Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an extradition warrant for triple-murder suspect Mauricio Sanchez-Johnson, who is expected to be back in Humboldt County soon to face charges of shooting three people to death Feb. 10 on the Bear River Rancheria.
Sanchez-Johnson.
“There’s been governor’s warrants issued in both California and Utah,” Tooele Deputy County Attorney Rob Klegg told Judge Dianna Gibson during Sanchez-Johnson’s court appearance this afternoon. Sanchez-Johnson, 19, has been in Tooele County Jail since Feb. 11, when the Utah Highway Patrol arrested him as he drove east. He has been fighting extradition to California.
Klegg asked Gibson for a review hearing on June 8.
“Hopefully by that time he’s been extradited based on the governor’s warrant,” Klegg said.
The judge set the June 8 hearing and told Sanchez-Johnson “it’s quite possible you might be extradited before then.”
“All right,” said Sanchez-Johnson, who appeared via video from the jail.
His local attorney, Andrea Sullivan, had objected to the extradition because Sanchez-Johnson is facing life in prison without parole if convicted of murder with the special circumstance of having multiple victims. Sullivan tried unsuccessfully to persuade District Attorney Maggie Fleming to drop the special allegation in exchange for Sanchez-Johnson agreeing to be brought back to California.
Sanchez-Johnson is accused of killing Margarett Moon, her fiance Nikki Metcalf and Moon’s 16-year-old daughter Shelly Moon after he was caught in bed with Shelly. All were shot in the head.
Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman. | Screenshot from Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
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More than 14 months after our first confirmed case of COVID-19, Humboldt County has been infiltrated by a more dangerous and infectious variant of the novel coronavirus known as B117, and in his latest update to the Board of Supervisors, Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman said that while case rates remain well below their peak locally, the number of hospitalizations in late April “rival the worst weeks of the pandemic for Humboldt County — with those who are younger and healthier getting sicker.”
This menacing variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, rapidly became the dominant strain in the U.S., according to the CDC. Speaking via Zoom, Hoffman said B117 is about 50 percent more contagious than previous strains, and it hits harder.
“We know that it’s causing more severe disease in younger and healthier people, with our current hospitalizations and ICU admissions happening [among a] much younger demographic than in the past,” he said. That trend includes the first hospitalization of a local child.
The recent “superspreader event” tied to Eureka the Pentecostal Church is the source of about 60 recent infections — with another 60 or so cases connected indirectly — but that still doesn’t fully account for the dramatic rise in cases over the past two weeks.
“And so we know that B117 is everywhere in Humboldt County and very likely the most dominant strain now locally,” Hoffman said. “And it will be the driver of infections in the coming weeks and months until another, potentially more infectious strain comes along to replace it.”
During this latest outbreak, Humboldt County’s rate of infection rocketed from just two per 100,000 people to 13 per 100,000, and the test positivity rate tripled, from two percent to six percent, according to Hoffman. (On Monday that latter number dipped slightly to 5.3 percent.)
Need another indication that B117 is not to be messed with? “We’ve had to transfer more patients out of Humboldt in the previous two weeks — due to their [symptom] severity or a lack of resources to care for them in our county — than any other time during the pandemic,” Hoffman said.
Is there any good news, you ask? Well, thankfully, the same precautions we’ve been hearing about ad nauseam — hand-washing, social distancing, face coverings and, not least of all, vaccinations — still work against the nefarious B117. Trouble is, local demand for the vaccines has been evaporating. Meanwhile, Huffman said, “We have seen a decrease in willingness to get tested by many in this surge, and it’s hurting our county.”
High rates of testing at the height of the local pandemic allowed public health workers to track and isolate new outbreaks, then extinguish them with quarantine protections before they spread too far. Lately, only those with the most severe symptoms have been bothering to get tested, so the virus has been spreading via people with mild or no symptoms, according to Hoffman. He urged people to people to be proactive.
“I strongly encourage all who feel they were exposed [or who] have even the mildest symptoms, please get tested,” he said. “Do it for your family, for your co-workers, for your community. There are too many folks in the hospital currently who could have avoided hospitalization … .”
Close to 40 percent of county residents age 16 and up have now been fully vaccinated, Hoffman said, but that still leaves a majority either unprotected or not fully protected, despite ample supplies to inoculate everyone who wants their jab(s). Hoffman encouraged anyone with questions about the vaccines’ safety and efficacy, along with those who need help making an appointment, to call the county’s Joint Information Center at 707-441-5000.
A reminder: You’re not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after your single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or your second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Hoffman, as he has done before, highlighted the liberation that comes with being fully vaccinated — “things like feeling free to visit your fully vaccinated friends indoors and outdoors without a mask, without distancing and without worry that you might get severely ill from COVID-19,” he said.
You can also visit one household of low-risk folks who are still unvaccinated without worrying about exposing them to the virus, allowing you to “high-five, hug, sing together [and] break bread together,” he added.
“We’re still hopeful that Humboldt is headed to a great summer full of COVID-safe events that will be done with precautions in place to protect those who are vulnerable — precautions like masking, distancing, reduced capacity, testing and vaccination,” Hoffman said. He and his staff and hopeful that current surge will plateau and maybe start to decline in the coming weeks.
In the Q-&-A that followed Hoffman’s presentation, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn brought up local vaccine hesitancy, saying he gets 20 emails per day with supposed reasons not to get a shot.
“One [email] said it will start to eat my insides out in three to four years,” Bohn said. “There’s so much misinformation out there.”
“I personally say if we go back a tier you’re going to have a rebellion like you’ve never seen,” Bohn warned.
Hoffman said that while misinformation is certainly a problem, he thinks other factors — such as financial and logistical barriers or a reluctance to visit mass vaccination clinics — are playing a larger role. But for the record he also explained, “The vaccine is safe. It’s effective.”
Public Health Director Michelle Stephens said people who are hesitant, for whatever reason, are more likely to listen to their loved ones than any other source, so she encouraged people to talk to their friends and family, listen to their reasoning and direct them to factual information.
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Not much else of significance took place during today’s meeting, unless you count the technical problems at the outset — gratuitous lagging and freezing in the county’s digital stream that caused a nearly hourlong delay as the IT department attempted to resolve the issues.
Here are a couple other items the board heard:
The board heard a brief presentation from staff at Six Rivers National Forest about the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Project, which will see a local conifer cut down and hauled cross-country for yuletide placement on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building, along with up to 130 companion trees for the offices of D.C. muckety-mucks.
Planning and Building Director John Ford asked the board to approve submission of a grant application for the second of three rounds of coronavirus funding from the California Department of Housing and Community
Development. The county is eligible to apply for $1,104,668, and Ford said that money would go toward two projects — adding an elevator to The Humboldt Inn, a homeless shelter and
supportive housing facility in Eureka, and adding sidewalks to the campus of the Redwoods Rural Health Center in Redway, which would facilitate curbside medical services including Covid-19 testing and vaccinations. The board unanimously approved sending the grant application.
E&O owners Carla Kendrick and her husband André Carey declined to comment on the sale. The Arcata real estate company managing the listing, Corcoran Global Living, also did not respond to the Outpost’s numerous calls regarding the property on the outskirts of McKinleyville.
D&L Lounge attached to E&O Lanes. | Andrew Goff
While those surrounding the sale have been tight-lipped, someone within the business seemingly gave insight into the situation in an E&O Lanes Facebook post shared on March 19. In the comments section of the post, which asked bowlers to retrieve belongings from their lockers, the E&O Lanes page responded to a commenter asking if it was too late to save the bowling alley.
“I wish we could, but unfortunately when the county kept my business closed for a year, it’s just not sustainable … It’s not for any business!” E&O’s Facebook page wrote in response to the comment. “They have not allowed me to make any revenue but I still have to pay the bills. Just to put it in perspective … I paid an average of $14,000 a month to be closed. We have put our blood, sweat, and tears into this business and it is heartbreaking for us to sell.”
The Mad River Union reported that Kendrick and Carey purchased the property in 2017 for less money than other bidders who were looking to transform the iconic location into a cannabis facility. Instead, the former owners chose buyers that agreed to keep the bowling alley running.
According to Zillow, Kendrick and Carey purchased E&O Lanes for $625,000, before briefly re-listing the property for $950,000 in May of 2018. Now, the couple will look to sell for nearly $1 million more than they paid four years ago and it’s unclear if the lanes will ever open again.
Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano pose for a crew picture at E&O Lanes in 2015 | Courtesy Laura Montagna.
The popular Humboldt hang was first opened in 1960 by brothers Lee and Lester Larsen or Larson. The differentiation in the spelling of their last name is what gave E&O its name for more than 60 years. The location has been host to countless parties, dances and bowling leagues during its history. Some may remember that the upstairs area also briefly operated as a slot car track, and at another time, a beauty salon. In 2015, Hollywood celebs Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano knocked pins at the location after wrapping for their movie “Swiss Army Man.”
While it’s unclear if cannabis businesses are still looking to transform the property, Humboldt County Planning and Building Department Director John Ford told Outpost that the land’s zoning could allow for cannabis production.
“The zoning on the property is Unclassified,” Ford said. “Cannabis activity could be approved at this location. It is important to note that this area known as Glendale will be undergoing development of a community plan within the next year. The zoning will likely change as part of this effort. Cannabis at this location under the existing zoning would require a conditional-use permit, requiring a public hearing in front of the Planning Commission.”
On May 4, 2021, at about 8 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at a business on the 500 block of Edward Street in Trinidad to investigate a restraining order violation.
During a search of the business, deputies located and seized eight firearms and a large quantity of ammunition belonging to 56-year-old Michael Joseph Morgan. Pursuant to the terms of a court issued restraining order, Morgan is prohibited from possessing firearms. Morgan was taken into custody at the business and was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of prohibited person in possession of a firearm (PC 29825(a)) and violation of a court order (PC 273.6(a)).
This case is still under investigation.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Eureka Police Department’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit for their assistance with the service of this warrant.
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On May 2, 2021, at about 9:45 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a property on the 800 block of Sylvan Glade Road near Blocksburg for the report of a shooting that had occurred earlier that morning.
Surveillance footage captured at the property showed two vehicles arrive at the property at about 4:50 a.m. Unknown suspects associated with the vehicles cut the lock on a gate at the driveway and one vehicle proceeded to drive onto the property. Approximately eight suspects associated with the vehicle are then depicted trespassing on the property. Upon approaching a residence on the property, two suspects began shooting at the residence. Following the shooting, the suspects fled the scene.
No injuries were reported as a result of this incident.
The suspect vehicles are only described as follows:
Vehicle 1: Black Nissan four-door sedan
Vehicle 2: Silver van similar to a Chrysler Pacific
One suspect associated with the black sedan is described as a heavy-set Eastern European or Hispanic male in his 20-30’s with dark hair. No other suspect information is available at this time.
This case is still under investigation.
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
Humboldt State University is investigating the Men’s and Women’s Rugby teams for alleged hazing, as well as other possible violations of student and competitive sports club codes of conduct.
The Director of Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports and the Dean of Students have placed the teams on interim suspension. All club-related sports activities will be postponed pending the results of the investigation.
Hazing is both illegal and violates HSU’s student and competitive sports club codes of conduct. HSU takes issues of hazing very seriously and the welfare of students is the priority at this time.
HSU’s Office of the Dean of Students has taken the lead role in the investigation, with close cooperation from Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports.
Due to privacy laws, the details of the investigation related to specific individuals will not be made public.
The campaign to eject Gov. Gavin Newsom got off to an early financial head start, raising gobs of money from high-profile Republican luminaries, SoCal millionaires and irate voters, according to new campaign finance reports.
But like the world’s most lucratively sponsored tortoise, the anti-recall campaign is planning to take back the lead in the money race — and soon.
So far, political fundraisers have set up six campaign committees to spend on either side of the still-unofficial recall election. The pro-recall side came out ahead, with $5.45 million raised, state reports show, while the committees spending in Newsom’s defense brought in $4.56 million.
Recall opponents also boasted a higher share of contributions from small-dollar donors, which political strategists sometimes take as a proxy for regular-folks enthusiasm that translates into votes.
And while Newsom’s opponents have burned through most of their cash, the governor’s defenders have roughly $2.5 million socked away.
“Democrats across the country, but particularly in California, are fired up — they see this for what it is, a Republican partisan power grab,” said Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click.
Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager of Rescue California, the chief fundraising vehicle for the recall campaign, said her committee’s empty bank account isn’t a sign of weakness, but of success.
Supporters had to collect nearly 1.5 million signatures to put the recall on the ballot — something that required considerable resources. “If I had finished the signature gathering with a surplus, shame on me,” she said.
Now it’s on to the next phase of the campaign. And because the Newsom camp will be fending off attacks not just from the pro-recall campaign itself, but from every candidate hoping to replace the governor, “they’re gonna have to spend a whole lot more to win than we’re gonna have to spend to beat him,” Dunsmore said. “Everybody’s gonna have over a million bucks worth of potshots.”
By April 30, committees on both sides of the recall fight were required to file semi-annual reports with the secretary of state disclosing all of their fundraising activity to date. That included a list of larger donors — those who gave at least $200 — as well as the total contributions from smaller anonymous donors. Except for the occasional poll on the governor’s favorability ratings, these campaign finance reports provide one of the first hard metrics of the state of the race.
“They’re gonna have to spend a whole lot more to win than we’re gonna have to spend to beat him. Everybody’s gonna have over a million bucks worth of potshots.” — Anne Dusmore, campaign manager of Rescue California
Sean Walsh, a Republican strategist who advised Arnold Schwarzenegger in his successful 2003 recall race against Gov. Gray Davis, said that recall supporters are all but certain to get outraised and outspent by labor and other groups backing Newsom.
“The ‘no’ (on recall) side is going to raise somewhere between as much money as God and more money than God,” he said.
Once the campaign starts, “it comes down to who the candidates are and how much money they’re able to spend.” None of the contestants in the field have “blown the doors off” yet, Walsh said.
On the Republican side, the most notable candidates at the moment are former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Newsom’s 2018 challenger John Cox, and former Olympian turned reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.
Faulconer has raised more than $1.9 million for his 2022 gubernatorial campaign — money that could also be spent on a recall race. A pro-recall issue committee he sponsored has raised another $98,900.
Cox has raised $2.5 million — though $2 million has come from his own bank account. Cox, who lost to Newsom 62% to 38%, is also rebranding himself as @BeastJohnCox and embarking on a bus tour today with an event in Sacramento featuring a live bear and a stop at the French Laundry, the restaurant made even more famous by Newsom’s mask-less dinner that jump-started the recall effort.
There are still no filings from the Jenner campaign on the Secretary of State’s campaign finance web portal. California law requires any campaign that has raised at least $2,000 to submit a statement of organization report within 10 days.
A spokesperson for Jenner, who announced her bid 10 days ago, did not respond to an email.
“The ‘no’ (on recall) side is going to raise somewhere between as much money as God and more money than God.” — Sean Walsh, Republican strategist who advised Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 recall
The Democratic side is still virtually empty of challengers. Newsom and the party aim to keep it that way. Last weekend, the state party held a virtual convention in which the theme — hammered on repeatedly in pre-recorded orations from top Democrats across the state and country — was to rally around the governor and defeat the recall.
It’s an easy argument for Newsom to make at the moment. Coronavirus infection rates are low and vaccination rates are high in California. The governor has vowed to release businesses from most COVID-19 restrictions on June 15. Recent polling shows that most Californians still approve of the governor in general — and of his handling of the economy and schools during the pandemicin particular.
That could all make it a challenge for recall supporters and anti-Newsom candidates to raise funds.
But Dunsmore from Rescue California said that even if the pandemic continues to recede, the governor will be vulnerable on a host of issues — including crime, drought and unpaid unemployment benefits.
“It is laughable that he doesn’t know how much trouble he is in,” she said. “Everybody smells blood in the water now. I don’t care what the polls say.”
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