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A Martinez jury on Friday found a 23-year-old San Francisco man not guilty of two first-degree murder charges for the deaths of his friends in a December 2005 shooting.
The jury verdict, handed down late Friday afternoon, acquitted Renato Hughes Jr. of charges he had been responsible for the shooting deaths of Rashad Williams, 21, and Christian Foster, 22, on Dec. 7, 2005, said District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
In addition, Hopkins said the jury ruled Hughes was innocent of committing robbery, and was not guilty of the attempted murder of a teenage victim at the scene, the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds.
The 12-woman jury did, however, find Hughes guilty of burglary and found it true that a principal in the incident – Foster – was armed with a shotgun, so Hughes also was found guilty of assault with a firearm on Edmonds, Hopkins said. That charge emerged from Foster's alleged striking of Edmonds in the face with the gun during a struggle.
Defense attorney Stuart Hanlon did not return calls from Lake County News seeking comment Friday.
Hopkins said the jury's verdict is only partial, with Judge Barbara Zuniga instructing the jury to continue deliberating on Monday in order to decide the remainder of the charges.
The jury, said Hopkins, was hung on a lesser assault charge – assault causing great bodily injury – because one juror changed her mind overnight.
During closing arguments on July 24, Hopkins asserted Hughes was part of a “crime team” that broke into Edmonds' home, looking to steal medical marijuana.
Although it was Edmonds who shot and killed Foster and Williams as they ran from his home – during testimony he stated he had shot Foster again once he already was down on the ground – it was Hughes who was charged with homicide.
Hopkins had prosecuted Hughes for the deaths under the provocative act theory, because he allegedly had been part of committing crimes that could result in a lethal response.
During that early morning confrontation at Edmonds' home, which Hopkins said could be heard on the audio of a home surveillance camera, the three men had allegedly fought with Edmonds and assaulted his girlfriend, Lori Tyler.
The men also fought with Tyler's son, Dale Lafferty, 17 at the time, who Williams allegedly beat in the head with a metal bat to the point where Lafferty suffered permanent brain damage. The jury's verdict on Friday included clearing Hughes of Lafferty's attempted murder.
Hanlon, in his closing statements, had argued that Hughes was a very minor player in the incident. He insisted that Edmonds' shooting of Foster and Williams was more a matter of vigilante justice than provocation, and had included the reloading of a pistol in order to continue shooting at the men and administer the “coup de grace” to an already wounded and prostrate Foster.
“I find it difficult to explain the verdict,” Hopkins said Friday evening. “They found that he was part of the crime scene which means that they should have found him guilty of at least one of the murders. But it could be that they did not understand the law. It's very complex.”
He declined to comment further on the jury's actions because the jury is still deciding the final charge.
The jury had begun deliberations on July 28, after a lengthy trial that began June 11 in Martinez, where the trial was moved earlier this year due to a change of venue ruling, as Lake County News has reported.
Adding to the drama of the case, on Friday the verdict was scheduled to be read at 1:30 p.m. However, Hopkins said there was an issue with instructions. That ended up delaying the reading of the verdict by a few hours.
Hopkins said the jury will return to deliberations at 9:30 a.m. Monday in order to finish the business of deciding the remaining assault charge. “It'll be resolved Monday,” he said.
Williams had gained national attention in the 1990s for his efforts to raise funds to assist the victims of the Columbine High School shootings.
Months before the incident in Clearlake, he had been convicted of two counts of unarmed bank robbery and uttering counterfeit obligations in February of 2005. His sentencing was scheduled for February 2006.
According to federal court documents, Williams had taken more than $5,541 from a Union Bank of California in Danville on Feb. 10, 2005, and five days later took $4,671 from a Westamerica Bank in Lafayette.
Acting as Williams' defense attorneys in that case were Hanlon and Sara Rief, who worked together on Hughes' defense.
In May, a federal court judge dismissed a civil rights action suit brought by Foster's and Williams' families against the city of Clearlake and the county of Lake.
The suit alleged the city and county officials were responsible for the mens' deaths because they had allowed Edmonds and Tyler to unlawfully sell drugs and possess firearms, as Lake County News has reported.
Edmonds and Tyler remain the main defendants in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in September 2009.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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On Wednesday, Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) discovered her Hotmail account – used for her campaign and other nonlegislative activities – had been compromised, said her spokesman, David Miller.
The scammers who broke into Wiggins' account sent out a poorly written e-mail saying Wiggins was visiting England for a program called “Empowering youth to fight racism,Hiv/Aids,and lack of education” (the grammar and capitalization appear as they did in the e-mail).
The e-mail then went on to say that Wiggins needed urgent financial assistance in the form of a “soft loan” for $2,500 in US currency, to be sent through Western Union, because she misplaced her wallet on the way to the hotel.
It ended, “I await to read from you.”
Miller said the hackers changed Wiggins' password so neither she nor her staff were able to access the account.
He said Microsoft technicians worked with Wiggins' staff to shut down the account on Wednesday. Miller said Microsoft determined the hackers were in Africa but could offer few other specifics.
Wiggins, who Miller said hasn't been in England in more than 20 years, decided to go public with the situation in order to prevent any of her constituents from being scammed.
“We've heard from people from several of the counties she represents,” Miller said.
For the most part people have been expressing sympathy that it happened to her, Miller said. “Hopefully nobody got burned.”
One of those receiving the phony plea for funds was Supervisor Anthony Farrington.
Farrington shared with Lake County News a copy of a reply he made to the e-mail. Acting concerned, he asked when the person needed the money and how long they were supposed to be in England.
He received a reply from the scammer, asking him to hurry and send the money and giving him a London address where the money should be sent.
The e-mailer's poor command of English and the story about being stranded were tipoffs, said Miller. If Wiggins ever were to find herself in such a situation as that portrayed in the e-mail, Miller said she has backup measures available to her that wouldn't involve sending an e-mail to friends and constituents.
So far Wiggins hasn't been able to tell if other personal information was compromised, Miller said.
The situation, said Miller, has Wiggins thinking about what additional legislation might be necessary to protect people from similar experiences. As a result, she's thinking of introducing legislation in the near future to strengthen consumer protections against identity theft.
“We’ve seen a number of laws passed at the state and federal levels that were designed to combat the problem of identity theft, but it’s likely that additional measures are needed,” Wiggins said in a written statement. “I will be discussing these issues with consumer groups, privacy experts and law enforcement to determine what else needs to be done.”
If it seems like Internet scammers are getting more blatant, it's because they are.
They've even taken to impersonating the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to rip off unsuspecting victims.
Beginning last year, the scams used the name of the FBI and Director Robert Mueller – as well as the agency's seal and letterhead – in order to give legitimacy to an e-mail scam using lottery endorsements and inheritance notifications.
Another scam invoked the Department of Justice, sending e-mails to potential victims telling them that their businesses had been the subject of complaints submitted to the DOJ and the Internal Revenue Service.
“It really can happen to anybody,” Miller said.
For information on e-mail scams and how to report them, visit the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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The collision, reported just after 2 p.m., involved two power boats that were located by the Lake County Sheriff's Boat Patrol near Kono Tayee, officials reported.
Along with Boat Patrol, Northshore Fire medics responded to the scene.
There were multiple passengers in both boats, but their names were not available for release Thursday afternoon.
However, Sgt. Dennis Ostini, who supervises the Boat Patrol, confirmed that one out-of-county man was hurt in the crash, sustaining a broken leg and suffering severe bleeding from his head.
Rescuers used Glenhaven's Sea Breeze Resort as a staging area to bring the crash victims to shore, and then transported them to Paradise Cove. There, a REACH air ambulance landed inside the gated community around 3:15 p.m. to pick up the injured man and transport him to the hospital, officials reported.
Boat Patrol towed the two powerboats involved in the crash back to Braito's Marina, where Ostini said they were looking the boats over.
Ostini said investigators didn't believe alcohol was involved.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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Lt. Mike Hermann of the Clearlake Police Department reported that Michael Dennis Reid, 62, was arrested Thursday afternoon following the confrontation with officers that allegedly occurred at his home on Reid Lane shortly before 1 p.m.
Hermann said two Animal Care and Control Officers were conducting a welfare check on animals at the residence.
Reid had given the officers permission to enter the property, but after they were there for several minutes Reid was reported to have become upset. He reportedly began yelling at the officers to leave, according to Hermann's report.
Reid then allegedly threatened to shoot the officers and retrieved a rifle, walking towards the officers while continuing the threats and pointing the weapon at them, Hermann said.
The two Animal Care and Control officers got to their vehicles and drove off the property while calling police, said Hermann.
Hermann said when Clearlake Police officers arrived at the scene they arrested Reid without incident.
Reid was booked into the Lake County Jail on two misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a firearm and two felony charges of making criminal threats with the intent to terrorize, according to jail records.
Hermann said the rifle that Reid is alleged to have pointed at the Animal Care and Control officers was retrieved from the scene and taken into evidence.
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John Arthur McKenzie, 57, has been living in Upper Lake but officials from Virginia have been looking for him for years, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
McKenzie was paroled in 1979 after serving time in prison for exploding a railroad bridge in Massachusetts, Bauman said.
Bauman reported that deputies arrested McKenzie early Monday morning on Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa.
Deputies responded to the resort on a report of a man annoying a 13-year-old girl and her aunt, according to Bauman. Upon their arrival, deputies found Konocti Harbor security officers had a man detained, who had identified himself as 57-year-old Jeffrey Arthur Woodward of Upper Lake.
Bauman said the girl and her aunt told deputies that they were standing near the fountain in front of the lodge when the man approached them and initiated a conversation, asking them where they were from. The two walked away from the man but then he approached them again, asking them where the bathrooms were.
The woman and her niece directed the man to the bathrooms and a short time later, he again approached them and allegedly started asking them if they wanted to “fool around,” Bauman said.
McKenzie was told by the woman to cease his advances and to get away from them but he persisted, asking the girl her age, insisting that she had to be 18 when she told him she was not, and continually asking the two if they wanted to “fool around.” Bauman said when the two walked away from the man to find a security guard, he followed them and was subsequently detained by security.
Bauman said deputies found McKenzie to be intoxicated and belligerent when they attempted to question him. He denied annoying the two female, and when he attempted to walk away from the deputies, he was placed under arrest.
Deputies transported him to the Lake County Jail where he was booked for misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age, Bauman said.
It was during the booking process that jail staff became suspicious of the man, who Bauman said was evasive in providing information to booking officers and hesitant to look at the camera for his booking photo.
When his fingerprints were submitted electronically to the Department of Justice, that agency notified the jail there was no record for Jeffrey Arthur Woodward, which made correctional staff increasingly suspicious about the identity he was providing, according to Bauman.
It was a short time later that the jail received another notification confirming the staff's suspicions: Bauman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation database matched the man's prints with those of another subject who was wanted for a federal parole violation.
Bauman reported that, as a result of extensive followup with the FBI and the US Marshal’s Office, jail staff were able to confirm the man's actual name was John Arthur McKenzie and that he in fact had been a federal parolee at large for nearly 30 years out of the state of Virginia.
McKenzie had been convicted and sentenced to six years imprisonment for federal offenses relating to the explosion of a railroad bridge in Massachusetts in 1972, Bauman said.
In 1979, McKenzie was paroled but eight months later a warrant was issued for his arrest due to an alleged parole violation, said Bauman. McKenzie has apparently been on the run and evading authorities ever since.
Bauman said McKenzie is currently being held without bail until he is either extradited by the US Marshal’s Service or a disposition is reached by the Lake County Superior Court on his local charges.
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Last Thursday, the center's bank accounts were drained by a $7,000 levy from the State Franchise Tax Board's Industrial Health and Safety Collections department for back wages to former employees, as Lake County News reported Tuesday.
However, as of midnight Wednesday morning, the funds were returned, said center Executive Director Lee Tyree.
It's a big relief for the center, which found itself unable to cover Meals on Wheels expenses or payroll after the levy hit, Tyree said.
So, what caused the State Franchise Tax Board to change its mind?
For one, the center was getting a lot of help from its friends.
The situation had rallied community members as well as local, state and federal officials – including Supervisor Denise Rushing, Congressman Mike Thompson's district representative Brad Onorato and Assembly member Patty Berg's office – who were doing what they could to intervene on the center's behalf.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Tyree said she received an anonymous phone call from an individual who told her they had seen the article on the center's situation published that day on Lake County News.
She was then instructed about who to call at the State Franchise Tax Board in order to get help in getting the money back. The caller told her that the board can't take funds used for payroll in a case such as this.
Following the caller's instructions, she made a connection with an individual at the tax board who said the money would be returned at midnight Wednesday.
In addition, the board agreed to give the center 30 days to prove it doesn't owe the back wages to the former employees, Tyree said. If it can't prove the wages aren't owed, the center can arrange a payment plan rather than having to pay out a large lump sum.
Tyree on Wednesday was relieved and overjoyed that the funds had been returned. She called the anonymous caller “an angel.”
John Barrett, spokesman for the State Franchise Tax Board, said he couldn't disclose details about the collection action against the center or the levy refund.
Dean Fryer, deputy director of communications for the California Department of Industrial Relations – which also encompasses the state's labor commission – said when employers have judgments against them for delinquent debt such as unpaid wages, the State Franchise Tax Board becomes the collection agency. That's in addition to the board's regular state tax collection duties.
“We have several items in for collections against the senior center,” said Fryer, but those items don't include delinquent taxes.
Altogether, he said the state believes the center owes more than $13,000 for unpaid wages, unreimbursed business expenses, interest and penalties.
The individuals making the claims are four former senior center employees, according to copies of judgment documents Fryer released to Lake County News.
The documents show the labor commissioner held a Feb. 2, 2006 hearing on the claims, which Tyree said were awarded in June of that year.
However, Tyree – who came on as the center's executive director in January – said he only recently had found out about them, and had no warning that the state had intended to collect in the manner it initially did.
Those making claims include Rowland Mosser, the center's former executive director, who was forced out by the center board in August 2005, and three employees who he hired and left the center shortly after he did.
Mosser also is being prosecuted on several charges, including embezzlement and grand theft, in connection with a large sum – as much as $200,000, in one former center official's estimation – that is alleged to have disappeared during his tenure as executive director.
The claims, which total $13,618.29, include:
– Rowland Mosser, $5,193.92 ($2,420, wages; $133.92, interest; $2,640, additional wages accrued as a penalty);
– Sarah E. Weber, $5,360.28 ($1,190.31, wages; $857.60, reimbursable business expenses; $72.37, interest; $1,620, additional wages accrued as a penalty; $1,620, additional wages accrued as a penalty for issuance of nonsufficient funds payroll checks);
– Marie Craig, $2,437.32 ($482.40, wages; $126.72, reimbursable business expenses; $28.20, interest; $1,800, additional wages accrued as a penalty);
– Omega D. Patterson Fox, $626.77 ($599.04, reimbursable business expenses; $27.72, interest).
Last year, the center sold its thrift shop building to the county for $150,000, which allowed it to pay off $33,000 in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service which Mosser – who served with the center from January of 2002 to August of 2005 – hadn't paid, center officials reported.
Barrett said the center is current on all of its taxes to the state.
However, he discovered in going through the center's files this week that Mosser had failed to file the center's 2004 statement of officers for its board of directors, which every corporation – nonprofit or for profit – is require to file with the state, he said.
That resulted in the center having its corporation status suspended with the California Secretary of State, according to state records.
Barrett said there will be a small fine for that – the nonprofit fine is $50 – but it's easy to resolve.
Tyree said she's been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the center.
“This community has really rallied together here,” she said.
Since last Friday, the center has received $1,900 in donations. That kept in motion the center's Meals on Wheels program, which serves thousands of meals to seniors all the way from the Northshore to Blue Lakes and Elk Mountain, Tyree said.
She added that the center was grateful to Thompson, Berg and Rushing, who had stepped up and offered help during the center's crisis.
The center is still facing numerous challenges as it tries to get on an even footing. For information on how to help – whether making a donation of money or time – call the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center at 274-8779.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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