Jury acquits former Yuba County deputy for St. Patrick’s Day incident in Chico

No criminal charges will be filed against a Linda woman whose young brother was fatally mauled by her pit bulls when she left him alone with them in a travel trailer in January."This case has had a profound emotional impact on all those involved," District Attorney Patrick McGrath said Friday, when he announced the decision. "We had to make sure our filing decision was not made by emotions." McGrath and two other prosecutors who reviewed the case made a unanimous decision. "No one felt we would meet a standard of criminal negligence," McGrath said. Tyler Trammell-Huston, 9, suffered multiple dog bites and was found lifeless on the floor of the trailer when his half-sister, Alexandria Griffin-Heady, 24, returned from work on the morning of Jan. 3. The boy had been mauled by Griffin-Heady's pit bulls in the trailer parked near other family members' home on Dunning Avenue. Two of the dogs had been left in a padlocked, cage kennel that was overturned and damaged when Griffin-Heady came home, according to a press release provided by McGrath. Yuba County sheriff's detectives had requested Griffin-Heady be charged with felony child endangerment when they filed a 60-page report with the District Attorney's Office three weeks after the incident. Griffin-Heady spoke with reporters minutes after she learned of the decision. "It's good to have an end," she said. "To be able to move forward with the loss of him, without being scared of going to jail." Life for her now, she said, moves slower without her brother, whom she had planned to adopt. The story of the mauling made national headlines, prompting strong comments from people both critical and supportive of the pit bull breed. Griffin-Heady told reporters soon after the incident she didn't think her companion dogs were aggressive. On Friday, she explained that she adopted the older dog - the mother of the other two - soon after her mother died. The puppies were her family. "I never believed it was a possibility," she said of the attack. "There are loads of things that you wish you could change. You pray to go back, but you can't," she said. She regrets that she wasn't home with Tyler. "I will never forgive myself for leaving him. I promised myself I would protect him and never leave him. And, whether it's my fault or not, I'll never forgive myself for it," she said. Recently released information provided a detailed description of the morning's harrowing events. Griffin-Heady returned from her two-hour shift as a security guard and opened the trailer door at 9:55 a.m. to find Tyler lying unresponsive on the floor, visibly covered with wounds. She immediately lifted him to the bed and began CPR. She called 911 and was told to move him to a flat surface, which she did. When a deputy arrived she was trying to save the boy's life and "hysterically screaming and directing deputies to shoot one or more of the dogs," a press release says. Tyler was transported to Rideout Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 10:22 a.m. "The absence of a future that isn't going to happen, the memories that are gone," those are the things Griffin-Heady said she is thinking about now. A list of items seized as evidence by detectives provides some insight to the bloody scene of the boy's death. Items include a "shirt with holes consistent with bite punctures on back," multiple household items with blood splatter and a piece of the boy's scalp. While the scene of his death was grisly, exactly how Tyler died isn't part of the case. "Whether he died from three, 10 or 100 bites is not legally relevant," McGrath said. To make a filing decision, prosecutors had to determine whether a jury of 12 Yuba County residents would find Griffin-Heady guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of child endangerment, which would require jurors to believe she acted with criminal negligence when she left the trailer. According to jury instructions, evidence must show she could foresee the consequences of her actions and that she acted with indifference to human life. The dogs had to have shown aggressive behavior in the past, and Griffin-Heady had to be aware of that behavior. Evidence gathered in the case failed to show that either was true, McGrath said. A deputy's affidavit says: "Heady told me her dogs have attacked one other person before and that was her 4-year-old niece." When the girl went outside, the dogs knocked her down and scratched her face, it said. After reading that statement in January, Griffin-Heady's attorney Roberto Marquez took issue with the use of the word "attack" in the deputy's description of that incident. His client said the dogs were kissing the girl when she was knocked down and that she scratched her face on the ground, and that a dog accidentally scratched her. McGrath said witnesses corroborated that description of the incident. There were two other examples of behavior that could have been considered aggressive. Griffin-Heady said that one of her dogs might have killed a cat. The other evidence was by a neighbor who said one of the dogs aggressively chased her son. Griffin-Heady was never informed of that incident, McGrath said. "No one came to the conclusion that these were aggressive dogs," McGrath said. It was not foreseeable that these dogs would attack the boy, he said. Anti-pit bull organizations had told McGrath they hoped he would file charges, to set precedence and create change across the country. McGrath said the place for that conversation is in the Legislature. Griffin-Heady, who had been a strong pit-bull advocate, said she doesn't hate and she can't hate a dog she doesn't know. "There are plenty of pit bulls that haven't and will never snap," she said. But, to owners of dogs who have small children, she said: "Don't assume they'd never do that."

Tearful jurors embraced the family members of defendants Jesse Santana and David Vasquez after returning a verdict of not guilty on all counts."After seven years, it's over," Vasquez said. Santana and Vasquez, local attorneys, were acquitted of charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and dissuading a witness Friday. After closing arguments, the jury went into deliberations at 1:55 p.m., and the court clerk recorded the verdict was announced at 2:41 p.m. Jodea Foster and Roberto Marquez represented Santana, and Michael Barrette represented Vasquez. Prosecutor Barton Bowers, from the state attorney general's office, prosecuted the case. Bowers argued the two had engaged in negotiating a secret, illegal contract in 2007 meant to dissuade a 17-year-old from testifying and cooperating with police in exchange for $100,000 from Joseph Griesa, the man she had accused of sexual assault. The victim who signed that contract, now 23, said through tears she was relieved the attorneys were acquitted. "It was hard seeing somebody that was just trying to help me go through this," she said. She testified early in the trial that during the time the agreement was being negotiated, she didn't want to testify and didn't want to go forward with criminal charges because she didn't believe the Marysville detective investigating her case was taking her seriously. The defense argued the attorneys were simply referencing her wishes when they included language referring to the victim's privileges not to testify and that she would request criminal charges not be filed. Foster argued the idea that the contract was "secret" was unbelievable and that there was no motive for Santana to dissuade the girl. In fact, Santana wanted her to pursue criminal charges, Foster said. Barrette argued Yuba County District Attorney Pat McGrath made a "deal with the devil" when he worked with Griesa to indict Vasquez and Santana while the latter was applying for a judgeship in Sutter County. "Griesa told (the victim), 'If you tell anybody what I've done to you, I will kill you.' That's intimidating a witness," Barrette said. But, he said, the "Yuba County District Attorney's Office let that go while they've been ravenously going after the attorneys for seven years." The 23-year-old victim said the prosecution of Santana "is proof" that Griesa had connections with the Yuba County District Attorney's Office and could manipulate the system. After closing arguments, Bowers waived his right to rebut and give a final closing argument, which Barrette said was unheard of. Multiple attorneys watching the case said Bowers "basically threw in the towel." "(Bowers) didn't prove anything in his case," said Juror Sharon Dalmas, 55. She said when Bowers didn't rebut, jurors thought, "That's it?" "I just feel that injustice was done to the girl and to Santana, the way they derailed his judgeship," Dalmas said. After hugging and thanking dozens of his supporters, Santana said he hoped the verdict sends a message about the "injustice in this case." "This is a hard journey, and I'm grateful for all the support," he said. He said there were atrocities performed by McGrath, Deputy District Attorney Melanie Bendorf, former Deputy District Attorney John Vacek, Tim Evans, and Yuba County Superior Court Judge Julia Scrogin. "What they did to us was unlawful and unforgivable," Santana said.

Friends and family of Gabriel Natal, an Olivehurst man who was on trial for murder, hugged and cried cheerfully in a Yuba County courtroom on Friday, just moments after jurors released a verdict of not guilty.Natal, 34, was accused of killing Joseph Stancil Jr. and of shooting Stancil's fiancee, Rosie Wheeler, on Brougham Way in Olivehurst last year during a street confrontation. But after a week-long trial, jurors reached a not-guilty verdict on all counts in about three hours. "I had a good feeling about this jury," Natal's attorney Roberto Marquez said Friday afternoon, "that they were smart and intelligent and would do a good job for Mr. Natal. And they did." The verdict brought a mix of reactions from family and friends of both parties. Immediately following the announcement, Wheeler darted out of the courtroom, yelling, "He killed Joey, and he shot me, and they say he's not guilty?" Marquez said he was happy and relieved to hear the jury's verdict, adding the case should have never gone to trial to begin with. "I've never had a case that was so clearly self-defense," he said. On May 18, 2012 — the night of Stancil's death — Natal was defending himself from an "obnoxious, aggressive, threatening neighbor," Marquez told jurors during the trial. Witnesses described Stancil as harassing Natal's friends and family on the day of the shooting. The confrontation came to a head when Natal, Stancil and several others met at the dark end of a dead-end street. A brawl broke out, investigators said, and ended when Natal fired 10 rounds from a .40 caliber handgun, killing Stancil and wounding Wheeler. Throughout the case, both sides claimed self-defense on the night of the attack. And varying accounts of the event made it difficult extracting the truth. In the end, however, jurors sided with the defense. Mike Byrne, deputy Yuba County district attorney, said he didn't have anything to say about the verdict, other than the jury worked as its supposed to. "Evidence was presented, and the jury did their job," he said. Natal is now a free man.

Oroville >> The trial of two Sonoma County men charged with murder for the 2013 shooting death of their purported accomplice in an alleged bungled marijuana robbery began Friday at the Butte County Superior Courthouse. Salvador Trejo, 48, of Santa Rosa, and Yonatan Tesfazghi, 23, of Sebastopol, are charged with murder in the death of Hector Gabriel, their alleged accomplice in a November 2013 Palermo home invasion. The defendants are accused of murder, attempted home invasion robbery and first-degree residential burglary. The murder charges stem from an alleged attempt to perpetrate a home invasion robbery to steal 150 pounds of marijuana that the prosecution says resulted in Gabriel’s death. The trial began Friday morning with attorneys delivering opening statements and several witnesses, including a forensic pathologist as well as family members of the decedent, testifying before the jury. The prosecutor, Marc Noel, said to the jury Friday that the case is complex — in part because neither of the defendants shot Gabriel and one was not present at the alleged home invasion— but that the basic facts of the case, the causes, effects and responsibilities, are not. Gabriel died Nov. 26, 2013 of a gunshot wound to the head after being shot by a resident of the home during the alleged home invasion. Tesfazghi was allegedly with Gabriel at that time while Trejo, who is accused of organizing the attempted home invasion, was not present at the scene. While neither Trejo nor Tesfazghi shot Gabriel, they are responsible for his death, Noel said to the jury Friday morning during his opening statements. The men, this newspaper previously reported, have been charged with murder under the provocative act doctrine, which applies when someone commits an act that provokes another person into killing someone else. Under that doctrine, a defendant knowingly engages in a life-threatening act that has a high probability of a third party responding with force. The prosecution must prove that Gabriel’s death was the “natural and probable” consequence of Trejo and Tesfazghi’s acts. Tesfazghi’s attorney, Roberto Marquez, said to the jury Friday that if anyone is responsible for Gabriel’s death, it is Gabriel himself, and advised the jury to carefully consider witnesses, their backgrounds and if they might have anything to gain by testifying. At least two of the witnesses scheduled to testify are alleged to have had some involvement with the 2013 home invasion. The prosecution and defense laid out their positions in the opening statements, and the jury also heard from the decedent’s mother, who provided information about the day of his death, forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Resk, who performed the autopsy, multiple family members of the decedent as well as his wife Krystal Gabriel, who is currently in custody after pleading guilty to home invasion robbery. The alleged home invasion took place Nov. 26, 2013, Noel said, after Gabriel, his wife Krystal, the defendants, and two others traveled to Butte County armed with the intent to go to the Palermo residence of Hector Rodriguez Ortiz and Zoila Rodriguez, where they lived with their four children, and take 150 pounds of marijuana that the couple had cultivated. “They came with the intent to take that marijuana by force,” Noel said. “They didn’t come with money, they didn’t come with charm, they came with masks and guns.” Noel said to the jury that on Nov. 26, 2013, after Hector Rodriguez had left to run an errand, Zoila Rodriguez, who was making lunch for her children, saw a car “race up her driveway” and saw three people wearing masks get out of the vehicle, at which point her son, Hector Jr., 24, put his mother and sister in a back bedroom and grabbed his father’s gun. He said that over the course of the trial, evidence will show that as Krystal Gabriel waited outside in the car, Hector Gabriel, who he alleged was the “lead man,” entered the residence with Tesfazghi and another man. At that point, Noel said, a gunfight ensued during which Hector Rodriguez Jr. shot Gabriel once in the arm, in what the pathologist said would be described as a ‘flesh wound,’ and once, fatally, in the head. According to a previous article in this newspaper, shots were fired at the residence before 2 p.m., and arriving investigators discovered Hector Gabriel nonresponsive on the kitchen floor of the Palermo residence. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 5:16 p.m. The attorneys’ opening statements and testimony from witnesses kicked off a trial that is expected to last about nine and ½ days. The defendants are also facing charges of attempted home invasion robbery and first-degree residential burglary. The trial will resume Monday. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty on all counts. They remain in custody.