts line up to move into Lake County beginning on Monday.
Noticeably cooler weather was enjoyed on Friday, after several days of mid- to upper-90s daytime highs earlier in the week, and this weekend's daytime highs are predicted to remain in the mid-70s, with a 20 percent chance of rain on Saturday.
Bigger changes in the weather are forecast to move in late Monday, with chances for rain showers throughout Wednesday.
With the pear harvest mostly completed, the winegrape harvest under way and the walnut harvest yet to begin, heavy rains and high winds are a concern for local farmers.
Daytime highs Monday through Wednesday are expected to be in the upper-60s to low 70s, with overnight temperatures in the upper-40s.
Clouds and chances for rain are expected to move out by Thursday, with daytime highs climbing back into the mid- to upper-70s.
For up-to-the-minute weather information, please visit the Lake County News homepage.
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Cal Fire and firefighters from Williams and Maxwell responded to the blaze, which initially was reported at about 2 p.m. three miles north of Highway 20 on Bear Valley Road, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Linda Green.
The fire burned mostly grass across a creek and under some high voltage power lines, which made it difficult for the planes to reach it, Green said.
Green said Cal Fire sent its usual wildland dispatch, including two air tankers, a helicopter, an air attack plane, five engines, two dozers and two hand crews.
Green said the fire's cause is still under investigation.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Ross Sparks, 25, of Clearlake said on the stand Thursday that he had begun receiving threatening texts from Orlando Lopez, who along with Kevin Stone and Paul Braden are charged with the murder of 4-year-old Skyler Rapp.
The men also are charged with attempted murder, mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and special allegations for wounding Desiree Kirby, the child's mother; Sparks and his younger brother, Andrew; Ian Griffith; and Joseph Armijo.
Nine days before the shooting, Ross Sparks' 17-year-old cousin, Josh Gamble – the opening witness in the preliminary hearing on Wednesday – had allegedly been assaulted by Lopez's younger brother, Leonardo, and a local gang that call themselves the “Ave. Boys,” for Clearlake's Avenues area.
Based on testimony so far, that fight and the resulting tensions appear to have laid the groundwork for the deadly confrontation in Sparks' yard late on the night of June 18.
Sparks testified that he had known Lopez – who played football with his younger brother – and Braden before the shootings, but had not known Stone.
At one point on Thursday morning District Attorney Don Anderson asked Judge Stephen Hedstrom to admonish Lopez, who was sitting in the jury box along with Braden and Stone. Anderson said that he witnessed Lopez mouthing something in an angry manner to Sparks during his testimony.
“What I'm going to say goes for everyone in this courtroom during these proceedings,” said Hedstrom. “This is a court of law and we have certain procedure and decorum.”
Hedstrom would have to offer several admonishments on Thursday, including urging Sparks to use “a little bit better language” after he had casually used a profane term during testimony.
When Sparks balked at answering questions Stone's defense attorney Komnith Moth posed about the two beers Sparks drank on the day of the shooting, Hedstrom gently explained that – while he understood that Sparks has “gone through a great deal” – he had an obligation to answer the questions put to him, including those he didn't necessarily want to answer.
The other witness on the stand Thursday, Rafael Escarcega – a Sonoma County Jail inmate who met Stone after his arrest in Santa Rosa – also would get the judge's firm direction that he had to answer questions posed about past connections to the Norteños gang.
Hedstrom also overruled a motion submitted by the defense attorneys in the case on Wednesday relating to a threatening text message saying “F*** your life” that Lopez reportedly sent to Sparks before the shooting.
Attorney Stephen Carter, who represented Lopez, had objected to the text message on grounds including hearsay. Hedstrom admitted it in relation to Lopez's case, but not Braden's.
According to his Thursday testimony, Sparks had what he believed had been a friendly conversation with Orlando Lopez about two days before the shooting. Lopez was at the home of Curtis Eeds, Sparks' neighbor, when Sparks came over to do some laundry.
Sparks said he told Lopez that his brother “had one coming” because of the fight with Gamble, and Lopez told him not to worry about it, that he would take care of it.
But on June 18, beginning around 11:30 a.m., Sparks received three to four threatening texts from a phone number he didn't recognize. When he called the number, Lopez picked up – Sparks recognized Lopez's voice – and the men began talking.
At first things seemed OK, but Sparks said things quickly went bad. “He said that he wanted to fight so I said just go ahead and bring it over,” said Sparks, adding that he told Lopez not to bring guns or weapons because of his children and family.
Sparks testified that Lopez said he was going to come over and bash in Sparks' head and the heads of his family members with the same pipe that his brother had allegedly used on Gamble more than a week earlier.
He said Lopez hung up on him but later Leonardo Lopez called back.
After that call, Sparks called a friend, as well as his brother Andrew and cousin Jeremiah Gamble for their help in case Lopez showed up to “fight like a man.”
Sparks said he was raised with firearms but doesn't keep them at his home. The shotgun that he owns stays at his grandmother's residence.
He said Eeds gave him a chain with two locks on it to use as a weapon; Eeds hung it on the fence, where Sparks guessed it may remain to this day.
At Eeds home Sparks spoke to a man known to him as “Goofy,” who came over to the barbecue at Sparks' home later that night. Goofy told Sparks “to watch out, be careful” regarding the threats.
Goofy also told Sparks that he recently had sold Lopez a .32 caliber pistol.
Sparks said he had sat in his driveway all day waiting for Lopez to show up. He would get additional texts from the number purported to be Lopez's, trying to get him to meet either at Oak Hill Middle School or the site of the former Outrageous Waters water park.
“I ain't walking into no trap. I ain't no sucker,” Sparks said.
He then got another message, “Where are you?” He responded that he was at his home.
Later that night, he said Eeds left his home next door and Goofy came over to ask where Eeds had gone. Goofy then hung out in the yard, leaning up against one of several cars parked there, and was accompanied by a young man in his 20s who Sparks said he didn't know.
It was close to 11 p.m. when the gunshots were fired at Sparks and his family and friends over and through the fence that separated his apartment from Eeds' home.
At first he thought the shot was a firecracker, but then he saw the first of five muzzle flashes.
“After that there was continuous gunshots,” he said. “People were scattering, falling, screaming, running. And then they ended,” he said of the shots, which he said numbered six to eight.
Sparks said the first shot was extremely loud, as if double ought buckshot was being fired. Two of the other shots were lower and “totally different” in the way they sounded, like there was a different gun involved, such as a small pistol or a smaller-caliber rifle.
He said he saw the silhouettes of the shooters, but couldn't further describe the suspects.
What he did see was his 4-year-old stepson lying dead in the middle of the driveway, his brother and Kirby both with gunshot wounds from their shoulders to the toes, and Armijo and Griffith shot through the legs.
Sparks also was shot through the leg, with the bullet entering under his right buttock and exiting from the inside of the leg. He would later have to be airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center, although, at first, “I didn't know that I was hit. My adrenaline was pumping so bad.”
He said he went and picked up Skyler. “He wasn't moving or breathing. I instantly knew he was gone.”
Next he went to Kirby, who was the most badly injured of the other victims. He said she was going in and out of consciousness. “I thought she was going to die,” said Sparks.
Sparks said he tried calling 911 several times before he finally got through.
After about three hours on the stand Thursday Sparks was allowed to step down.
Jail statements cause concern for defense
Anderson went out of order in presenting his witnesses on Thursday. It's his right to do, but that move ended up causing some consternation for Carter, Moth and Braden's attorney, Doug Rhoades.
That's because after Sparks left the stand Anderson called Rafael Escarcega of Santa Rosa, who was transported from the Sonoma County Jail – where he is awaiting sentencing on possession of a controlled substance – to Lake County to testify.
Escarcega offered information about discussions he had with Stone, who was arrested in Santa Rosa in late June after being on the run for close to two weeks. For about a week after his arrest, Stone was housed in the Sonoma County Jail, where he met Escarcega.
Before Escarcega's testimony got fully under way, the defense attorneys asked for a brief break to look at a new law that could impact jailhouse testimony and then meet with Hedstrom. After the break it was determined that the legislation wasn't applicable in the case.
Escarcega said he and Stone were housed in the same area of the Sonoma County Jail. He said Stone told him he had been arrested for murder and attempted murder, and that a child had been killed.
Stone also allegedly stated to Escarcega that he is a Norteño gang member.
Escarcega said Stone said “Nano,” the nickname Lopez goes by, and “Pelon” – which means “bald” in Spanish, and could refer to Braden, whose head was shaved at the time of his arrest, according to his booking photo – were the shooters.
Escarcega said of Stone, “He said he didn't have a weapon but he was the driver,” and had been driving a “neighborhood scraper” that everyone used.
Stone “got very defensive” when asked about his role in the shooting, said Escarcega.
Escarcega took three pages of notes to document his conversations with Stone.
He testified that Stone said the shootings were gang related, although he hadn't documented that in his notes and hadn't told a Clearlake Police detective about those alleged statements in an interview nearly two months ago. He said he was remembering things on the stand Thursday that he hadn't recalled previously.
Moth questioned Escarcega about ripping off a friend of Stone's for $1,500 in connection with a drug deal. Escarcega said he didn't know the person Moth was referencing.
Escarcega himself got defensive and challenged the relevance of questions Moth and his fellow defense attorneys posed to him regarding his own Norteño gang affiliation.
He said he joined the Norteños in 1991, and left the group when he was 30, 17 months ago.
Escarcega said he never took part in Norteño-related activity in Lake County, and had never met Lopez or Braden.
Testimony in the case will continue at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Hedstrom's Clearlake courtroom.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino County's sheriff said the search for a homicide suspect in the woods near Fort Bragg is intensifying after the man fired on several deputies Thursday morning.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman called a Thursday evening press conference to offer an update on the search for 35-year-old Aaron James Bassler, who has been on the run since the August murders of Matthew Coleman and Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo.
Shortly before noon on Thursday a three-member team from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office was assisting in the search when they came under fire from Bassler, who they spotted about 100 meters away, said Allman.
The team returned fire in self-defense, and Bassler then seemed to disappear, only to reappear a short time later and open fire on the team again, Allman said.
“We know that the three-member team fired approximately 10 shots,” said Allman, although it wasn't clear Thursday evening how many shots Bassler had fired or what caliber rifle he was using.
In the wake of the incident, Allman said a very high intensity search was set in motion, with approximately 40 law enforcement officer continuing the search through the night.
Additional K9s – which have been among the most effective tools in the search – are being brought in from around the state, said Allman.
He said none of the law enforcement officers involved in the Thursday shooting were injured, and they were safely extracted from the area, with another team sent in their place.
It was not clear if Bassler had been injured in the confrontation, Allman said.
Allman did not give the exact location of the confrontation, but he said it was in an area where in recent days Bassler has been linked to a series of vacation cabin burglaries. Those cabins are located in the area of Northspur Road – 14 miles east of Fort Bragg and 10 miles northwest of Willits along the Noyo River watershed.
Officials said it's believed that Bassler flanked the team, a method he allegedly used in killing Melo on Aug. 27, when Melo was on private timber property land he managed.
The team members were being interviewed Thursday evening by the Mendocino County District Attorney's investigations team as part of the normal protocol in an officer-involved shooting.
However, Allman said the interviews also are meant to assist the search for Bassler.
Allman added that the team members were being treated as crime victims, alleging that Bassler committed three acts of attempted murder on the peace officers. Allman did not release the team members' names.
For 34 days the search for Bassler – the biggest in the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office's history, involving local, state and federal agencies – has continued in a 400-square-mile forested area near Fort Bragg, Allman said.
Complicating the search is Bassler's knowledge of the area's forests. Allman said in a Monday press conference that Bassler has been known to spend months at a time surviving in the area's woods.
Law enforcement had reported previously that they had gotten close to Bassler earlier this month when a K-9 had contact with him, but he managed to escape.
The area where the team engaged Bassler on Thursday has heavy, dense brush, and therefore it wasn't surprising that they lost sight of him, said Allman.
Bassler was reported as wearing black clothing, which those who know him have told authorities is common, Allman said.
Allman said that, as a result of the shooting, a reverse 911 call was sent to all structures in the area that had landlines or cell phones registered to them in an effort to advise residents of the confrontation.
Allman emphasized there is no plan to end the search for Bassler until there is some resolution.
“We believe we're getting closer,” he said. “We believe we can get resolution soon.”
The Lake County Sheriff's Office – which has been involved in sending assistance since the search started – has chipped in with additional resources, as have Sacramento and Sonoma counties, Allman said.
“Sheriff Rivero called me immediately upon hearing of this,” Allman said of Lake County's sheriff, who sent the county's SWAT team members to assist.
Allman said SWAT team members from Lake and Sacramento counties have been deployed to the scene where the confrontation took place.
“Tomorrow may bring resolution,” Allman said, adding that he hopes Bassler is taken into custody without another shot being fired.
To Bassler's family members, Allman said if they can get Bassler to surrender, “I am just a phone call away.”
The cost for the operation is approaching $300,000, but Allman insisted money concerns aren't at the top of the list in this case.
“We're not going to save a dime and compromise public safety in this situation,” he said. “Our citizens feel under threat.”
A $30,000 reward remains in place for information – not participation – leading to Bassler's apprehension, Allman said.
Allman urged people to stay out of the forests near Fort Bragg and to be aware of their surroundings at all times.
Sightings of Bassler should be reported to the command post at 707-961-2479 or 911 under emergency situations.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at