The partial remains of what appeared to be a human were found Feb. 3, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

An Upper Lake resident hiking off of Clover Valley Road came upon the remains and reported them to the sheriff's office, Bauman said.

The sheriff's Major Crimes Unit put together a small team to hike into the area, which Bauman said has some “very rough terrain.”

At the bottom of a steep rise they found some bones that they believed to be human, Bauman said. In the immediate area, they also found a shirt and one shoe which he said appear to belong to an adult male.

Bauman said the sheriff's office has no pending missing persons cases for that area.

Investigators also aren't currently speculating about how long the remains have been there, Bauman said.

However, he added that a forensic examination will take place in an effort to determine more about the bones and identify the individual to whom they belonged.

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Joshua Isaac Wandrey Sr., 35, Deborah Ann James, 47, and Thomas Loyd Dudney, 59, were in Judge Richard Martin's Department 2 courtroom on Friday morning for a preliminary hearing.

They're being tried on charges in connection with the Oct. 20 attack on 49-year-old Ronald Greiner of Lakeport, who was shot, brutally beaten – suffering numerous broken bones all over his body, including his face – and hogtied with barbed wire, with 10 pounds of marijuana in his home stolen.

“He would have died had he not been discovered,” District Attorney Jon Hopkins told Lake County News on Friday.

Wandrey and Dudney are charged with premeditated attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture, home invasion robbery in concert with another, first degree burglary with a person at home, assault with a firearm, assault with a blunt force object, assault likely to cause great bodily injury and serious battery, a gang charge and special allegations of use of a firearm and a gang enhancement, Hopkins said.

James is charged with attempted murder, robbery and burglary. She is out on bail, while Wandrey and Dudney remain in custody in the Lake County Jail.

The prosecution alleges that Dudney is a member of the Misfits motorcycle gang, and that Wandrey was a membership prospect who took part in the crime to earn his stripes.

The violence of the attack, said Hopkins, is a trait connected with the Misfits, which don't have a large presence on the North Coast, based on this investigation.

“Their size has greatly diminished over the years and so they are smaller than they used to be,” Hopkins said, adding that most of the members are getting on in years or in prison.

Regarding the gang allegations, Stephen Carter, Wandrey's defense attorney, said he was disappointed in Hopkins for trying the case in the press “when our trial is probably not very far in the future,” and potential jurors could be reading about it.

Hopkins recently dropped the charges against Dudney and refiled them in order to add the gang charges and consolidate his proceedings on the main charge in the case with those of Wandrey and James.

“I want to try the three together,” Hopkins said.

Court didn't convene until about 9:30 a.m. Friday, when Martin called the case.

Hopkins told the court he was ready to proceed with the exception of one detective who was out ill and another one who was ill but planning to stay in the event the case was called.

He said they could proceed if the defendants were willing to waive the sole session rule for the preliminary hearing, which would allow a portion to be held Friday and the rest the following week. Otherwise, he suggested the proceedings be pushed back entirely.

“That was the reason for the delay, so each of you could speak with your clients,” Martin said to defense attorneys Komnith Moth, Carter and Doug Rhoades, representing James, Wandrey and Dudney, respectively.

Before court had convened Martin had called the three attorneys into his chambers.

Moth waived the time limits for his client, which Rhoades and Carter didn't do. Martin said he found good cause for the date change because of the circumstances and he ordered the matter continued one week. The preliminary hearing for the three will be held at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 26.

Later that afternoon, two other defendants in the case – Joseph Henri Deshetres, 62, of Santa Rosa and Cheryl Ann Reese, 57 of Lakeport – were in court along with Dudney for a separate preliminary hearing. All are being charged with gang membership or participation, a gang enhancement and witness intimidation, said Hopkins.

Deshetres, like Dudney, is accused of being a Misfits gang member, Hopkins said. Both Deshetres and Reese also remain in the Lake County Jail.

The preliminary hearing on those charges began last Thursday, continued Friday and will need to be continued next week, as the prosecution's gang expert didn't complete his testimony Friday, Hopkins said.

“The prosecution has not yet shown any definitive evidence that Mr. Dudney was directly involved in threatening or attempting to dissuade any witness from testifying,” Rhoades told Lake County News late Friday.

The witness Dudney is accused of threatening had moved into a Sonoma County home where he was staying, and Rhoades said the subject had moved into Dudney's room, took his belongings and was getting rid of them, as well as allegedly lying about Dudney's involvement in the case.

Rhoades said when Dudney told his landlord, the witness' brother-in-law, that he wanted to “get rid of her,” he meant to get her out of room and the house.

“Nothing more nefarious was intended, and the prosecution has not shown as yet any evidence that either Mr. Dudney nor anyone he was in contact with threatened or intimidated that witness in any way,” Rhoades said.

While they don't yet know how Judge Arthur Mann will rule in the case, at this point “we do not feel that the prosecution has met its burden of providing sufficient evidence for a holding order,” Rhoades said.

The investigation is continuing in the case, Hopkins said, however, as to the likelihood of further arrests, “I couldn't say either way right now.”

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Shannon Lee Edmonds, 35, and Melvin Dale Norton, 38, were interviewed separately by Clearlake Police detectives within hours of the death of 25-year-old Shelby Uehling, who was found beaten and stabbed to death alongside of Old Highway 53 shortly after 1 a.m. Sept. 22.

Edmonds and Norton are being tried together for the death of Uehling, a Montanan who had moved to Lake County several months before his death.

Prosecutor Art Grothe played for the jury three recorded interviews, first with Norton, then Edmonds, then Norton again, who police pressed on the differing points of their stories.

Clearlake Police Det. Tom Clements, who had led the interviews of both men, took the stand first thing Thursday, when the trial resumed after a week-long break. He was on the stand during the morning, as the recordings of the interviews were played, and about 45 minutes in the afternoon session.

Clements arrived at the murder scene at about 2 a.m. Sept. 22, and within hours leads took police to Norton's home at the Lotowana trailer resort and to Edmonds', in a trailer park a few blocks away.

Clements said he and other officers spoke to Norton outside of his singlewide trailer, and were given permission to enter. When they went inside, Clements spotted a pair of blood-covered sneakers and immediately ordered everyone out and the scene locked down until a search warrant was issued.

In Norton's initial police interview, which lasted 29 minutes, he denied having any physical confrontation with Uehling, but said he had spoken to him on the phone a few days before Uehling's death.

He said Uehling had been calling repeatedly to speak with Patricia Campbell, a close family friend of Norton's who he referred to as his cousin, and who had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Edmonds.

Uehling and Campbell had a brief romantic relationship during a short breakup between she and Edmonds, according to previous trial testimony. Campbell then called it off and went back to Edmonds.

“She didn't want him coming around, didn't want him calling her anymore,” Norton said of Uehling, adding that Uehling “wouldn't let up” when it came to calling her.

On Sept. 21, Norton spent the day working on his Nissan Pathfinder at Edmonds', they had a barbecue and he later returned home to the trailer he shared with girlfriend Jackie Shelafoe.

Norton told police that Edmonds came to his home later that night, stating that he had gotten into a fight, but didn't say who he had fought.

At that point in the interview, Clements told Norton that he knew he had called Edmonds to tell him that Uehling's car was parked near Old Highway 53, and that Edmonds had come over and together they went up to the car.

“I'm telling you, be honest with me, man, we already know a lot,” said Clements, adding that “lies are not going to help anything.”

Norton then told police that he and Edmonds went up the hill, saw Uehling sitting in his car, and that Uehling and Edmonds got into a fight. He said he walked down the road a little ways because he didn't want to be involved.

He said the pants he wore that night had blood on the front of the right leg because Edmonds had touched his leg, and that blood drops on his shoes were from Edmonds, whose hands Norton said were covered in blood.

Back at Norton's home, he said Edmonds washed his knife and Norton put it in a plastic shopping bag between the mattresses of the bed in the trailer's spare bedroom. Edmonds changed his clothes, put them in a bag under the bed, and wore a pair of shorts home.

Police pressed Norton on his involvement in the fight, and asked why he hadn't called police to report it or the fact that Uehling was badly injured.

When Clements and Sgt. Tim Celli said they didn't believe his story, Norton replied angrily, “I'm a three-strike candidate. I'm watching my Ps and Qs,” adding that he had to if he didn't want to go back to prison.

He maintained he didn't know what happened to Uehling. “I didn't hit him, I didn't kick him, I didn't stab him, I didn't do anything but yell at him.”

The interview ended with Norton asking police for a cigarette and complaining that the interview room was cold.

Edmonds recalls being terrified

About an hour after ending their interview with Norton, Celli and Clements sat down with Edmonds to interrogate him about the incident.

Edmonds said he met Uehling a few weeks before the confrontation while working on a client's car. He said he didn't really know him, but that Uehling had been coming around to talk to Campbell, who told him that Uehling was stalking her.

Two days before the fatal fight, Uehling had showed up at Campbell's mother's home, located next door to Edmonds' motor home, at about 1 a.m., he said. Uehling walked around the trailer, knocking on the windows. Edmonds said he went out and asked Uehling to leave and he did.

Initially, Edmonds claimed that was the last time he saw Uehling.

On Sept. 21, he got up early to get his teenage daughter ready to leave for school, then went back to bed and got up later in the morning. He spent the day hanging out at his home with friends. He said he and Norton hung out, smoked some marijuana and Norton went home around 2 a.m.

Clements and Celli admonished him to be honest. “I am honest, OK, you know that,” said Edmonds.

“Well, I thought you were before, but now I don't know,” said Clements, asking if Edmonds wanted to explain his bloody shoes, knife and clothing.

Edmonds originally denied being in a fight, and said he got scratches on his forehead from falling over a fence while walking next door to buy marijuana.

“All right, man, what happened?” Clements pressed.

“This is bulls***,” Edmonds replied.

He was asked if he was aware Uehling was dead. “That's what you told me,” he said.

“The worst thing you can do is lie to us,” said Clements.

“Can I have a cigarette?” Edmonds asked.

“After we're done,” said Clements.

“Promise?” Edmonds asked.

He went on to recount that he got a call from Norton, who said he thought he had spotted Uehling's car on a nearby road. Edmonds said he and Norton went up to see Uehling and tell him to leave Campbell alone.

But the confrontation quickly turned into a brawl. Edmonds said Uehling pulled a knife out of the waistband of his shorts; Edmonds said he initially thought the knife was going to be a gun.

“He stabbed me in the arm. I pulled out my knife and I stabbed him,” Edmonds said.

Clements asked him why he didn't call the police. Edmonds said because he figured Uehling was badly hurt.

He also told police that he didn't want to go to prison over Uehling, who he accused of being a drug dealer. Edmonds said he called Celli several days before the confrontation about Uehling and drugs but didn't get any help.

“I'm going to go to prison for the rest of my life,” Edmonds said.

When pressed about not going to police, Edmonds said, “I was terrified. I'm still terrified,” and he accused Uehling of stalking and frightening Campbell.

“Every time I do call you guys I get the runaround and I get treated like s***,” he said.

During the interview, Celli confronted Edmonds about his report to police about Uehling and a drug lab, and Celli accused him of calling police to mess with Campbell because she and Edmonds were on the outs. “Don't pin this on anybody else but yourself,” Celli said.

As he continued his description of his brawl with Uehling, Edmonds described he and Uehling hitting the pavement fighting, “boxing and wrestling and everything else.” He said he couldn't recount every detail because it happened so fast.

When he and Norton got back to Norton's home, they washed their hands, and Edmonds said he washed the knife and the cut on his arm, which he later bandaged. They then put their clothes in a plastic bag in the trailer's spare bedroom.

“Obviously, I'm probably going to jail, right?” Edmonds asked.

He then asked for a cigarette and told Clements that he's not a bad guy, that he was protecting Campbell, who was very frightened.

“You should have seen the f***ing look in her eye. I love her. I love her. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever been with. She has a personality that is just amazing,” said Edmonds, who told detectives that before they got together Campbell had gotten hooked on crank.

Following that interview with Edmonds, a few hours later police reinterviewed Norton, and pointed out the discrepancies between his account and that of Edmonds.

They asked Norton if he ever hit Uehling, and he said he pushed him away, and said he wasn't sure how he got covered in blood.

During the fight, Edmonds was on top of Uehling most of the time. Norton recalled Uehling screaming as he was lying on the side of the road under an oak tree – where his lifeless body later would be found by police.

Following the playing of the interviews, Clements explained pictures of some of the evidence to the jury and told of how the California Department of Justice only usually takes three items per person for testing, but that he convinced them to take more.

While police took numerous pieces of evidence in the case, ultimately they submitted 16 items for testing, after Clements said he and DOJ officials concurred on which items were the most important for the purposes of the case.

At the end of Clements' testimony, the prosecution rested.

Defense attorneys Stephen Carter, representing Norton, and Doug Rhoades, representing Edmonds, will begin presenting their cases when the trial reconvenes at 9 a.m. next Tuesday, Feb. 23.

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LAKEPORT – This week Lakeport's chief of police introduced a new crime-fighting tool to the Lakeport City Council and community members.

At the Tuesday Lakeport City Council meeting, Chief Kevin Burke shared with the council his agency's plans to use www.crimereports.com .

Lakeport's data on the site will be live within the next few weeks, and will be available either by directly accessing the site or by going to Lakeport Police's Web page, www.cityoflakeport.com/departments/home.aspx?deptid=76 .

“It's a great, great tool, not only for the public but for police management as well,” Burke told the council.

The company's Web site says it works with 700 police agencies across North America to compile crime statistics, and offers law enforcement software tools to document crime trends.

Community members also can sign up for free e-mail crime alerts, the company reported. A new iPhone application also has been launched to share crime information.

Burke said the Internet-based tool is the “ultimate in transparency.” It will provide the community with greater information on where crimes are taking place, and give his department an effective tool to disseminate crime information with a view to solving cases.

When going to the site, community members can put “Lakeport” into the search area. The site will then bring up a map with listings for various crimes, when they occurred and what type of crime occurred.

Names and exact locations won't be provided to the public, but will be available to police, Burke said. Site users can look up specific types of crimes and locations.

The site already features six months of Lakeport Police data, Burke said. “Every one of our officers will be looking at this on a daily basis,” because he said it gives a good snapshot of what crimes are occurring in the community.

He said he feels it will be an important information source for the media and city residents. “I think if you live in a town you have the right to know what's happening, crime-wise.”

It also will be a benefit to the police department, which can use the site and its crime dissemination tools to develop responses. Burke said many larger police agencies have been using the site for five to six years.

Lakeport Police has been offered a “teaser” rate of $1,500 for six months, Burke said. The annual cost for the department would be $4,000.

He said larger departments have crime analysts who pour over data and manually enter it into a crime tracking system. This tool will put Lakeport Police on par with larger departments in terms of its ability to analyze crime statistics.

During a recent string of commercial burglaries, Burke said his officers had to pull out a regular map and do old-style pin mapping to try to identify patterns, which this program does automatically. It also alerts police to anomalies in crime rates and types.

“Criminals are creatures of habit, just like everybody else,” he said, and tracking statistical patterns will help apprehend them quicker.

Burke said the site will bring Lakeport Police into the “modern paradigm of crime fighting.”

He said he's been looking at the program for a year, and used asset forfeiture funds as seed money for the project. When the city's budgeting process starts later this spring, he said he'll be able to bring the council information on how effective it is.

Councilman Ron Bertsch asked who enters the data into the program.

Burke said any time an officer takes a report, it is logged into the department's RIMS report management system.

Every night at midnight, that information is sent to www.crimereports.com through a secure connection, requiring no additional staff time to produce the data and therefore no hidden manpower costs, Burke said.

The company is familiar with numerous records management systems, including Lakeport's, Burke explained. After about a half hour on the phone with one of Lakeport Police's sergeants, the company was able to link to the system and being receiving the information.

No other local agencies are using the site so far, Burke said.

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Martin McCarthy, left, and Jack Baxter, both of Lakeport, have decided to enter the 2010 race to be the next Lake County Sheriff. Photo of McCarthy by Elizabeth Larson; photo of Baxter, courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT – The 2010 race for the office of Lake County Sheriff has just doubled in size.

Martin McCarthy, 55, and Jack Baxter, 65, both of Lakeport, told Lake County News that they will seek the office this year.

They join a field so far that includes incumbent Rod Mitchell, seeking his fifth term, and Deputy Francisco Rivero.

In response to the news about the men joining the race, Rivero said, “Welcome aboard.”

He added, “I'm grateful that the public has an opportunity to make their decision. The more choices the better.”

Mitchell said he would decline comment at this early stage in the race.

Both Baxter and McCarthy bring extensive law enforcement experience to the race and ideas for how to run the department, which has a $26 million annual budget and more than 100 personnel.

They each criticized Mitchell's administration, saying that they felt it lacked transparency and that better leadership and staff development is needed.

“This race is, in my opinion, about integrity, in addition to the decision making processes that the sheriff has used,” McCarthy said.

Each of the men has taken out papers with the Lake County Registrar of Voters to begin circulating petitions to collect signatures to submit in lieu of filing fees. Declaration of candidacy and nomination papers will be circulated beginning Feb. 16.

Baxter wants to bring new ideas to department

Baxter, a fourth generation California native raised in San Juan Bautista and Hollister, has worked in law enforcement for 38 years.

He retired in 2003 as a sergeant with the San Jose Police Department, an agency with 3,000 personnel. During his career he had a wide variety of assignments, from the Bureau of Field Operations and Special Operations Division to SWAT and a mounted horse unit. He also worked in the department's investigation bureau, working on homicide, robbery, narcotics, sexual assault and special investigations cases.

After his retirement, he and his wife moved to Lakeport in 2004. Baxter has three grown children and four grandchildren. His oldest grandson is a Marine based in Camp Pendleton who is preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.

In retirement, he's remained active as the executive director of the California Robbery Investigators Association, which serves 3,500 members from the western United States and is dedicated to providing professional training through an annual training seminar. He also coordinates the association's robbery intelligence network.

He and Lou Riccardi – a retired San Mateo homicide detective who moved to Lake County and now is a part-time investigator with the Lakeport Police Department, working on the unsolved murder of Barbara LaForge – also worked to find a young woman named Christie Wilson, who disappeared in 2006 in Placer County. The young woman has never been found.

Baxter's educational background includes an associate's degree in police science from Gavilan College, a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco, an AA in Police Science from Gavilan College and postgraduate courses in peer counseling, post traumatic stress disorder and critical incident stress debriefing for emergency service personnel through the Jeffrey Mitchell Institute.

He received his teaching credential from UC Berkeley and the Peace Officer Standards and Training's (POST) Robert Presley Institute of Criminal Investigation, and is a faculty advisor, senior instructor and program coordinator for the Administration of Justice Bureau at San Jose State University where he teaches several times a year.

In addition to his experience, connections and background, Baxter said he has strong leadership skills. His experience in leadership included running patrol units of about 11 officers in the capacity as the San Jose Police Department's most senior sergeant.

He said he enjoyed working in the field and talking to people, and in his role with San Jose Police they practiced community-oriented, team policing, which in part focuses on the community's needs and wants.

Baxter said when he retired the thought of running for office was the furthest thing from his mind. Serving as a board member of San Jose Police Officers Association was the closest thing he got to politics.

Now, however, he wants to enter the race due to his concerns about how the department is being run.

Many of Baxter's concerns arise from recent cases, including the Bismarck Dinius sailboat crash case, and allegations that a sheriff's sergeant used grant funds to pay for helicopter flight training, which he's read about at length on local medias and blogs.

Those issues have led him to conclude that “something is radically wrong” in the department, which he attributes to poor leadership and poor management style.

“I think this department certainly lacks a well-defined chain of command, where each level knows who they're reporting to,” he said.

He said he believes the Lake County Sheriff's Office needs to be reviewed from “top to bottom,” and one of his goals as sheriff would be to develop people to assume leadership positions.

He said he's talked to both Rivero and Mitchell at length. Of his discussion with Mitchell, he said, “We agree on some issues and some other issues we don't.”

Baxter said he's also talked to department members who told him they were afraid of retribution for speaking out. “Whether it's perceived or whether it's real, I don't know,” he said.

He suggested that law enforcement officers need to be problem solvers, who are actively engaged in proactive policing.

Baxter has seen outsiders come into departments and help make important changes.

He said the sheriff's office has evolved to what it is, and they need to be open to change.

“I think new ideas are exactly what's needed,” he said. “You can be in office too long.”

Baxter, at age 65, said he wouldn't expect to serve more than two terms, and would work to develop a successor to eventually seek the office.

McCarthy brings background that includes tribal policing

McCarthy, who first moved to Lake County in 1988, isn't new to sheriff's campaigns. He ran against Mitchell in 1994 in a wide open field of five candidates and no incumbent. Mitchell and Joe Totorica would runoff in November, with Don Anderson, McCarthy and Earl Whitmore out after the June 1994 election.

Since then, he's been approached by former supporters who urged him to run for the office, and after talking with several influential county residents, he decided to join the race.

McCarthy and wife, Judy, live in Lakeport with their son, Brenden, 13. He also has grown children from a previous marriage.

He spends a lot of time in the leadership at the Evangelical Free Church. “That's a big part of my life.”

The McCarthys also are active in the Center for Life Choices in Ukiah, and he coaches youth football and basketball.

Like Baxter, McCarthy criticized Mitchell's decisions, but he said he doesn't think Mitchell himself is a bad person.

He also pointed to perceptions that favoritism – not merit – is how people advance through the agency.

McCarthy has a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice administration from Pacific Union College in Angwin and 25 years in law enforcement. He began as a police officer in Santa Clara in 1980 and eventually moved on to Santa Rosa Police before arriving in 1990 at Clearlake Police, where he was a senior patrol sergeant.

In 1999 he left Clearlake and became a quality control supervisor with L3 Communications in Folsom, and later was a security screener for the Transportation Security Administration in Sacramento for a year before he was hired as a police sergeant with the Hopland Tribal Police Department in 2003.

In 2004, he worked as chief of guards for Sectek/Dyncorp. at Beale Air Force Base, moving on a year later to become assistant director of public safety at University of the Pacific/McGeorge School of Law. In 2007 he was vice president of operations for All Phase Security in West Sacramento.

In November 2007, he was hired as Hopland's tribal police chief, where he served until this past September.

McCarthy said he was able to do some pioneering work in tribal policing, including establishing memorandums of understanding with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office for booking prisoners and with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office to allow the department to directly file criminal cases. He also established an MOU with the US Department of Justice for asset forfeiture.

He also recently worked with POST on developing a tribal policing video that was just released, and he spoke at a California Indian Legal Services event in San Diego.

“There were a lot of firsts,” McCarthy said.

Despite those accomplishments, McCarthy was terminated by the tribe this past September, which he said has never happened to him before.

He said his termination resulted over the tribal chairman's perception that he had political loyalties to a previous tribal chair. After McCarthy left, other council members were removed and an injunction was filed.

McCarthy has experience with total quality management, and he said he would use that method to help evaluate the sheriff's department from top to bottom.

If elected, he would start on day one by sitting in the dispatch center to watch calls come in and to begin tracking cases as they moved through the department.

He believes that within 90 days of beginning an administration he could have a plan to revamp the agency. Part of that would include drafting organizational and mission statements, empowering every employee to help people and solve problems, developing a system for continuous feedback and promoting community oriented policing.

“The time has come to give the sheriff's department back to the people,” he said. “For too long you have a sheriff's office that tells you what you need rather than asking you what you want.”

McCarthy said it also would be critical to try to motivate deputies to stay with the agency and not move on, and part of that would include strongly advocating for the 3 percent at 50 Public Employees' Retirement System plan, which the county doesn't currently have for sheriff's personnel.

McCarthy, who is a sailor, joined others from the sailing world in criticizing the sheriff's office for its part in the Dinius case, which he said was “mishandled terribly.”

He stated that there was a fatal incident protocol that was established countywide in the 1990s that came out of a situation in which an off-duty sheriff's deputy was involved in a crash that killed another driver in the city of Clearlake.

McCarthy, an accident reconstructionist, was on the scene and stated that he couldn't take on processing the scene because he knew the deputy involved.

“After that it was developed,” said McCarthy. “They realized they didn't have anything in place for people who knew each other.”

He saw the document and gave input on it, but added, “I don't know what's happened to that.”

People are the agency's greatest asset, and he said the most important positions in the department are the first line supervisors, or sergeants, who can “make or break the organization.”

He said a very important managerial principle he espouses is “no surprises” – if there are performance issues, it's important to let people know immediately.

McCarthy – who said he takes a “buck stops here” approach – suggested that having administrative staff occasionally cover beats is a good way of making sure policies and procedures work.

He said he believes the most important quality for a sheriff is accountability to the people.

“The weakness of mine is not being in the sheriff's department right now,” he said,” but I also believe that to be a benefit.”

Both McCarthy and Baxter say they expect to have Web sites and more information about their campaigns available soon.

McCarthy welcomes people to contact him about his campaign at 707-533-0654.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

In a nine-page unpublished decision, the three justices unanimously upheld Renato Hughes Jr.'s conviction, handed down in August 2008 in a Martinez court, where it was moved due to pretrial publicity.

Hughes also was convicted of a special allegation of being armed with a shotgun during the commission of a burglary.

Hughes, now 25, was at the center of a widely publicized case centering on a break-in that occurred on Dec. 7, 2005.

He and two friends, Christian Foster, 22, and Rashad Williams, 21, had allegedly broken into the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds and his then-girlfriend, Lori Tyler, to steal marijuana.

During the incident, Edmonds, Tyler and Tyler's 17-year-old son, Dale Lafferty, were assaulted, with Lafferty being beaten with a bat, causing longterm brain injury.

Edmonds shot Foster and Williams as they fled from his house. Williams died at the scene, while Foster – who was found alive in some bushes across from the home – later died of his wounds, according to court documents.

Hughes was charged under the provocative act law with homicide for Foster's and Williams' deaths because he allegedly had been part of committing crimes that could result in a lethal response. During the trial, District Attorney Jon Hopkins said the three were part of a “crime team.”

However, Hughes was acquitted of those murder charges, as well as robbery and the attempted murder of Lafferty, with the court hanging on a lesser assault charge of assault causing great bodily injury.

According to state law, the trial court was able to send Hughes back to Lake County for sentencing. On Sept. 8, 2008, Judge Arthur Mann gave Hughes an eight-year prison sentence, although with time served and credits Hughes was only expected to serve about four years, as Lake County News has reported.

He filed his appeal in October 2008.

In Hughes' appeal, his attorney, Marylou Elin Hillberg of Sebastopol, sought a review of a pre-trial order that found there was no discoverable material in the personnel records of a Clearlake Police Officer Michael Ray.

The appeal also contended that Mann erred in imposing the upper term of six years for the burglary conviction.

Before Hughes' case was moved to Martinez, his defense attorney, San Franciscan Stuart Hanlon, filed a Pitchess motion based on allegations that Ray, who participated in the investigation, had tampered with blood evidence in the case. Mann held an in camera review – held confidentially in chambers – of Ray's records and ruled there was nothing discoverable.

The justices faulted both Hughes' attorney and the California Attorney General's Office, who argued against the appeal, for misidentifying Ray in court documents, noting that “recycling arguments written for other cases is a dangerous practice.”

In arguing against the sentencing, Hughes contended that Mann violated his Sixth Amendment rights “by imposing an upper term sentence for burglary based on aggravating circumstances that were not independently proven to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The appellate court, noting, “we are disappointed by both parties' failure to tailor their arguments to the facts of this case,” stated in the decision that, based on a new sentencing scheme adopted before Mann passed sentence in September 2008, the trial court didn't abuse its discretion by imposing the upper term for the burglary.

Although Edmonds stated to investigators and in court that he shot Foster and Williams, he was not prosecuted in the case.

However, Edmonds, 35, currently is facing a homicide charge for the Sept. 22 stabbing death of 25-year-old Montanan and recent Lake County resident Shelby Uehling, as Lake County News has report.

On the same day as Hughes' sentence was upheld, Edmonds and his co-defendant in the Uehling murder case, Melvin Norton, 38, were in Mann's court with their attorneys, Doug Rhoades and Stephen Carter, respectively, going over evidence in the case. Testimony is set to start Thursday morning.

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