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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Renato Hughes, 24, was sentenced on Sept. 8 by Judge Arthur Mann to eight years in state prison on charges including burglary and assault with a firearm related to a Dec. 7, 2005 incident at a Clearlake Park home.
With time served and a 15-percent time credit, Hughes was expected to serve just over four years of the sentence.
At the time of the sentence, Hughes' defense attorneys, Stuart Hanlon and Sara Rief, indicated an appeal would be filed.
Hanlon and Rief were right. On Sept. 10, an appeal with filed with the Lake County Superior Court and forwarded to the Court of Appeals, said Sean Keane of the San Francisco-based First District Appellate Project, which represents prisoners in appellate cases.
Although Hughes previously had private representation, Keane said the court has ruled Hughes is indigent, which qualifies him for the First District Appellate Project's services.
An attorney has not yet been assigned to Hughes' case, Keane said.
Court records show that the court recorder has to get the trial transcript to the appellate court by Oct. 30.
Keane said the matter itself likely will be dealt with through an exchange of letter briefs. If the judges and attorneys request it, the case could have oral arguments.
Because of the length of the trial and the massive transcript, Keane said he didn't expect a briefing on the case to be issued until next February.
“There's probably not going to be any actual events in the case for a while,” he said.
While Hughes was found guilty in August of burglary and assault with a firearm, he was acquitted in of two counts of first-degree homicide by a jury in Martinez, where the trial had been moved due to a change of venue motion.
Because Hughes was alleged to have been taking part in a violent crime that could result in death, he was charged with the deaths of friends Christian Foster and Rashad Williams under the provocative act doctrine.
However, it was homeowner Shannon Edmonds who actually shot the men as they ran from him home. Edmonds was not charged in the case.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The California Highway Patrol on Friday issued a reminder to county residents that the first major rain of the fall season was making area roadways extremely slippery.
The cause of the slick conditions, according to a report by CHP Officer Adam Garcia, is a film of oil that accumulates on the roadway and rises when the rains begin to fall – creating a “slip and slide effect.”
From noon to midnight there were six collisions reported along Highway 20, with at least one of them resulting in minor injuries. Another on Highway 29 shortly after 2:30 p.m. involved two vehicles and resulted in minor injuries, while no injuries were reported in a crash involving two vehicles on Highway 175 at Cobb Elementary.
Shortly before 11 p.m. a vehicle was reported having crashed into a ditch on Soda Bay Road just west of Park and was on fire. Rocks also were reported in the roadway on Highway 29 just north of the Coyote Grade.
Garcia's report explained that vehicle control rests on four little contact points where your tires touch the pavement.
If rainwater builds up between tire and road, traction is broken and results in hydroplaning, which is what happens when the tread "channels" on the tire cannot conduct all the water from between the tire and the road. That forces the tire to ride on top of the water that's in between, like surfing, according to Garcia.
Hydroplaning's risk increases along with speed; it doesn't usually occur at speeds below 35 miles per hour, Garcia reported.
Many crashes are caused by driving too fast for current conditions, so when rain or snow arrive, Garcia said the first thing to do is slow down. Reduce your speed by a third in the rain and by at least half in the snow, and more if ice is present. It's also important to slow down if you encounter fog.
The importance of adjusting one's driving to weather conditions can be a matter of life and death.
CHP statistics show that last year in California 106 people were killed in collisions that occurred in rainy, snowy or foggy conditions.
More than 7,696 people were injured in crashes under similar weather conditions, according to the CHP.
The National Weather Service reports that the unseasonably strong low pressure system that brought rain to Northern California on Friday is expected to result in showers on Saturday morning, with the likelihood of rain expected to decrease as the day advances.
The weather is expected to clear by Sunday, with some clouds but no rain forecast next week, the National Weather Service reported.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Everette Weller, 65, of Clearlake died on Sept. 27 at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Garcia.
Garcia had no information about the precise cause of Weller's death.
Weller was injured on the afternoon of Sept. 1 near Kelseyville when his motorcycle collided first with a BMW and then a Ford Ranger that were stopped on Highway 29, which was closed due to another vehicle collision, as Lake County News has reported.
Despite Weller's attempts to avoid the crash, he was unable to stop his motorcycle in time. The collision caused Weller to be thrown from his 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle and onto the pavement, according to the initial CHP report.
Garcia said the cause of Weller's crash was determined to be “unsafe speed for roadway conditions.”
However, Middletown resident Wendell Langford – who, along with three family members, witnessed Weller's crash – faulted CHP for not putting out flares or having traffic control in place after the first collision.
“He didn't have a chance and a prayer,” said Langford, who insisted that Weller couldn't have seen the stopped traffic around a curve in the road.
Langford said he warned authorities on scene about his concerns about traffic control before Weller was involved in the crash. He said it was later that he witnessed a sheriff's deputy controlling traffic.
He said Weller was wearing a skull cap helmet, not a full helmet, and that he saw the injured man had sustained major head trauma.
Langford also approached CHP's local commander, Lt. Mark Loveless, about the incident, as well as CHP's Sacramento office.
Garcia said Loveless is reviewing the investigation into Weller's crash, as well as the allegations regarding traffic control.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The board members are Craig Bach, Charles Behne, Gregory Cavness, Karen Kennedy, Jerry Morehouse, Louise Talley and James Wilkie.
The board members agreed on Behne as president; Bach, vice president; Talley, secretary; and Kennedy, treasurer.
Their next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center.
The group agreed its immediate goals are to seek nonprofit status and to consult with the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) on the process for becoming a Community Service District which would operate the town's water system.
The organization was formed in September of 2005 and has been registered as a California corporation since October, 2006.
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