Gary Robert Cox
June 20, 1941- April 15, 2026

Gary was born and raised in upstate New York where he graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in photography. He made his way to California in the 1960s. First to Big Sur, then Bodega Bay and eventually to Whale Gulch where he found the space to discover and grow into his most authentic self. Gary was a homesteader through and through.

Gary was a photographer by training, an artist at heart, a well driller and heavy machine operator by trade, and always a gardener. He loved compost, horse manure, and organic vegetable gardening above all else, earning him the CB handle “Farmer’s Garden” back in the days before everyone transitioned to phones. In seasons when the garden produced more than his family could use, he shared the abundance with the local school.

He was deeply passionate about black-and-white photography. Trips to the Southwest, to photograph petroglyphs, Pyramid Lake, expansive landscapes and anything that caught his eye, would culminate in hours that turned into days in his darkroom. The darkroom was his quiet place where carefully transformed light and shadow into images. Many of these are treasured by his family today.

A resident of Whale Gulch since 1974, Gary built his own home and lived life on his own terms. His love for the community was felt by many. He especially loved sharing his passion for gardening and homesteading with young people, a tradition he continued with his grandchildren and other youth in the community.

Gary is survived by his partner, Karen Trotter; his children, South, Olin and Yana; and a gaggle of grandchildren. He will be deeply missed.

Please join us for an end of life celebration on July 11 at 1 p.m. in The Meadow. Please bring a dish to share, a memory of Gary and leave with a photograph.

PREVIOUSLY:

• ELECTION NIGHT FINAL: Despite a (Probably) Large Number of Votes Left to Count, Mary Burke and Audrey Hanks are Certain Shoo-Ins
• ELECTIONS OFFICE UPDATE: There Are Still More Than 21,000 Ballots Left to be Processed; Updates to be Issued Twice Weekly

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The Humboldt County Office of Elections just published an update on how the tabulation of the June 2 election is going, and the answer seems to be: Pretty good!

The vast bulk of the county’s uncounted ballots have been counted, and as of right now there are only some 1,439 votes left to be processed. More than 39,000 votes have been tabulated.

What do the new results show? That Fifth District Supervisor Candidate Mary Burke and Assessor candidate Audrey Hanks have opened up even wider leads against their competitors. 

Burke now holds 77.09% of votes counted — up from about 73.5% on election night — and Hanks has an even 79.00%, a little bit up from the 77.0% she held a week ago.

In the governor’s race, Tom Steyer continues to hold the plurality of the Humboldt vote — 31.91% — in his doomed campaign.

The two local ballot measures up for vote in this go-around — a Shelter Cove parcel tax and Trinidad school bonds — are both passing easily, with 75.21% and 66.25% of the vote, respectively. The Shelter Cove taxes need a two-thirds vote to pass, and the Trinidad school bonds need 55%. 

Full results here. Another update is scheduled for Friday, but with so few votes left to count don’t expect much to move.

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Today, while attorneys met to establish a date for a preliminary hearing on two Hoopa teenagers accused of murdering a 17-year-old, proceedings were pushed to next week.

This followed defense attorneys pointing to missing discovery, and a motion seeking evidence the District Attorney has on the case to be compelled from the office.

Rebecca Linkous, attorney for 18-year-old William Randolph-Billy Warren, filed a motion to compel discovery last week. At the hearing this morning she said the motion was related to “significant discovery” that was missing, adding she needs to know whether or not it exists.

The setting of the date of the preliminary hearing was moved to June 16, when the motion to compel discovery is set to be discussed.

Attorneys sought to resolve the matter ahead of setting the date of the preliminary hearing, which aims to determine if sufficient probable cause exists to bring the case against the pair to trial. When Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Steven Steward asked if a four day estimate for the preliminary hearing was still accurate, attorneys were in agreement with the timeline.

However, attorney Andrea Sullivan, who represents 19-year-old co-defendant Tse-Lin Lincoln, added over Zoom that evidence related to gang allegations could add length to the preliminary hearing. The state of discovery is such that she doesn’t know how this will affect the timeline of the hearing, she said.

The co-defendants appeared in custody, wearing orange jumpsuits. They face murder charges related to the March 10 shooting, as well as four counts of assault with firearms against five total victims and shooting at an occupied vehicle. They additionally face multiple enhancements to these charges for participation in a criminal street gang, meaning additional jail time if convicted. The victim, Dylan Moon, later died of injuries sustained in the shooting.

Previously, hearings have been pushed out due to a large volume of evidence. Three other teenagers under the age of 18 were arrested in connection with the shooting.

PREVIOUSLY:

Woman accused of murdering toddler arrives in Humboldt County, pleaded not guilty

Yesterday, a woman accused of murdering her 19-month-old daughter pleaded not guilty to all charges and enhancements levied against her, according to court records. She was brought to Humboldt County last week.

32-year-old Nichole Thorpe was charged April 7 with murder, felony child abuse (with an enhancement for the child’s age) and welfare fraud tied to the child totaling $18,636.30. According to court records, she is accused of fraudulently collecting welfare for the dead 19-month-old for two years.

She was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility June 5, according to booking records (a development first reported by Kym Kemp) after being arrested in Indiana in April. She is being held without bail, court records indicate.

According to jail records, Thorpe had been incarcerated at a Jay County, Ind. jail since her arrest on April 29, following a lengthy investigation by Humboldt County police and issuance of an arrest warrant. She was listed as a resident of Albany, Ind.

Booking photo via Redkey Indiana Police Department

The Eureka Police Department said police were contacted and told the child had not been seen by family members for an extended period of time and it was believed the child was possibly deceased.

Police from multiple agencies found human remains in a remote area near Blue Lake in Dec. 2023, confirmed through DNA testing as belonging to the child, according to EPD.

Thorpe’s preliminary trial setting date was scheduled for September 10, according to the hearing’s minutes. She is represented by Kathleen Bryson.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Woman Charged with Homicide for Child’s Death After Remains Found in Blue Lake

Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:

On June 9th, 2026, Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) Agents with assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office POP Team and Marijuana Enforcement Team, served a search warrant at three locations in the Garberville area. The first location, in the 400 block of Melville Road, Agents located Ulises Roman Contreras, Aracely Motheral, 28.82 pounds of processed marijuana, packing materials, and a large amount of U.S. currency.

The second location, in the 900 block of Springview Lane, Agents located Marisa Capra, 229.3 pounds of processed marijuana, pay and owe sheets, packaging materials, industrial scales, and a large amount of U.S. Currency. At the third location in the 300 block of Twin Trees Road, Agents located an illegal marijuana grow with 2,075 growing marijuana clones and 421 growing marijuana plants. The plants were eradicated.

Ulises Roman Contreras, Aracely Motheral, and Marisa Capra were transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where they were booked on the following charges:

• HS11366- Maintaining a location to sell narcotics/controlled substance
• HS11359- Possession of marijuana for sales
• HS11358- Cultivation of marijuana
• PC182- Conspiracy

PREVIOUSLY

• Despite Wood-Burning Appliance Ban, an Arcata Entrepreneur Hopes the City Will Give Him a Break on Wood-Fired Sauna Facility

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Sauna entrepreneur Zachary Vondrak didn’t get a load of ice water flung on his project at last night’s Arcata Planning Commission meeting, but the city did decide it wanted a little more time to make sure he wasn’t full of hot air.

Vondrak is proposing a contrast therapy facility on 40 South G Street across from the Marsh, complete with two saunas and cold plunge tanks constructed out of 8x20 foot cedar-lined shipping containers. His business would also manufacture the same type of saunas to-order in the back; Vondrak said several interested buyers have already reached out to place an order.

The commissioners and the members of the general public who showed up to comment all seemed to like the idea — one woman who lives nearby said she was excited to have a sauna just down the street — but several of the commissioners and residents were worried about a potential increase in traffic on South G, which two people claimed has quadrupled over the last couple years. Vondrak had estimated a maximum number of 220 people would come daily to use the facility, but at the meeting, he clarified that broke down to around 20 people arriving every hour for the duration of their operating hours. 

Director of Community Development David Loya also brought up the South Arcata Multi-Modal Safety Improvement Plan, a comprehensive upgrade to the area’s pedestrian infrastructure that will add crosswalks, chicanes, and medians on South G. Hopefully, he said, it’ll incentivize people to walk to the facility. Because starting the project is dependent on Arcata winning a grant, it’s not a sure bet, but Loya said if they get it construction would begin in early 2027. And even if it doesn’t, Loya said he believed in the engineering department’s ability to make it happen some other way. 

Stickier is Vondrak’s desire to heat his saunas by burning wood, which he said he’s “extremely passionate” about. Arcata banned the installation of new wood-burning appliances in 2024, and the commission, at first, didn’t seem likely to make an exception to a strict law. One of the conditions in the original permit the commission was considering granting Vondrak was that the facility not burn wood to heat the saunas, in accordance with the law. But Vondrak did manage to get the permit hearing continued until the commission’s next meeting by touting the abilities of his preferred stove. 

The Kuuma BluFlame, he claimed, can burn off almost all of the wood smoke it burns, turning it into vapor, called a “gasification” system. Vondrak claimed it was EPA-certified, only needed four pounds of wood every 90 minutes, was way cheaper and hotter than using natural gas or an electric system, and hardly produced any soot. He showed the commission a few minutes of a YouTube video the company filmed that demonstrates the tiny amount of smoke the stove made. 

Most of the commissioners said they were more worried about the invisible particulate matter the stove could be throwing off, but they were interested enough that they decided they’d take two weeks to do some research so they could consider giving Vondrak the go-ahead. Commissioner Peter Lehman was an exception; he rejected the idea that the stove was any better than one that put out visible smoke. 

“I have experience with gasification technology, and those are nice words that you said, but, yes, there are particulates coming out of the smokestack, and yes, they are unhealthful,” Lehman said. “And I just can’t support burning wood in Arcata…we just can’t have more particulate matter. And I don’t think the city should support wood burning.”

Commissioner Dan Tangney said he felt “stuck.” The law prevents adding more wood-burning, but he liked that Vondrak would revitalize an “ugly,” empty bit of industrial property. Commissioner Abigail Strickland said she realized technology was constantly changing, and Vondrak’s claims were worth looking into. 

The vote to extend the hearing was unanimous.

Press release from Calfire Humboldt-Del Norte:

With a recent increase in fire activity, higher temperatures, lower fuel moistures, and minimal precipitation in the forecast, the extreme threat of wildfire impacting life, property, or natural resources is observable.

Thereby with the authority vested by the Director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as per section 4423.1 of the Public Resources Code; CAL FIRE hereby suspends, except within the incorporated cities, the privileges of burning by permit and other uses of open fire in the geographic area described as:

• ALL STATE RESPONSIBILITY AREA LANDS WITHIN HUMBOLDT, DEL NORTE, AND WESTERN TRINITY COUNTIES.

Campfires within organized campgrounds or on private property that are otherwise permitted will be allowed if the campfire is maintained in such a manner as to prevent its spread to the wildland and other private property. In accordance with section 4423.2 of the Public Resources Code, state rangers or other authorized agents of the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection may issue restricted temporary burning permits whenever it can be shown that burning or use of open fire is essential for reasons of public health, safety, or welfare. A campfire permit can be obtained at local fire stations or online at PreventWildfireCA.org.

This order shall become effective at 6:00 AM, Monday, June 15th, 2026, and remain in effect until CAL FIRE formally terminates this proclamation.

Here are some tips to help prepare homes and property:

• Clear all dead and or dying vegetation 100 feet from around all structures.
• Landscape with fire resistant plants and non-flammable ground cover.
• Find alternative ways to dispose of landscape debris like chipping or hauling it to a biomass energy or green waste facility

The department may issue restricted temporary burning permits if there is an essential reason due to public health and safety. Agriculture, land management, fire training, and other industrial-type burning may proceed if a CAL FIRE official inspects the burn site and issues a special permit.

For additional information on how to create Defensible Space, on how to be prepared for wildfires, as well as tips to prevent wildfires, visit www.readyforwildfire.org

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This story, by reporters Nigel Duara and Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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In 2020, with the death of George Floyd still dominating the national conversation over police accountability, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law taking away responsibility for investigating fatal police shootings from local authorities and putting it in the hands of the state attorney general.

Lawmakers reasoned that an independent outside agency would bring more credibility — as well as speed and investigative firepower — to the process while eliminating potential conflicts of interest that can arise when police or local district attorneys have to investigate agencies they work closely with.

Police accountability advocates enthusiastically endorsed the legislation that authorized the switch. Then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta championed it, too. When Bonta became attorney general the following year, he pledged to complete all investigations within 12 months.

He hasn’t come close. The department has yet to close a single investigation within one year.

In fact, a CalMatters investigation found that Bonta’s office has 13 use-of-force investigations that have exceeded three years or longer – well past the statute of limitations for many of the crimes an officer or a deputy could conceivably be charged with short of murder.

SEE ALSO:
• A Man Was Killed in Hoopa By Police Over Two Years Ago. Documents Show Snags in the First State Investigation of its Kind in Humboldt County

The average fatal shooting investigation takes Bonta’s team nearly two years and five months to complete. Just eight of 41 closed cases took less than two years.

The delays take away another potential enforcement tool as well: Once a case extends beyond three years, an officer cannot be decertified, meaning they cannot be prevented from working for other law enforcement agencies.

The time lag leaves families of potential victims waiting for justice and leaves officers in limbo as they wait to be charged or exonerated.

“In my experience, three years is an awful long period of time, especially if you’re starting to come upon statutes of limitations,” said Anne Marie Schubert, the former Sacramento County District Attorney who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general in 2022.

Schubert said she was surprised to see that the last case closed by the program was on a shooting in 2023.

“Is it resources?” she asked. “Is it experience? That’s a question I’d want to know.”

To date, not a single officer has been prosecuted by Bonta’s office, and no officer has been referred for decertification or even discipline after a police shooting investigation.

Bonta blames the backlog on a lack of funding and other priorities from the Legislature. His predecessor, Xavier Becerra, made the same argument just before the law took effect when he requested twice as much money for the investigations than the Legislature provided. On its first investigation, Justice Department employees complained in internal emails that they were undermanned.

Bonta’s office also says nothing in the law prevents local authorities from conducting their own parallel investigations.

But the CalMatters investigation found that as a practical matter, local authorities take a hands-off approach once Bonta’s office steps in.

“If the case meets the criteria under (the police shooting law) and DOJ confirms they are taking over the investigation, we do not do a parallel criminal investigation of our own or do a criminal investigation of our own after DOJ concludes their investigation,” said Capt. Brian Cole, who oversees the detective division at the Redding Police Department. “They have complete criminal jurisdiction of the matter.”

‘I didn’t see him again alive’

That happened with a Redding case that began on Christmas Day, 2022, when David Couch was taken to jail. Since then, Jeanelle Couch spent three and a half years trying to find out exactly what happened to her son.

By the time David Couch, 31, was released on Feb. 8, 2023, Jeanelle Couch said her son was experiencing a manic episode.

According to a lawsuit Jeanelle later filed, David was given the wrong medication for his bipolar disorder for his entire jail stay. He told her he had spent the majority of his time in solitary confinement, another allegation in the lawsuit.

“He was happy to see us and he asked if we remembered him,” she said about the day he went home. “When I got up the next morning to go to work, he talked to me for a long time and I said, ‘oh, honey, I’m so sorry, I got to go to work now.’

“And then I didn’t see him again alive.”

Jeanelle Couch holds photos of her son, David Couch, while standing in Cascade Park in Redding on April 8, 2026. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters

That afternoon, David sat in his car in his mother’s driveway in a small residential neighborhood in Redding.

At 5:25 p.m., the California Highway Patrol received a call of a driver southbound on Interstate 5 who was brandishing a gun. The make, model and plates matched David’s car.

Nine minutes later, California Highway Patrol officer Ryan Cates pulled into Couch’s driveway.

According to dashboard camera footage, Couch was sitting in his white Ford sedan with the driver’s side door open.

“Show me your hands!” Cates called out. “Put your hands up!”

Couch emerged in a brown hooded sweatshirt, khaki pants and a gray baseball cap, the dashcam footage shows. He was wearing a backpack and gripping his cell phone with both hands. Couch also had a pair of knives strapped to his jacket, according to a Justice Department investigation, but didn’t touch them. Couch took eight steps toward Cates, who had his gun in his right hand, pointed at Couch.

Their initial conversation is inaudible.

Cates raised his gun, holding it now with both hands. Couch came toward him. The dashboard camera was able to record more of their argument, which involved Couch saying to leave him alone, then calling Cate obscenities and saying “shoot.” A struggle ensued that was not visible on camera. At least twice, Couch called Cates a slur.

“Get on the ground,” Cates said. “I will shoot you right now.”

According to a Department of Justice report issued last week, Couch then got ahold of Cates’ Taser.

Still frames from a California Highway Patrol video depicting the altercation between David Couch, at right, and Officer Cates. The progression of action is from left to right. Image via the California Department of Justice

Couch continued to berate Cates, calling him a “dirty cop.” The two slid back into view, with Cates holding Couch against the hood of the car, Couch’s face bathed red in the patrol car’s dashboard lights. Cates attempted to put handcuffs on Couch, but Couch slipped to his right and out of view of the dashboard camera again.

“Give me a .45 (caliber handgun) and I’d f — you up!” Couch yelled at Cates.

Cates would later tell Justice Department investigators that he believed Couch was trying to take his handgun.

Then, there were several audible clicks. Couch taunted Cates, asking “it’s not working?” A second later, Cates fired four shots. The entire encounter lasted exactly one minute.

“I am uninjured,” Cates said into his police radio. “Suspect down, multiple gunshot wounds.”

Couch lived for nine days. He died on Feb. 17, 2023.

According to Couch’s sister, “David was shot so many times he was no longer recognizable.” In an online fundraising appeal for the family, the sister, Lauren Metzger, added that, “We can’t understand why this happened, but we do know he did not have a gun anywhere around his person when he was discovered laying in the street by my parents and his best friend.”

For the nine days David Couch survived, a five-agency team convened to investigate the shooting, led by the Redding Police Department. Then, when Couch died, the Department of Justice shooting investigation team took over, and the local team ended its inquiry.

A view of the city of Redding from Cypress Avenue on April 8, 2026. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters

More than three years have passed. Cates returned to work, according to the California Highway Patrol. His lawyer did not respond to messages from CalMatters.

Shasta County and the state of California have denied responsibility in the federal lawsuit filed by Couch’s family in the Eastern District of California. In its response, Shasta County said Cates is entitled to qualified immunity, which limits the civil liability of government officials, usually police officers.

The investigation from the Department of Justice took 1,199 days. It found “there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution of Officer Cates.”

Shorthanded from the start

Giving the state justice department more power to investigate law enforcement shootings was hailed as a big win for the police accountability movement when Newsom signed the law in 2020.

Former Assemblymember Kevin McCarty of Sacramento had proposed the legislation several times before. The fatal shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police in 2018 lent momentum to McCarty’s effort – Clark’s family was outraged that Schubert, then the district attorney, didn’t press charges against officers in his killing.

George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 emboldened a bipartisan push for police reform laws that ultimately carried McCarty’s bill through the Legislature and on to Newsom’s desk.

But within days of receiving their first case, the Justice Department’s shooting investigation teams knew they were undermanned.

“There were dozens of tasks and assignments that the … special agents could not accomplish because of limited staffing,” the department wrote in a budget request submitted to the Legislature in 2022.

Even before the shooting teams deployed, there were early warnings that the Justice Department might have bitten off more than it could chew.

The department asked for $26 million to pay for the new shooting investigation teams. The Legislature allotted half of that, about $13 million.

Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra on stage during a gubernatorial forum hosted by the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel in Sacramento on April 14, 2026. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

The allocation “is significantly lower than our estimates and not enough resources to stand up professional teams to perform these new investigative and prosecutorial duties,” former Attorney General Xavier Becerra wrote to McCarty in January 2021, six months before the law took effect.

The department originally wanted four investigative teams — one each in Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and Riverside. Instead, it got two, one North and one South.

One year into the program, shooting investigations were already lagging behind Bonta’s self-imposed timeline of one year.

In response, at the time, Bonta said: “We got the funding that we got, and we’re going to make it work. We have no choice. We have to find a way.”

Investigations first stretched past one year, then two years, and in 2025, a case reached beyond three years.

The California Department of Justice did not make anyone available for an interview about its backlog of police shooting investigations. In a written statement, an unnamed spokesperson said Bonta personally reviews every investigation.

“All investigations are unique in their complexity, and some may take longer than others to investigate and reach a conclusion.” the statement read.

“We’re continuously identifying ways to tighten timelines and improve our processes. It’s a balancing act — but it’s one we’re actively managing. Improvements are already taking hold. In the last two and a half years, we closed 9 times as many cases as were closed in the first two and a half years that the law was operational, and we remain committed to improving.”

Police chiefs want faster investigations

Many law enforcement leaders are growing impatient.

“Police chiefs across the state have consistently raised concerns and advocated for a timelier process, yet progress has been minimal,” said Sean Thuilliez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association.“When transparency is not accompanied by timeliness, the system risks falling short for everyone — eroding confidence, deepening mistrust, and prolonging uncertainty.

Law enforcement and conservative prosecutors were, perhaps predictably, opposed to losing local shooting investigations to the state. But even prosecutors who were pursuing police accountability were nervous about removing locals from the process.

With the state in control, local citizens have less power to protest or pressure their local leaders.

“Local concern, local protests, local interest is felt by local prosecutors,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, who created a unit investigating police officers at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, where she was chief of staff. She is now the executive director of the progressive advocacy group Prosecutors Alliance.

“The very real pain of family and community members that experience that absolutely has an impact on a prosecutor and their willingness to take this crime seriously.”

Jeanelle Couch said that even though the DOJ investigation is over, she’s still hopeful about the lawsuits her family filed against the state, the county and the officer who killed her son.

“I want light on it,” Couch said. “That’s what I want. Just, justice.”

What does justice look like to her?

She looked at the ground.

“Now? I don’t know.”