Indecent exposure: Have you ever been on the receiving end?

Eww!

I earlier reported on that other site I'm in charge of, Walnut Creek Patch, that an Oakland parolee was arrested Sunday afternoon on suspicion of exposing himself to a woman in the stairwell leading out of the Barnes and Noble Booksellers underground garage.

I know that underground garage. It's narrow, confined, smells of gas fumes, and feels dark, even though it's fairly well lit. It's two floors deep. I can't imagine how unsettling it would be to have someone confront you in that garage, as Walnut Creek police say this man did to a woman. He followed her into the stairwell and exposed himself.

The man, Muhammad Akmed Magbool, was on parole for robbery and had a "significant criminal history." He led police on a bit of a pursuit through downtown, from the book store to the top floor of a parking garage three blocks away.

My experience wasn't as scary as this woman's was. She must have felt trapped in that garage.

It happened back when we were living in San Francisco. I would get up early before work and walk a few blocks to a gym to work out. That morning, the sky was a light purple, with the sun coming up, but the streets were still fairly empty of cars or other people out walking. Even usually busy Geary Street was pretty quiet.

I was walking along Geary Street, when this car pulled up alongside me. I could see it out of the corner of my eye--it was maybe a 1980s red American-model sedan. I heard a voice call out to me, a man's voice, maybe asking for something. Directions?

I didn't slow my pace but I glanced over in the man's direction. He was sitting behind the wheel of his car with his penis out, stroking it. The look on his face was imploring, as in, please look at me, look at it. Please pay attention.

I wasn't scared. I was on a public street, a major San Francisco thoroughfare, and I could run right back home to safety.

I also wasn't that grossed out. I just shook my head and muttered "pathetic" and kept walking, at a slightly quicker pace. I remember thinking, I don't want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he'd upset me.

The car drove off, and I didn't even get a good description of the car, and I didn't catch the license plate. I thought, I could report it. I should have, I guess. But I also thought, this is San Francisco. The cops in this town might have better things to do than to go after someone like him.

Man arrested after attempted robbery on Iron Horse Trail in downtown Walnut Creek

A man armed with a gun was arrested after attempting a hold-up on the Iron Horse Trail. The attempted robbery occurred on the trail at about 7:30 p.m. Monday near Lincoln Avenue and Carmel Drive and Civic Park.

The Contra Costa Times says the suspect's identity was not immediately available. Walnut Creek police detained the suspect, then turned him over to the custody of the East Bay Regional Parks District police.

Police, residents band together to--they hope--put a stop to wave of Saranap area burglaries

Over the past month, dozens of homes have been broken into in and around the Saranap area. Burglars struck five houses on one street that has just a dozen houses. This is according to Lafayette City Manager Steven Falk.

One positive result, he says, is that neighbors have estaliblished a Google groups email distribution system to alert one another to other crimes, and "to see if they could establish patterns and identify suspects to police."

This collaborative effort may be helping police.

Falk passed along some notes on the crime wave from Lafayette Police Chief Mike Hubbard. He details some of the recent cases, as well as the collaborative efforts among area police departments, including his department and Walnut Creek and Orinda police departments to catch those who are responsible. According to Hubbard, the police are seeing some positive results:

On Tuesday of this week we suffered six residential burglaries. Six in one day! To put this in perspective, we usually have about eight to 10 per month. These burglaries occurred on the east side of the city and appear to have been committed by the same people that have been burglarizing homes in unincorporated Lafayette and Walnut Creek. To tackle the problem on Wednesday, with the help of Walnut Creek PD and Orinda PD, we flooded the area with a team of about ten cars. The result was dismal: we actually had another burglary and didn’t catch anyone.



Wednesday afternoon, however, there was an interrupted burglary in the northern Lafayette, and Walnut Creek PD detectives intercepted the bad guys with their ill-gotten gains still in their vehicle. Along with items that had just been stolen from a home, there were many other items of jewelry in the bad guys’ vehicle.

Because we weren’t sure if these were the same guys, and because we were still determined to stop these burglaries, we put the same team into the field again yesterday. But: still another burglary! This time, however, we got a description of the van and when our crime scene technician just happened to see a vehicle matching the description on the way back from the victim’s house, she radioed the license plate to Detective Hernandez, who traced it to a home in Pittsburg. Upon arriving at that location this afternoon, Hernandez found loads of apparently stolen goods and was able to apprehend a suspect.

With these two arrests, have we solved the crime problem in Lafayette? No. As long as there are bad guys, Lafayette – with its affluence and easy access – will be a target. But with good police work and great neighborhood coordination and activism, we can minimize the problem.

 
Back to the neighborhood Google e-mail distribution.  Falk shared some samples of the kinds of e-mail that neighbors have been sharing with one another and that are likely to help make the neighborhood safe:
 

I noticed a man driving an old blue Chevy Van with tinted windows circling and acting "suspicious" in the neighborhood just a few moments ago (breaking every so often, almost pulling off to the side and then not). I took down the lic plate and called the Sheriff’s department - they are sending someone out as I type this now.  --Danielle

The Sheriff's Dept. is doing an undercover sweep of the area today (Wed.). I saw a suspicious silver Ford Sedan with darkened windows drive through the neighborhood today. I followed it and called it in. As I was calling it in, the Sheriff appeared right after the car. I talked to the Sheriff and he said there are going to be a lot of cars like this going through the neighborhood today. He's just cruising the neighborhood on the look out. This time the car is looking out for us!  --Michelle

I just-saw him too. I also saw a man on a bicycle by Juanita and Kinney just stopped and on a cell phone - very suspicious. The Sheriff drove by and stopped to check him out. --Deb

 

Walnut Creek Intermediate deals with another drug possession issue

A seventh grader at Walnut Creek Intermediate was caught this week in possession of a small amount of marijuana, suspended by the school for five days, and issued a citation by the Walnut Creek police.

This information came in the form of a notice e-mailed out to parents by Principal Kevin Collins. This notice appears to be another example of the school's "conscious decision to inform the community if there were any incidents or threats to our students, either on campus or to and from school," according to Walnut Creek School District Superintendent Patricia Wool.

She explained this effort to keep the community informed about safety issues in an e-mail she sent out earlier this week. Her e-mail went out, no doubt, in response to concerns being raised recently that the loss next year of one of two vice principal's positions, due to budget cuts, would compromise the safety and well-being of the more than 1,100 students on the downtown campus. "We are committed to providing a safe environment regardless of WCI administrative staffing levels," Wool said.

She also said that since the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, there have been two incidents of students being caught in possession of marijuana. There was also a student caught with alcohol and two students who brought knives to school.

Here is a note from Principal Collins about the latest marijuana-possession incident at WCI:

I want to advise our community about a student discipline issue that occurred at WCI during seventh period today.

A seventh grade student was found in possession of a small amount of marijuana. I suspended the student for five days and called the Walnut Creek Police Department. The student received a juvenile citation and was released to the custody of a parent.

We are asking that parents again take this opportunity to speak with their children about drugs and about making good decisions. The safety and security of our students and campus remains our top priority.

Eagle-eyed neighbor helps Walnut Creek police nab burglary suspect

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Walnut Creek police on Thursday found a 41-year-old Martinez man in possession of the jewelry and computers he had allegedly stolen from a Huston Road home earlier in the day--all thanks to an observant and quick-thinking citizen.

At about 12:30 p.m., a citizen heard a loud banging coming from the home of a neighbor in the 1300 block of Huston Road. The neighbor noticed the front door of the house had been kicked in and saw the suspect, later identified as Jebba Catley, loading items from the house into a 2000 silver Dodge Caravan.

According to Sgt. Tom Cashion, “the citizen did a great job obtaining a license plate while the suspect was leaving the residence and called the Walnut Creek police.”

While officers responded to the house where the burglary occurred, detectives went to the Martinez address of the van’s registered owner.

Detectives arrived with Martinez police as the suspect was leaving his Walnut Avenue home. In the suspect's van and another vehicle, the detectives located the propertythat had been taken from the Huston Road home. Catley was arrested on suspicion of burglary and possession of stolen property and was booked in the Martinez Detention Facility with bail set at $50,000. 

Police looking for masked men, one armed, who robbed Walgreen's on North Main

Two men robbed the employee of Walgreen's on North Main Street Saturday morning.
According to Lt. Shelly James:

At  approximately 6:25 a.m., the victim was approached while opening the front door to the business. The victim walked into the business and was confronted by two black males wearing ski masks. Suspect No. 1 pointed a silver revolver at the victim and ordered him to walk through the store and open the safe. The victim complied, and the suspects left with an undisclosed amount of cash. The victim was not injured.

The suspects are described as:
1: Black male, 5’10”, wearing a black ski mask, black jacket with red writing, dark pants, armed with a silver revolver.

2: Black male, approximately, 5’8”, wearing a black ski mask, black hooded sweatshirt, black pants.

Police searched the area but didn't find the robbers. Anyone with information should call the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.

Plundering a long vacant house here in Walnut Creek

Thieves pulling up to a house, long vacant and long on the market. They have a U-Haul truck. They go in and tear out countertops and possibly other appliances, load it them in their truck and start to drive away.

Sounds like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic movie (The Road anyone?), or from one of those foreclosure-hit neighborhoods in East Contra Costa.

But it happened recently here in Walnut Creek. I heard about it at a party last night, attended by some other people in the 'hood. This house, a ranch, was overhauled after its former owner, the neighborhood "cat lady" died. A family with young kids moved in, and seem to be settling in to the school and the 'hood. Then they had to move--maybe a job relocation--and put the house on the market--just as home prices started to tumble and the Great Recession hit.

And there the house stood, and stood, and stood, for more than 400 days. Apparently they were asking around $900,000 for it initially. Word is that the price was reduced to $625,00, and word is that had been recently been sold and that the buyers may have some controversial plans in mind...

Heard about the plundering because my party's hostess was driving by the house when the U-haul was being loaded up. Looked suspicious to her, so she followed the truck, and called the cops...

An American Tragedy: Alamo 2009

An American Tragedy is the name of a very long, dense classic novel, published in 1925, about a man whose fierce but over-reaching desire to enjoy his share in the American dream ends in violence.

This novel, by Theodore Dreiser, was based on the true-crime 1906 drowning death of a single young pregnant woman at an upstate New York lake resort, and the subsequent arrest and prosecution of her lover. An Academy Award-winning 1951 film adaptation, A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor at their most beautiful, expertly depicts the young man’s yearning for material comforts and social status, and then his desperation when he feels those aspirations slipping away.

Clift's (and Dreiser's) protagonist comes from the poor side of a family. In A Place in the Sun, he goes to work in his rich uncle’s swimsuit factory, gets involved with a fellow factory worker (played by Shelly Winters), impregnates her, then tries to dump her when he meets and becomes involved with the town’s most desirable young debutante (Taylor). When Winters’ shopgirl presses him to marry her, he says OK, but let’s first take a romantic rowboat trip around a lake. Needless to say, she doesn’t make it back to shore, and he winds up arrested, put on trial for her murder, convicted, and then sentenced to death. Clift’s performance in the film and Dreiser’s long but riveting account of the police interrogation and trial testimony of the protagonist--in some ways, an American everyman--offer fascinating portraits of human desperation and a person's descent into reckless, self-centered, cruel criminality.

I couldn’t help but think about the Dreiser book and A Place in the Sun (one of my favorites) while reading Friday’s story in the San Francisco Chronicle about what led up to the shootout last Thursday night between an Alamo contractor and a jewelry store owner in his hometown.

Thomas Paul Bennett was not a hungry young man, but a man in mid-life, 50 years old. And, apparently, like a lot of men and women in our community he was hungry and perhaps felt entitled to a certain way of life. And he possibly got way in over his head, while seeming to have acquired the 21^st century version of material comforts and social status that Dreiser’s Clyde Griffiths was desperately seeking. Bennett had his own business, a wife, a son and a daughter, and a $2.5 million home in a cul-de-sac in one of the East Bay’s toniest zip codes.

But according to what prosecutor Bruce Flynn told the Chronicle’s Henry K. Lee, Bennett was on the verge of losing his home—and, one wonders, much more—so, he made a plan to rob a man who had been a friend “in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.”

On last Thursday evening, Bennett, armed with three guns—including a .22-caliber weapon outfitted with a homemade silencer—drove to Oscar Herrera’s jewelry store in the Alamo Square Shopping Center.

Herrera, 53, who was on a first-name basis with Bennett, told investigators that Bennett came into his store at about 7 p.m., pulled a gun and said he had to rob him to save the home where he has lived for eight years with his wife, son and daughter.

Somehow during this exchange, Bennett opened fire and struck Herrera in the chest, Flynn told the Chronicle. Herrera, pleading for his life, moved to the back of the store, grabbed his own gun, and shot back, striking Bennett in the neck, mouth, and wrist.

Responding Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputies pulled Herrera out, and got him to the hospital. Bennett refused to surrender for about an hour, at one point standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at his own head and threatening suicide.

Now, both he and Herrera are recovering from their injuries at John Muir medical center, and Bennett has been charged with attempted murder, attempted robbery, commercial burglary.

Meanwhile, his family is dealing the possible loss of the home Bennett was apparently trying to save. Lee says that public records that that “Bennett and his wife, Sutton, were notified in August that they were $35,631 in default on their six-bedroom, 6,200-square-foot home, which they bought in 2001 for $1.2 million.”

“On Nov. 27, the couple received a "notice of trustee's sale" detailing an unpaid balance of $2.3 million and indicating that their home would be sold at public auction Dec. 21, records show.”

According to a realty website, the Bennett property is in pre-foreclosure. “The homeowner has missed at least one payment and may be willing to sell this home at an attractive price, in order to avoid foreclosure.”

Suburban dad with his own business and prosperous home now a suspect in botched robbery and murder attempt

Driving up to the home of Thomas Paul Bennett, even at night, you would definitely think he has made a very nice life for himself. And that the 50-year-old builder is a very unlikely candidate to try to rob a jewelry store.

His contemporary ranch-style home sits on top of a hill, at the end of a long winding driveway. To get to his home, on a small cul-de-sac off Stone Valley Road, you pass other multi-million-dollar Alamo homes—faux Colonials, Cape Cods, Mediterranean villas—some twinkling with Christmas lights in the mist of a cold December night.

Yes, I took a short drive to Bennett’s house last night, after seeing that he owned a construction company, and that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Henry K. Lee, he lived in a $2.5 million house with Mt. Diablo Views and flew his own private plane. Of course, something very terrible must have been going on in his life for him, according to Contra Costa Sheriff’s investigators, to arm himself with a gun Thursday night and attempt to hold up a small jewelry store in his hometown.

As you’ve read here and in other news accounts, that attempted heist ended up with Bennett allegedly exchanging gunfire with the owner of Alamo Jewelry Mart in the Alamo Plaza shopping center. The store’s owner, Oscar Herrera, 53, of Hercules, was wounded in the upper torso. Late Friday, Herrera was listed in critical condition. Bennett was also wounded in the shoot-out, but initially refused to come out of the store.

Sheriff’s deputies say they found him, standing in the doorway of the store, holding a gun to his head and threatening suicide. Although wounded in the neck, mouth and wrist, he initially refused to come out and an hour-long standoff ensued with deputies finally talking him into surrendering. As of Friday, he was also in the hospital, and under arrest on suspicion of robbery and attempted murder.

And on Friday night, several Sheriff’s cars were crowded into the cul-de-sac below the home he shared with his wife, daughter and son, and from where he operates his Bennett Construction, according to the San Francisco Chroncile.

A couple, relatives of Bennett, emerged from the house, descended the driveway and got into the car. They said the family was declining comment: “Our family is going through a lot right now.”

I told them I was sorry. Some would say my sympathy is misplaced, that it should be with Oscar Herrera and his family. Well, I’m sorry for both of them and their families. Some would also say I was being intrusive and voyeuristic, driving up to Bennett’s house, maybe hoping to talk to someone, but a reporter’s habits die hard. The Chronicle added that in Bennett’s driveway was a boat and a pickup truck with National Rifle Association and Air Force Academy stickers.

Sheriff’s Captain Dan Terry said Bennett had been dealing with financial problems, but doesn’t know yet whether that was the motive in this incident. Terry also told the Chronicle that Bennett and Herrera had "at least one prior contact with each other" before Thursday's shootout. "It appears there might even be some kind of association here," he said. But again, it’s still not clear whether that association had anything to do with the robbery.

An online advertisement for Bennett Construction says the family-owned company has been in business since 1992. It specializes in window and door installation. “We will handle your project with the utmost care.” The ad also says the owner loves to work in this area and, in his spare time, loves working on his own home. A customer praised the company: “Just that thepeople were very nice, professional, great attention to details. Referred them to anyone, very good.”

Robber, jewerly store owner shoot it out in Alamo shop

An Alamo jewelry store employee wasn't going to give in to a gunman who entered his store Thursday night and attempted to rob his business. The 53-year-old employee pulled out a gun, and the two men opened fired and injured each other.

The incident took place at about 7:15 p.m. at the Alamo Jewelry Mart in the Alamo Plaza Shopping Center. The employee was wounded in the upper torso but his injuries were not life-threatening injuries in the incident, according to news reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times. Information about the condition of the suspect, a 50-year-old Alamo man, was not available.

(An Alamo man trying to rob a jewelry store? Sorry, to resort to stereotyping but, hey, you don't hear about someone of that age and hometown resorting to robbery.)

Anyway, neither man's name was released. The robber initially refused to come out of the store as demanded by responding Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputies, and he briefly held a gun to his head. But he finally came out and was taken to the hospital.

Photos released of 7-Eleven bank robbers

The Contra Costa Sheriff's Department is releasing photos of two suspects who robbed the 7-Eleven on Oak Road in unincorporated Walnut Creek back on October 23.

The robbery took place at 1:14 a.m., according to spokesman Jimmy Lee.

Two robbers, armed with guns, entered the store and ordered the clerk to the floor. The robbers took some cash and items from the store. It was unknown which direction they fled and whether they used a car to get away. Detectives believe the two may have robbed the same 7-Eleven before.

No one was injured.

Suspect 1 is described as heavyset hispanic or white male, wearing a black hoodie jacket, white t-shirt and dark blue or grey colored pants.

Suspect 2 is is described as a hispanic or white male, wearing a black jacket with a logo on the front, and grey pants.

The suspects are considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with any information on their identities is asked to call the Office of the Sheriff at (925) 313-2653.

An Orinda mom's perspective on the death of Joe Loudon and how it has torn apart numerous lives and a community

Maura Dolan lives a few blocks away from the home of Miramonte teen Joe Loudon, who collapsed at a teen party in May and died. Her son was a friend of the 16-year-old Joe, and her family was neighbors of both Joe and Patrick "P.J." Gabrielli the 18-year-old rugby teammate who, with his older teenage sister, hosted the alcohol-laced party while his mother and stepfather were out of town.

She has published a restrospective of the case in the Los Angeles Times. "A teen party, a mysterious death--and a town's unanswered grief" both looks at the social and emotional impacts of Joe's death, but also reveals some details about the night Joe died and some disturbing facts about the teen party seen, which applies not just to Orinda, but could apply to all towns around here.

The tears have not stopped flowing in Orinda, the little town where we live and where three students face possible charges in connection with Joe's death. The grief that at first united the town later wrenched it apart. Miscues in the investigation led some people to point fingers, convulsing the community in a debate over whether Joe's death was an accident or a crime.

Blogs became a community forum for angry and emotional teens and their parents. Some saw a witch hunt, a need by the community to find someone or something to blame for the sudden death of a much-loved boy, an athlete and A-student who attended church regularly and was widely liked by his peers, teachers and coaches.

Others talked of a cover-up, a wall of silence. The threat of a wrongful-death lawsuit and criminal prosecution prompted some parents to hire lawyers, who advised kids not to speak. Marianne Payne, Joe's mother, wanted answers. She complained that teens had been slow to tell police what had happened at the party.

Dolan says that hard liquor and Jell-O shots flowed freely at the party, where guests each paid $5 to imbibe. But Joe, as an autopsy later confirmed, drank a little beer then switched to water and did not appear intoxicated. He collapsed a couple times, both which prompted other partygoers to perform CPR, but no one initially called 911. After he was found in a bedroom, with vomit on him, and his lips blue, some of the kids thought about putting him in a shower to revive him.

Not only did Joe's death force Orinda schools and the community to reexamine their approach to substance abuse, it force some in the community to look at another unpleasant fact about its culture. "That students from good families and strong schools had not called 911 when Joe first collapsed unnerved Orinda. Parents discovered that teens who passed out at parties were often ignored."

Death penalty for the accused killer of Rylan Fuchs? Wouldn’t be usual, says DA

The 19-year-old Berkeley man, arrested in the January 20 pot-robbery killing of Danville teen Rylan Fuchs, is facing murder charges that carry special circumstances, because the killing took place during the commission of an attempted robbery. Authorities believe that Fuchs was selling marijuana, and Walter Bell went to his home to rob him of his pot. The special circumstances mean that if Bell were convicted of murder, he could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors have not decided yet whether they will seek lethal injection for Bell, who is being held without bail.

However, Harold Jewett, the prosecutor in charge of the D.A.'s office homicide division, says, in an e-mail to me, that it would be “unusual for us to do so in a case where the defendant is young and where the shooting may not have been intentional.”

Jewett told the Contra Costa Times that Bell says he fired the single, fatal shot--which struck Fuchs in the throat—as Bell was trying to rob Fuchs of marijuana.

“Put it another way,” Jewett continued in his e-mail. “A jury is unlikely to impose the death penalty unless they know beyond question that the defendant intentionally and personally took the victim’s life.”

I appreciate Jewett getting back to me. Actually, I didn’t contact him to ask him specifically about whether his office would seek the death penalty against Bell, but on a closely related issue.

I read about the special circumstances charges against Bell, and the possibility of the death penalty, and that got me thinking and wondering.

Fuchs’ father, Bill Fuchs of Alamo, questions whether his son was selling pot and whether police are using the marijuana-deal-gone-bad excuse to preserve Danville’s image.

I’m sorry for Mr. Fuchs loss, but, unfortunately, it does look like Rylan, a senior at San Ramon Valley High, in fact died in a drug deal gone bad.

And that drug-deal-gone bad scenario is what got me ruminating about the death penalty issue, possibly in this case, but in general. Drug deals gone bad are regular occurrences, if not in safe, affluent suburbs like Danville, then in tough neighborhoods in towns like Oakland, Richmond, and in the unincorporated community of North Richmond. Some of those drug deals gone bad result in homicides, and, more likely than not, the killers and their victims are minorities.

I contacted Jewett because I began to wonder if the special circumstances and the death penalty talk was being applied to the Fuchs case because 1) the killing happened in Danville; 2) the victim is white; and 3) the defendant is African-American. Yes, I wondered if race and class bias were coming into play in this case.

Racial disparity in death penalty prosecutions and in sentencing is a huge issue, in California and around the United States. Many of us have probably heard that minorities are more likely to be executed than whites for murder in the United States. But what many might not know is that more recent studies have pointed to another racial difference between who lives and who dies at the hands of the state: the color of the victim. As a USA Today editorial says:

While blacks and whites are murdered in roughly equal numbers in the United States, the killers of white people are six times as likely to be put to death, according to a statistical analysis by Amnesty International USA. It found that of 845 people executed since the United States resumed capital punishment in 1977, 80 percent were put to death for killing whites, while only 13 percent were executed for killing blacks.

So, my mind was on this track yesterday morning, and I wondered whether this racial disparity applies in Contra Costa special circumstances prosecutions, and whether it would apply to the prosecution of Walter Bell case. Would an African-American defendant, who shot and killed an African-American victim, in a similar kind of drug-deal-gone bad in North Richmond, be charged, like Bell, with special circumstances and face the death penalty. The racial breakdown for defendants and victims in Contra Costa capital cases was not available yesterday, and may not be readily available.

But I e-mailed Jewett, and he provided this response:

“Walter Bell is a young black male. Rylan Fuchs was a young white male. In this county, we have prosecuted white defendants for killing white victims; white defendants for killing black victims; black defendants for killing white victims; and black defendants killing black victims. Of course there are also permutations with other ethnic groups, primarily Hispanic and Asian. I would say imposition of the death penalty is roughly equal between cases with white and black defendants, and cases with white and black victims. I don’t see a pattern there.”

And then he addressed Bell’s prosecution specifically and how “I cannot whether this office will seek the death penalty in the Bell case.”

Walnut Creek man pleads no contest to last summer's killing outside teen house party

Daniel Avanesyan, 19, of Walnut Creek, will be sentenced to seven years in prison in connection with the July 2 fatal stabbing of a Rodeo teen in the unincorporated Saranap neighborhood, the Contra Costa Times reported Saturday.

Tensions between young people from two parts of Contra Costa County ended in violence at a small house party, thrown by a girl whose parents were out of town. The fight broke out near the corner of Clover Lane and Nicholson Road, a normally quiet pocket of older homes off Boulevard Way.

Avanesyan, a Diablo Valley College student, was the boyfriend of the host. She had also invited her male cousin, who brought along several carloads of his buddies, including Jonart Suacillo Yambao, 17, from West Contra Costa County. Apparently Avanesyan's group and Yambao's group had some kind of run-in several weeks earlier. Once at the party, tensions rose, and the female host asked her cousin to leave and take his friends with him.

But a fight broke out, with one of the West County teens attacking Avanesyan in the girl's back yard. He went into the house, got a knife, went outside to the front of the house and found Yambao and another guy jumping on his car and crushing the windshield.

What happened next is unclear, other than that Yambao was stabbed just after midnight, and wound up being driven by his friends to Kaiser medical center in Walnut Creek, where he died.

Avanesyan was originally charged with murder, but the plea deal came about because, the prosecutor told the Times, it would have been hard to prove that the defendant did not act not act under "heat of passion" or that he wasn't defending himself against "provocative acts" committed by Yambao and his friends.

Defense attorney Annie Beles told the Times that Avanesyan acted "out of fear for his life and is taking responsibility." She described him as a "good kid who got spun into an awful situation ... because too may people came to that party looking for trouble."

Berkeley man charged in Danville teen's pot-robbery killing

A 19-year-old Berkeley man appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court Thursday, on charges that he shot to death 17-year-old Rylan Fuchs on the front porch of his Danville home while trying to rob him of some marijuana.

Walter Bell faces special circumstances murder charges, alleging that he shot Fuchs during the commission of a robbery. If convicted, Bell faces the death penalty.

Fuchs, a senior at Danville's San Ramon Valley High School, was killed at about 9:15 p.m. January 20, just outside his home on El Capitan Drive. According to various news reports, authorities believe that Fuchs was selling pot and that Bell tried to rob him.

It's unclear how many people were outside Fuchs' home when he was shot. A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection of the killing shortly after it happened, but he was never charged. He was re-arrested Thursday, though the extent of his involvement remains unclear.

Police volunteers offer free vacation home checks

Going away sometime between now and New Year's?

You can ask to have for trained volunteers to check up on your home while you're away.

According to the city's newsletter, In the Nutshell, city residents can receive free home visits from the Volunteers in Police Services. These trained volunteers will "act as an extra set of eyes and ears," according to the November/December issue of In the Nutshell.


These volunteers will perform a thorough inspection of your property while you are away, including a perimeter check, check of all doors and windows, verification of vehicles left on the property and verification of any people found on the property. This service is provided to vacationers who are gone for at least three days, up to a maximum of 30 days. Vacant properties are not eligible for vacation checks.

To request a vacation house check, go to www.walnutcreekpd.com and click the vacation house check link. Or call (925) 256-3525 to have an application sent to your home. Please return the request form at least 72 hours prior to your departure.

Second knife possession incident at Walnut Creek Intermediate, and another reminder to parents

While investigating reports of smoke bombs on campus Friday morning, school officials found a second student in two days in possession of a knife. This was a “locking blade knife,” according to the Walnut Creek police daily bulletin.

The student was released to the custody of parents, and school officials say the student is no longer enrolled at WCI.

School officials say no one was threatened or even shown the knife at school. “While this was the second knife that was found at WCI in two days, an event like this remains a very rare occurrence.”

They add that “students found in possession of a weapon on campus are issued a five-day suspension and the police are called. The student may face criminal charges and be recommended for expulsion.”

The 7th grade student in Thursday’s incident was arrested, according to the Walnut Creek police daily bulletin. The day before, that student had apparently been seen exhibiting the weapon on the trail next to the school.

Talk on gun violence in Walnut Creek tonight: Should we in suburbia care?

Gun violence grabs our attention when dramatic events such as the Fort Hood, the Columbine or the 101 California Street mass shootings occur. But individual shootings occur in the Bay Area almost daily…

So begins the invitation to a panel on gun violence, hosted Tuesday night in Walnut Creek by the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center. Featured speakers will be California Senator Mark DeSaulnier, and two representatives from the Richmond police department: Chief Chris Magnus and Deputy Chief Edward Medina. If anyone should know about the toll gun violence takes on a community, it should be these top cops from Richmond.

But seeing that this talk, Gun Violence: Rights, Safety, and the U.S. Supreme Court, will be hosted in Walnut Creek begs a question. Should residents of a relatively safe, affluent suburb like Walnut Creek be all that concerned about gun violence? Walnut Creek had just one homicide in 2008, Richmond had 27.

Of course, Walnut Creek’s March 2008 homicide involved the fatal shooting of a man in his mother’s home. And the two killings in Walnut Creek in 2007 also were caused by gunfire. One was a murder-suicide: a woman shot dead in her Third Avenue apartment by a former boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself.

And then there was the absolutely heartbreaking case this past summer: Adam Williams, the 16-year-old Las Lomas High student, who was shot to death near the top of Mt. Diablo--by his own mother, who then turned the gun on herself. You didn't need to know this boy to feel a sense of devastation after hearing about how his young life ended.

So, I guess you could say we suburbanites are affected by gun violence.

The Contra Costa Times, in a story that calculated the financial impact of East Bay gun violence, estimated that in 2005 alone, "gunshot patients racked up nearly $25.7 million in charges at John Muir Medical Center."

Contra Costa District Attorney Bob Kochly was quoted in the story as calling gun violence "a tremendous resource drain."

"Then you factor in on top of that other shootings that are nonfatal," he said. "There's a lot of those, and they're generally particularly troublesome cases. We're often dealing with victims who are still alive and able to testify but don't want to."

Nationally, about 2/3 of homicides are committed with firearms, and firearms were involved in about 16,000 suicides in 2001.

"Stopping gun violence will require many changes including a change in our culture," the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center says.

"Laws are only part of problem. Innovative enforcement techniques are also needed. The NRA aggressively organizes for gun rights while many remain oblivious to all but the violence we hear of in the news. This panel will inform us of what is happening in communities, in our state legislature and in the U.S. Supreme Court where a case is under consideration which may affect all the gun laws in the nation."

Also speaking will be Juliet Leftwich, senior counsel at Legal Community Against Violence, a national law center formed in the wake of the 1993 assault weapon massacre in San Francisco. She will speak about recent and pending Supreme Court decisions.

The talk will take place at the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, 55 Eckley Lane.

Suggested donation: $12 General, $5 students with current ID. The event is wheelchair accessible. For more information, call (925) 933-7850 or visit http://www.mtdpc.org/

Second strong-arm robbery Monday; suspect sought

A woman parking her car at her home in the 1500 block of Geary Road was robbed of her purse Monday evening. Walnut Creek police say the robber approached the woman as she pulled into her residence in her car. The robber demanded her purse. She handed it over to him, and he ran off.

The robbery is described as a Hispanic or black male adult, 20 to 30 years old, 5 feet 11 inches, with a thin build, clean shaven, and wearing a blue fleece jacket, blue beanie, and dark colored pants.

Officers checked the area without finding anyone. Anyone with information should contact the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.

Robbery victim helps nab the guy who strong-armed him out of his wallet along the Contra Costa Canal Trail

A robbery victim, with the presence of mind to notice key details about the guy who held him up Monday along the Contra Costa Canal Trail, helped Walnut Creek police locate a 22-year-old suspect a short time later.

The robbery happened about 2:45 p.m. Monday, Walnut Creek police said. The victim said he was walking along the Canal Trail near Winton Avenue when he was confronted by a man wielding a basebll bat. The robber demanded that the victim turn over his wallet. The victim complied.

The robber ran off to a nearby car. The victim and a witness provided a detailed description of the car to police. Pleasant Hill police, who were investigating the suspect on unrelated charges, located and arrested him. Walnut Creek police were notified and arrived to take him into custody for the robbery.

The suspect is identified as Jesse Meth, 22, of Pleasant Hill.

Anyone with further information is encouraged to contact the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.