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Renato Hughes, 23, of San Francisco, was acquitted last Friday by an all-woman jury, who found he was not responsible for the deaths of friends Christian Foster, 22, and Rashad Williams, 21, on Dec. 7, 2005.
On Monday, Hughes' Martinez jury returned to complete deliberations on a charge of assault causing great bodily injury, said District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
The jury had apparently nearly decided last week to find Hughes guilty of the charge until one juror changed her mind overnight, said Hopkins. That juror remained unconvinced and so the jury was declared hung on the charge, 11-1.
Defense attorneys Stuart Hanlon and Sara Rief couldn't be reached for comment late Monday.
Hughes and his friends allegedly had broken into the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds to steal medical marijuana.
As a result, Hughes had been charged with the deaths of his friends under the provocative act – which allows people who allegedly participate in violent crimes that can result in a lethal response to be charged with murder for any deaths that occur – even though it was homeowner Shannon Edmonds who shot the two men. Edmonds has not been charged in the case.
Last week Hughes also was acquitted of robbery and attempted murder, as Lake County News has reported. He was, however, found guilty of burglary and assault for a firearm.
The trial – which began June 11 – was moved to Contra Costa County earlier this year following a decision by a judge last November to grant Hanlon's change of venue motion.
Hopkins said Hughes will return to Judge Barbara Zuniga's courtroom at 11 a.m. Sept. 9 for sentencing.
Hughes faces a maximum of eight years in prison, with the burglary counted as a strike, said Hopkins.
By the time he is sentenced, Hughes will have spent two years and nine months in jail, said Hopkins.
Based on the formula for time served, which takes the time actually spent in jail and adds 50 percent, Hughes will have credit for just over four years against his sentence, Hopkins said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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The incident happened at about 10:40 p.m. Sunday south of Doten Road near the Konocti Conservation Camp, the California Highway Patrol reported.
CHP Officer Adam Garcia said the 34-year-old woman, whose name was not released pending family notification, was walking northbound on the east shoulder adjacent to the northbound lane.
Eric Nelson, 50, of Kelseyville was driving a 2006 Kia SUV northbound towards Kelseyville when his vehicle struck the woman. Garcia said the woman suffered fatal injuries.
Garcia said Nelson and his passengers were not reported as being injured.
The cause of the collision is under investigation by Officer Randy Forslund, Garcia reported.
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A man's body had been discovered Saturday morning on the Jago Bay community beach, as Lake County News reported Sunday.
Captain Jim Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office on Monday identified the man as 52-year-old Joel Christian Hansen.
The cause of Hansen's death, he added, does not appear to be due to foul play.
Bauman reported that sheriff's deputies and Lake County Fire Protection District rescue personnel were dispatched to the Jago Bay beach area, off of Anderson Road in Lower Lake, at about 11 a.m. Saturday on a reported drowning. Deputies responded from both land and water.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they were led to the beach where Hansen's body was lying at the water's edge. By that time, fire personnel had already arrived and determined Hansen to be deceased, Bauman said.
Bauman said Hansen’s fiancée, Stephanie Dressler of Orangedale, told deputies she and Hansen had gone to the beach the previous day at about 1 p.m.
When Dressler left the beach two hours later, she could not find Hansen but was not concerned as she assumed he had gone out on a boat with a friend, said Bauman. The following morning, she awoke and Hansen had still not returned to their summer home.
Dressler started asking friends and relatives in the area if they had seen Hansen but she soon learned she had apparently been the last one to see him alive the previous day, Bauman reported. They began looking for Hansen and when a relative went down to check the beach, she found Hansen face down in the water.
Hansen was pulled ashore by the relative and when others responded to her yells for help, the call to 911 was made, Bauman said.
A friend of Hansen’s from the east Bay Area told deputies that he and the Hansen family were longtime owners of the vacation homes along the Jago Bay beach. Bauman said the man told deputies that friends and family of the Hansens' were “partying heavily” the previous night.
Bauman said the man went on to tell deputies that in the morning, he heard friends and relatives calling for Hansen and a short time later, he heard Hansen’s cousin yelling for help from the beach. He responded to the beach and helped the cousin pull Hansen from the water.
Due to the obscure circumstances of Hansen’s death, sheriff’s detectives were called to the scene. Bauman said the exact cause of death is pending further investigation.
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NICE – An early afternoon collision near Nice on Monday resulted in injuries and a temporary closure of Highway 20.
The two-vehicle collision, which was reported shortly before 12:30 p.m., involved a car rear-ending another, according to an initial California Highway Patrol report.
At least one person from each vehicle was transported to area hospitals, including one to Sutter Lakeside and another by REACH air ambulance to Santa Rosa.
Both directions of Highway 20 were closed for about an hour, CHP reported.
Traffic was backed up a half-mile in each direction, with westbound traffic diverted at Pyle Road and the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff.
CHP reported that the crash victims suffered minor injuries. No other information about the collision was available late Monday afternoon.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Garcia said Kevin Wellmerling, 49, of Clearlake and two teenage girls from Cobb were injured in the two-car collision, which happened shortly after 1 p.m. Friday.
Garcia said a 17-year-old teen, whose name was not released, was driving a 2002 Chevy Suburban southbound on Highway 29 south of A Street near the Twin Lakes community when she lost control of her vehicle and crossed into the northbound lane.
There, she struck Wellmerling’s 1995 Pontiac Grand Am head-on, Garcia reported.
Garcia said it was initially claimed that the juvenile dropped a soda can at her feet and was attempting to retrieve it when the collision occurred.
A 16-year-old female passenger in the Suburban, whose name also was not released, had unbuckled her seatbelt to reach the soda when the collision occurred, he reported.
Garcia said the 17-year-old sustained major injuries and was taken to UC Davis Medical center by CalStar air ambulance.
Wellmerling was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital by CalStar with major injuries and the 16 year-old-passenger was taken to Redbud Community Hospital with minor to moderate injuries by South Lake Fire Protection District's ambulance, Garcia reported.
Due to the collision the roadway was closed for at least an hour in both directions, according to reports from the scene.
Garcia said Officer Robert Hearn is investigating the collision.
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David Garlow Deason, 68, of Clearlake was convicted in February 2006 of shooting to death his 48-year-old girlfriend Marie Parlet on Dec. 6, 2004.
However, last December the First Appellate District Court overturned Deason's conviction, ruling that the trial court in Lake County “erred in excluding evidence of his intoxication,” as Lake County News has reported.
“He's going to be retried,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
The trial, said Hinchcliff, is set to begin Sept. 9.
Deason allegedly had a blood alcohol level of 0.27 on the night he is alleged to have shot Parlet. The couple, according to court documents, had a disagreement earlier in the day, after which Deason left and returned later that evening. At that point he is alleged to have shot Parlet once in the chest and once in the back from a distance of 18 inches.
Judge Richard Martin had ruled during the 2006 trial that no evidence could be presented about Deason's level of intoxication. That included turning down a request by defense attorney J. David Markham to call a toxicologist to the stand.
Markham had argued that the toxicologist could explain that Deason had consumed as many as 14 drinks to get to the level of intoxication he allegedly reached. Markham also asked that the jurors be instructed to consider the alcohol consumption in deliberations.
The appellate court disagreed with Martin's ruling, saying that Deason's level of intoxication was crucial to the issues of premeditation and deliberation, which are necessary elements in a first-degree murder conviction.
Hinchcliff said the instructions about considering Deason's alleged intoxication will be given when Deason is tried next. “Other than that, it will be the same trial.”
Deputy District Attorney John Langan, who previously prosecuted the case, will work on the next trial as well, said Hinchcliff.
Langan did not return calls seeking comment. Nor did Doug Rhoades, who will be representing Deasn in his retrial.
“Probably the biggest challenge is going to be getting all of the witnesses back in to testify,” said Hinchcliff.
Parlet's son, James Clarkson, of San Marcos, Texas, told Lake County News he was in disbelief when he first heard of the conviction being overturned. He wasn't notified – he found out about it inadvertently on the Internet after searching for press on the original case. That's when the story of the overturned conviction came up.
He called the reasons for the conviction a “loophole,” and said he was convinced of Deason's guilt in shooting his mother at point blank range.
Clarkson said his mother was a “genuinely nice person” whose life was ended before her time. She was a loving mother to him, his brother and sister; she also had five grandchildren whom she hadn't yet met. He's considering coming to California for the retrial.
After his conviction was overturned, Deason was brought back to Lake County this spring. He is being held in the Lake County Jail without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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