On Friday the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that investigators received an arrest warrant for Morgan Matthew Jack, 31, who is being charged with the June 2007 murder of 39-year-old Paul Joseph Womachka.
Jack, who is being held at San Quentin State Prison on a parole violation, is expected to be transported to Lake County later this month.
“I'm still in shock,” Erica Womachka, Paul Womachka's ex-wife, said of the arrest Friday.
She added that she also was relieved. “It seemed so long since anything had happened.”
It was Erica Womachka who reported her ex-husband missing on June 27, 2007.
The couple, who have three sons together, ran a Hey Taxi franchise together.
Around midnight last June 27, Paul Womachka was called to Robinson Rancheria, where he was hired to drive Jack home to Big Valley Rancheria, as Lake County News as reported.
When Paul Womachka never returned home, Erica Womachka contacted the authorities.
Two days later, on June 29, Womachka's body was found inside the submerged Hey Taxi minivan in the marina at Big Valley Rancheria's Konocti Vista Casino.
Rescuers told Lake County News that the minivan was in an area about 10 to 15 feet offshore and about 9 feet deep, and was discovered during preparations for BoardStock.
Authorities determined that, based on Womachka's autopsy, he had been murdered, although they have so far not disclosed the manner of his death.
Sheriff's investigators took Jack into custody and questioned him about Womachka early on because he was believed to be among the last people to have seen him alive.
After he was released authorities told Lake County News Jack had not been cleared in the case.
The investigation appeared to have stalled last fall, when the sheriff's office reported that they were not receiving cooperation from Big Valley tribal officials.
Lt. Cecil Brown said the sheriff's office had received second-hand reports about several rancheria residents claiming to have witnessed an attack on Womachka or taken part in it.
However, Brown said when investigators when to question people at the rancheria some either ran away from investigators or went into hiding.
Meanwhile, investigators also had sought help from General Motors, whose experts worked with the sheriff's office to recover information from the minivan's on-board computer in order to determine how it was being driven when it went into the marina.
Investigators also sent DNA evidence to the state Department of Justice for analysis in an attempt to identify possible suspects who may have been present during the murder.
Jack is in custody at San Quentin State Prison for violating parole relating to a 2001 conviction in Lake County for possession of a blank check, according to state parole officials. Jack received a four-year prison sentence in that case.
He also was sentenced to prison for two years and eight months in 1999 for possession of a controlled substance, parole officials reported.
When he is released from San Quentin on Feb. 28, Jack will be booked into the Lake County Jail on a single charge of homicide, the sheriff's office reported.
The sheriff's office was offering no further information on the case Friday, saying it was necessary to preserve the case's integrity.
Erica Womachka said she cried the minute she got the news about the arrest. She said she was grateful to the sheriff's department for their work on the case.
She said her three sons continue to struggle with their fathers' death, but she said she believes their father's influence will help get them through. “Joe was an incredibly good father so they have this great foundation.”
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact Lake County Sheriff’s Detective
Nicole Costanza at 262-4236.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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