When California citizens vote next week on Proposition 34, they could be holding the life of accused murderer Nathaniel Burris in their hands. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Burris, whose high-profile trial for a 2009 double-homicide at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge started in Martinez this week. Prop 34, which would abolish capital punishment in California, would remove that option. If Prop 34 passes, the 725 people on California’s death row – the largest in the…
In the week after gunshots disrupted Richmond High School’s homecoming events, school officials, police and parents said they were glad the situation wasn’t worse. Eight minutes were left in the football game against the Kennedy Eagles when a gun was fired near 23rd and Maricopa just beyond school property. After responding to the scene, police made the decision to stop the game and the homecoming dance. Students who had just arrived in their finest dress were held in the gym…
Gunshots fired close to Richmond High School on Friday night put an abrupt end to the school’s homecoming dance and football game against the Kennedy Eagles. Eight minutes were left in the game and the Eagles were up 16-6 when a gun was fired near 23rd and Maricopa, a stone’s throw from school grounds. Police stationed at the school for the game responded immediately, but by the time they got to the scene, everyone had scattered, Lt. Michael Booker said. No…
The first of six defendants in the Richmond High gang rape of 2009 was sentenced in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez today to 32 years in prison. The sentencing was a formality after Manuel Ortega, 22, plead guilty last month to counts of rape, rape by a foreign object, forced oral copulation resulting in great bodily injury and robbery. The Contra Costa County District Attorney was about to start jury selection earlier this year when Ortega approached Senior…
When the door opened at West County Detention Facility for Tamisha Walker, it was dark. After six months in jail, Walker was free. But she was alone. No one was there to pick her up. All she had was a bus ticket and a bag. “You just get on a bus,” Walker said. “And it’s a long, lonely ride.” Jeff Rutland knows the lonely freedom Walker spoke of. He’s reminded of it every time he sees a released inmate walk…
Jury selection began Tuesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez for a double homicide inside a Richmond restaurant in 2009. Four men have each been charged with two counts of murder plus gang offenses for the shooting and killing of Alvaro Garcia, 23, and Intaz Ahmed, 32, on Aug. 30, 2009 at the Pitt Boss Barbeque on San Pablo Avenue. The jury will consider the case of two of the defendants, Steven Miranda, 23, and Ignacio Ruiz, 31,…
A door is opening for undocumented immigrant youth who call the United States home. Many are applying for deferred action. But with an upcoming presidential election — between the president who deported the most people in his first term and a candidate who some fear will dismantle deferred action — some are hesitant to apply. This is your place for information on deferred action, the Latino vote, and the undocumented community. Check back as more stories come in.
Yazmin Martinez spent her Saturday morning in the Iron Triangle walking sidewalks littered with garbage and weeds, knocking on doors and asking residents who don’t normally vote to show up at the polls this November. She was encouraging voters to exercise their civic right because she cannot. Martinez is one of an estimated 5,000 undocumented immigrants in Richmond, according to a 2010 study by the Public Policy Institute of California. While Martinez doesn’t have a say in elections, that doesn’t…
One year has passed since California transferred responsibility for low-level felons to its counties, and Contra Costa officials have yet to pass a budget for the $19 million the county received in July to handle the transition — stalling services for inmates and people getting out of jail now. At a meeting Thursday the Community Corrections Partnership, a seven-member group charged with overseeing realignment, celebrated what it has accomplished: collaboration between departments and agencies. The partnership brings department heads from…
A 30-year-old Richmond man pleaded not guilty to murder charges for a shooting in mid-September at a hearing Tuesday in the Richmond Superior Court. Jafari Sargent turned himself in to the Richmond police on Sept. 18, a week after the shooting death of Isaiah Thomas. Eyewitnesses said the shooting resulted from an escalating argument between Thomas and Sargent, who were cousins. Sargent’s attorney, Colin Cooper, said that the victim provoked Sargent. “It wouldn’t have happened had he not been put…
With a proposed jail expansion now on the back burner, county officials are spending long hours hammering out the fine print of what Contra Costa services will look like for the low-level felons who have been transferred to county jurisdiction in the last year.
A Richmond man died on Monday night from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Detectives are still investigating the case, which they are recording as the 15th homicide this year.
You won’t find a pair of shoes hanging from the power lines high above 8th and Lincoln in Central Richmond. Instead, orange and red cough syrup bottles dangle from ropes flung across the wires, a signal that hits of codeine are sold on this street.