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PRESS ARTICLES

PRESS ARTICLES

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

Oroville >> A jury has found a former Yuba County sheriff’s deputy not guilty on all charges for a St. Patrick’s Day incident in Chico.
After slightly more than four hours of deliberation ending Friday morning, the jury acquitted defendant Nelson Ned Magana, 32, of charges stemming from the off-duty incident at the Burgers and Brew restaurant at West Second Street and Broadway. 
Magana had been charged in Butte County Superior Court with felony counts of battery with the serious injury of unconsciousness and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury for the incident involving Felipe Donicio Curiel Zabala. After finding the defendant not guilty of those counts, jurors also considered and acquitted Magana on lesser, included counts of misdemeanor assault and battery. 
The panel of seven men and five women also found Magana not guilty of a felony count of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. The prosecution had alleged the defendant had threatened an off-duty restaurant employee who followed Magana and called 9-1-1 after the incident. 

‘ELATED AND THRILLED’ 
Magana embraced his attorney, Roberto Marquez, after the verdicts were read. The defendant later exited the courthouse with his family and supporters, declining to speak with the media. 
Outside of court, Marquez praised the jury for its work. He said he believed Magana acted in reasonable self-defense and had to believe the jury reached a similar conclusion. 
“We’re elated and thrilled,” Marquez said of the verdict. 
In addition to self-defense, he also said there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges. In addition to a lack of physical evidence such as significant injury, he said every allegation made against his client had been countered by testimony from other witnesses. 
With the acquittal, Marquez said they would appeal the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office’s decision to terminate Magana’s employment last July. Magana, the Yuba County Peace Officer of the Year in 2010, had been placed on leave following the incident.
“Hopefully, Mr. Magana can reconstruct his life,” Marquez said. 
Deputy district attorney Michael Sawyer said at his office that the outcome was extremely disappointing. Although he didn’t have a chance to speak with jurors about their deliberations, he said “there was strong evidence in this case to justify guilty verdicts on all three counts.” 
The jury foreman said outside of court that each juror had their own reasons why they voted not guilty. He said jurors had to deliberate a while and consider all the testimony before reaching their verdict. 

THE CASE 
During the trial, jurors heard overlapping and at times conflicting accounts of what happened during the incident. Generally, witnesses testified Curiel and Magana engaged in a verbal argument in the restaurant before Curiel and witness Jessica Gonzalez exited the building’s elevator lobby. 
The physical altercation happened after Magana and his friend Roxanna Lepe exited to the same lobby. Curiel, Magana and witnesses disagreed on who attacked first and other key points of the altercation, but at some point both men tumbled to the midfloor landing of the stairwell to the basement. 
Magana testified he only punched Curiel once to defend himself and later used his hands to disengage from Curiel after they fell down the stairs. 
Two restaurant employees testified they saw Magana punch and kick Curiel on the midfloor landing, but the defense challenged that version of events. 
Magana and Lepe left the building and were followed by off-duty restaurant employee Christopher Berry. During the 9-1-1 call, Berry said the defendant threatened him. Berry later testified Magana threatened to attack him for calling police, but the defense noted the witness couldn’t consistently recall what Magana said.
Marquez also questioned Berry’s credibility, based partly on a series of Facebook posts where the poster referred negatively to police and apparently Magana. 
Magana testified he yelled at an unknown person following him. He said he had been frightened because he didn’t know who was following him after an altercation that began with a group of people. 

CONTACTED IN PLAZA 
Chico police officer Ryon Mitchell contacted Magana’s group at City Plaza. Mitchell testified Magana initially denied being in a physical altercation and even being at the restaurant. When asked about his bloody knuckles, Magana said he punched an elevator wall after being in a verbal argument, but denied being in a fight. 
Mitchell said Magana later told him about being punched in the face. 
Magana refuted much of Mitchell’s testimony, saying he never denied being in an altercation and being at the restaurant He also testified that Curiel punched him in the face. 
There did not appear to be strong physical evidence to prove physical injuries on either Magana or Curiel. Photos didn’t show apparent injury on Magana’s head or severe injury to Curiel, aside from a contusion on his right temple. 
Curiel was reportedly unconscious for about five minutes. However, the emergency room doctor testified it was difficult that night to determine whether Curiel suffered from a concussion or intoxication because of similar symptoms. 
Both men had been drinking prior to the incident. Curiel’s blood alcohol content was tested at about 0.30 percent, nearly four times the legal driving limit. 
Magana’s BAC was 0.11 percent when he was tested at Butte County Jail. An officer testified Magana denied drinking, but the defendant testified he told the officer he didn’t want to answer questions. 

Murder trial begins for alleged robbers in Palermo home invasion

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.

Judge dismisses case against Yuba County sheriff’s deputy

A criminal case against a Yuba County sheriff's deputy accused of making violent threats was recently dismissed by a Sutter County judge due to lack of evidence.Whether the case against Justin Fay Hodge will be refiled has not yet been decided, District Attorney Amanda Hopper said Tuesday. Hodge's defense attorney argues the evidence simply isn't there.
The officer was arrested and charged in Sutter County Superior Court in March with burglary and threatening to commit a crime causing great bodily injury after, police said, he allegedly threatened to kill a man who was in the home of a woman Hodge was recently dating.
Hodge was immediately placed on administrative leave from his position at the sheriff's department, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Judge Chris Chandler dismissed the case June 3 at the end of a hearing when the alleged victim, Hodge's ex-girlfriend, and a police officer testified. Hopper said the police officer who interviewed the victim and generated the report detailing the victim's statement was unavailable for the hearing.
She will determine whether the case should be refiled after she reads transcripts of the hearing.
"I cannot make that decision until I see what evidence was presented in the hearing," Hopper said.
Defense attorney Roberto Marquez questioned whether Hodge should have ever been charged with burglary.
"There is no evidence that (Hodge) entered a home to commit theft or a felony," Marquez said Tuesday. "Even in the report, (the girlfriend) said Hodge lived there, had two kids that lived there, he had a code to the house and could come and go as he pleased."
"I could see why they filed (the charge of threatening to commit a crime), but if you read the report closely, the man in the house had a subjective fear that Mr. Hodge would hurt him. I wasn't convinced Mr. Hodge made such a threat.
"I think (the alleged victim) was reasonably scared, and because of that fright he felt threatened. But I don't believe Hodge threatened bodily harm," Marquez said.
Hopper defended her initial decision to file the case.
"I filed this case based upon the evidence known to my office at the time, as gathered and documented through police reports and contact with the victim," she said.
Court documents summarizing a Yuba City police report say a man called 911 around 4 a.m. to report an intruder — who threatened to kill him — was in a home he was visiting on Loanor Drive. The man and the woman told police that Hodge grabbed the man and pulled him to his feet while yelling, then later climbed up the side of the house while yelling threats and obscenities.
Marquez said he hopes Hopper does not refile the case.
Meanwhile, Hodge remains on administrative leave from his position at the Yuba County Sheriff's Department, and Marquez argued Hodge should be reinstated.
"I don't see any justification to terminate him from his employment," Marquez said.

Olivehurst man found not guilty in shooting death

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.

Attorneys Santana, Vasquez not guilty on all counts

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.

No criminal charges will be filed against sister in fatal dog mauling

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."
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