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PREVIOUSLY

• Officers Recount Threatening Phone Calls to Schools During Preliminary Hearing in Trial of Daryl Jones

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Jones in court Monday. | Photo by John Chiv.

Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees offered apologies to the court and its staff this afternoon while taking responsibility for a filing mistake that will cause a nearly two-month delay in the preliminary hearing of Daryl Ray Jones, the man accused of making dozens of threatening phone calls to local schools and businesses earlier this year.

After hearing about an hour of testimony from Arcata Police Officer Jayme Lewallen this morning, Judge Timothy Canning announced that the court would break early for lunch because the People (as represented by Rees) had just turned over some additional documents to the defense counsel, Meagan O’Connell with the county’s Conflict Counsel office.

When everyone filed back into the courtroom shortly after 1:30 p.m., O’Connell revealed that Rees had just this morning turned over 23 previously undisclosed supplemental reports from the Arcata Police Department, which contained information about additional alleged victims and locations. She’d had an opportunity to read through some of those documents during the extended lunch break, but not all of them. 

“My client’s wish is to continue [the preliminary hearing] to a future date … and proceed once all of the charges have been incorporated into a single complaint,” O’Connell said. 

Rees said the late delivery of those supplemental reports to the defense was “entirely our fault.” He explained that the Arcata Police Department had finished the reports back in May, though it didn’t send them to the DA’s Office until Aug. 14. Still, he acknowledged, that was nearly two weeks ago.

“It’s my mistake,” he reiterated, noting that he hadn’t read all of the information himself until just this morning. The documents contain “a lot of additional potential victims and witnesses,” he said.

Jones was again seated at the defense table in a white dress shirt, having been granted the opportunity to change out of his orange inmate’s jumpsuit at yesterday’s hearing. Judge Canning asked him if he was willing to waive his right to a continuous preliminary hearing, and he replied, “Yes.”

The hearing was then scheduled to continue on Monday, Oct. 20 at 1:30 p.m.

So that’s that. In the meantime, we can marvel at the obsessive persistence of the person behind the threatening phone calls. It wasn’t just local public schools that were threatened. Officer Lewallen, who worked for the Yurok Tribal Police and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office before getting hired by APD in January, testified that one local business, NorthPoint Consulting Group, received 64 phone calls in February alone from a caller with a male voice. The man often made threatening statements, though other times he hung up within seconds, Lewallen said.

On Feb. 28 she responded to a call for service at NorthPoint Consulting, which is located on Samoa Boulevard. An employee told her that after answering a recent call she’d heard the male voice reply, “Wuddup, bitch? You know who this is. Look outside.” 

That same day, Lewallen responded to calls from both Arcata High School and Humboldt Brews. Employees at both locations had been receiving harassing phone calls. A secretary at AHS said the male voice had asked, “What would you do if I came over and beat your ass?” When the secretary asked for his name, the man said, “You already know” and later gave the name Jeremiah, Lewallen recalled on the stand. 

A witness at yesterday’s hearing said the mysterious caller had given the name Jeremiah to employees of the Fortuna office of the California Conservation Corps, which was receiving phoned-in threats that same week.  

No students were on campus at Arcata High since it was Presidents’ Week, but the school’s administrative office was placed on lockdown.

At Humboldt Brews, a female employee reported that the caller had expressed a desire to murder her, told her there was no need to call the cops and said he planned to follow her home, Lewallen testified. 

As she recounted these events from the stand, Officer Lewallen periodically checked her report to refresh her memory. The Humboldt Brews employee reported getting nine calls from the man in a single hour and said she was not initially concerned but eventually grew more worried.

Taken together with yesterday’s testimony, the case thus far has seen three law enforcement officers recounting reports of nearly 100 threatening phone calls received at local preschools, elementary schools, high schools, businesses and a nonprofit. The calls prompted a series of lockdowns at local schools, terrorizing children, their families and school employees.

Jones, who is facing 19 felony counts related to criminal threats, underwent two mental health evaluations earlier this year to evaluate his competency to stand trial. The evaluations were ordered by the judge after both Jones and O’Connell said he didn’t entirely understand the charges or court proceedings.

With today’s delay, the preliminary hearing is now on a mid-season hiatus, of sorts — to be continued in October. 

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UPDATE 4:47 p.m.: District Attorney Stacey Eads provided the following details regarding the charges and potential terms that Jones is facing:

In the criminal complaint filed by my office in court docket case CR2500835 on April 15, 2025, there are nineteen felony charges with eighteen separate alleged victims. Most of the charges are Penal Code section 422 violations, criminal threats, each of which carries a maximum 3 years in prison. 

Additionally, he is charged with a single charge of stalking in violation of Penal Code section 646.9, which absent special allegations also carries a maximum of 3 years, and two felony attempted criminal threats, which carry 1.5 years each. 

In the criminal complaint filed on April 29, 2025, in CR2500921, he Is charged with two violations of criminal threats with the same victim. 

There are numerous sentencing laws and rules that may come into play in the event Mr. Jones suffers convictions for the alleged offenses, but as currently charged he faces a potential prison sentence in the range of 12 years in prison.

Additionally, as we continue to receive additional information it is plausible there could be modifications to charges, potentially changing the exposure.  In sum, it is fair to say he faces a potential prison sentence in double digits.