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Middletown man faces numerous felony charges for Aug. 8 break-in, assault
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Middletown man who was shot after a violent incident in which he broke into the home of his former domestic partner and beat her in front of one of their children has been taken into custody and is facing numerous felony charges.
Justin Simon Lord, 41, was sought by authorities following the Aug. 8 break-in and domestic violence incident that led to the shooting.
Lake County Sheriff’s spokesperson Lauren Berlinn said detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Lord, who was remanded into custody at the Lake County Superior Court during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 9000 block of Salmina Road in Kelseyville at 11:45 p.m. Aug. 8 in response to reports of a possible domestic violence incident and possible gunshots heard in the area, as Lake County News has reported.
The sheriff’s narrative said the call was made by a 9-year-old girl reporting that her father was hurting her mother, with screaming in the background.
His former girlfriend told authorities that Lord had been at her home earlier in the evening and appeared intoxicated. They argued because she wanted him to leave, fearing he would be violent as he’d been in the past when he had been drinking.
Later that night, she had been asleep and awoke to find Lord standing beside her bed. He then grabbed her by the hair, and as she tried to get to a window to call for help, he pulled a blade off the ceiling fan and hit her with it.
As the struggle ensued, he pinned her against the bed then shoved her into a metal clothes rack. When he saw his daughter on the phone with 911, he took the phone from her and threw it away so it was out of her reach.
He then broke a metal bar off the clothes rack, used it to break the bedroom television and then hit the victim in the head with it, before chasing her and the child down a hallway and into the living room, breaking a closet door and another television in the living room as he went.
After he left the home, the woman locked the front door, and then she and the child locked themselves in a bathroom. While hiding there, they heard four gunshots.
When they arrived, deputies found Lord with a gunshot wound to the leg, which also was broken, as well as what appeared to be a graze wound to the top of his head.
The report on the incident said he had been in a physical fight with a friend of his ex-girlfriend who lived on the property as well as her new husband, who shot Lord during a struggle.
The report said Lord punched his ex-girlfriend’s husband, threatened him with a knife and then told him he had a firearm and was going to shoot him. The victim’s husband had a handgun that he shot in the air as a warning before Lord tackled him.
It was during the fight, as the men wrestled for the gun, that the gun fired one shot before it fell out of the owner’s hands. As Lord tried to grab the gun, it fired again. The second man was able to get control of the gun again and put it under the porch.
Lord was taken to an out-of-county hospital, treated and released. The neighbor and the woman’s husband were not arrested, as deputies concluded the shooting was in self-defense.
Charging document includes numerous felonies, cites prior convictions
An arrest warrant was issued for Lord on Aug. 16, but until this week deputies had not been able to locate him.
The District Attorney’s Office has charged Lord with 11 felonies, one misdemeanor and a special allegation.
The felonies include burglary; inflicting corporal injury on the mother of his children, with a previous conviction for that crime in December 2020; two counts of stalking, with a February 2022 conviction for violating a restraining order; assault with a deadly weapon, in this case, the metal rod from the clothes rack; assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury; vandalism; two counts of making criminal threats, one for the female victim and one for her husband and the neighbor who fought with Lord; and assault with a deadly weapon, a knife, on the man who shot Lord during the struggle.
The misdemeanor charge is for damaging a communications device to prevent help, specifically, when he took the phone from the child.
The special allegation is based on the violence of the crime, the fact that Lord was armed with a knife, the victims’ vulnerability, his threats, previous convictions and unsatisfactory probation performance.
The case documents also show that in August 2019 Lord assaulted his ex-girlfriend — slapping her and throwing her to the ground — two days before backing his pickup into her vehicle when she was meeting him to drop off their infant twin sons in a child custody exchange.
Lord’s attorney argues for warrant to be dropped
In a motion filed on Aug. 21, Lord’s attorney, Justin Petersen of Ukiah, sought to have the arrest warrant for Lord recalled on the grounds that it “is in the interests of justice in that it was issued before the defendant had an opportunity to appear in court voluntarily.”
Petersen said Lord contacted him the previous day to say he had heard a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He did not believe he had been sent a notice to appear by the court.
“I am asking that this matter be calendared for warrant recall to avoid the unnecessary inconvenience and expense to the sheriff’s office of having to find Mr. Lord, book him, house him, and bring him to the court for arraignment,” Petersen wrote. “Of course, warrant recall would also spare Mr. Lord the embarrassment of having to surrender to the jail which defense counsel believes to be just given that Mr. Lord is willing to voluntarily submit himself to the jurisdiction of the court.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson told Lake County News in a Friday interview that Lord appeared in court on Tuesday with Petersen, who argued for the warrant’s recall.
Abelson, along with the victim’s attorney, Angela Carter, successfully argued for maintaining the warrant and placing Lord in custody, which Judge Andrew Blum ordered.
In making her argument, Abelson said Lord fails to follow court orders, is highly dangerous, has prior domestic violence and probation violations, and taking him into custody was both for the safety of the victim and the public.
Lord was arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail following that hearing on Tuesday morning, based on his booking record.
He’s being held on no bail, which Abelson said is expected to remain in place, as there isn’t a bail review scheduled. “Unless there’s a change in circumstances he should remain in custody,” she said.
Lord was back in court on Friday morning, at which time his preliminary hearing, set for Sept. 5, was assigned to Judge J. David Markham, Abelson said.
If Lord is convicted of the charges, Abelson said he could face between five and 10 years in state prison.
In addition, she said that the assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats counts are strikes upon conviction.
She said that would mean he could be eligible for longer three strikes sentencing if he had another case conviction in a future felony case.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Clearlake Animal Control: ‘Atlas,’ ‘Waldo,’ ‘Page’ and ‘Bubba’
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Four special dogs are being highlighted this week at Clearlake Animal Control.
Among the 36 adoptable dogs available this week are four great dogs that city officials said have been waiting for more than two years for their new homes.
They are “Atlas,” “Bubba,” “Paige” and “Waldo.”
Atlas is a male shepherd mix, Bubba is a mixed breed, and Paige and Waldo are both American pit bull mixes.
All four dogs have been altered and given their shots.
City officials ask people looking for a new pet to come and check them out or to tell others about them in order to find them their forever families.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Lake County Air Quality Management District announces temporary office closure
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Air Quality Management District office is temporarily closed to walk-in traffic due to a staffing shortage.The office closure starts Sept. 3 and will remain in effect until further notice.
All in-person services will require an appointment to ensure district staff is available.
To request an appointment, please call the district and leave a message with your name, phone number and reason you are calling. District staff will contact you to schedule an appointment.
Please check the district website for additional details.
Information will be posted soon with general instructions to obtain building permit sign-offs, CEQA reviews, and other reviews that are not part of a district permit evaluation. To ensure timely response to requests, complete data submittals and forms are required.
At this time, the district is no longer able to participate in pass through grant programs including the FARMER program, woodsmoke (woodstove changeout) program and the Community Air Monitoring program.
Updates to the office closure, burn program, and other operations will be posted on the district website in the coming weeks.
“We appreciate your support and understanding at this difficult time,” the district said in its announcement.
California launches ‘Facts Fight Fentanyl’ campaign to combat overdoses and save lives
The California Department of Public Health on Wednesday announced the launch of “Facts Fight Fentanyl,” a new statewide public education campaign to ensure Californians know the dangers of fentanyl and have the information they need to prevent overdoses and save lives.“Facts Fight Fentanyl” will provide Californians with critical information about fentanyl and life-saving tools such as naloxone.
The campaign will continue through June 2025.
“The goal of ‘Facts Fight Fentanyl’ is to ensure Californians know the dangers of fentanyl and how to prevent an overdose with the lifesaving medication naloxone,” said Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, CDPH director and state Public Health officer. “We all want to live in a California free of the harms of fentanyl. When we all have the facts on fentanyl, we can combat this crisis and work together to build safer, healthier communities."
In California, drug overdose is now the leading cause of death among 25- to 54-year-olds.
In 2022, California saw more than 7,000 overdose deaths related to opioids – of those deaths, 87 percent involved fentanyl.
An amount of fentanyl as small as a few grains of salt is enough to be deadly, yet many Californians are unaware of the dangers of fentanyl until it is too late.
“Facts Fight Fentanyl” seeks to provide Californians with information to combat and prevent fentanyl-related overdoses.
“Facts Fight Fentanyl” is part of CDPH’s Overdose Prevention Initiative, which collects and shares data on fatal and non-fatal drug-related overdoses, drug-related overdose risk factors, prescriptions, and substance use.
The Overdose Prevention Initiative supports substance-use prevention programs through evidence-based tools and strategies, public awareness and education, and promoting safe and effective prescribing and treatment practices throughout the state.
“Facts Fight Fentanyl” builds on an earlier campaign launched last year to break down the stigma of addiction and increase awareness around the accessibility of treatment.
Unshame CA, a collaboration between the California Department of Health Care Services and Shatterproof, works to develop an understanding of substance use disorder as a treatable medical condition.
The Overdose Prevention Initiative supports California’s implementation of the Campus Opioid Safety Act — effective January 2023 — which aims to reduce opioid-related overdoses and deaths through public colleges and universities by providing life-saving education, information, and federally approved opioid overdose reversal medication on campus, like naloxone.
In 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray which could be purchased directly by consumers in places like drug stores, grocery stores and gas stations, as well as online.
But to address the potentially prohibitive cost, California’s CalRX Naloxone Access Initiative secured over-the-counter nasal spray for a reduced price of $24 per twin-pack, and passes along that transparent, cost-efficient price to qualifying governmental and business entities.
Qualifying entities can also obtain free naloxone through California’s Naloxone Distribution Project, or NDP, which was created in 2018 to combat opioid -overdose related deaths throughout California.
The NDP has distributed more than 4,829,500 kits of naloxone, which have been used to reverse more than 290,000 overdoses.
The campaign includes educational materials in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean across a multitude of communication platforms, including social media, radio, television, and outdoor advertising such as billboards and bus stops.
The “Facts Fight Fentanyl” campaign also engaged with partner Tribal organizations during the development of the campaign.
Efforts to engage tribal communities is a key element on the campaign and include prioritizing preferred streaming platforms, focusing ad placements in Native American community health center screens, and pitching specifically to news outlets that reach Native American communities.
As part of the campaign, CDPH has also launched a new website, FactsFightFentanyl.org, to ensure Californians can easily access resources and information related to fentanyl.
FactsFightFentanyl.org includes an interactive map showing where Californians can access naloxone for free or for purchase in their communities.
CDPH’s efforts are one facet of Governor Newsom's approach to combating the opioid crisis, as outlined in his March 2023 Master Plan for Tackling the Fentanyl and Opioid Crisis.
In addition to efforts to prevent and support substance abuse and addiction, CDPH has also focused on educating Californians on the dangers of opioids as well as promoting the use of life-saving naloxone and encouraging the use of test strips to identify the presence of fentanyl. For more information on California’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, visit opioids.ca.gov.
