Sacto 9-1-1

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department has released composite sketches of a suspect who is being sought in connection with two sexual assaults in the Arden Arcade area in recent weeks.

On Nov. 23, a man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a white bandana that covered his face attacked and sexually assaulted a woman after entering an unlocked apartment in the 3100 block of Trussel Way.

Two weeks later, another woman was sexually assaulted by a male suspect wearing a black knit cap after he forced her into her apartment in the 2200 block of Howe Avenue. Sheriff's investigators say they believe the same man is responsible for both assaults.

People who may have information to help authorities identify the suspect are asked to call the sheriff's department sex assault bureau at (916) 874-5070. Information may also be given anonymously by calling 916-874-TIPS (8477) or texting to 274637 (CRIMES) and entering the keyword SSD or through the sheriff's department website, www.sacsheriff.com.

Sketches provided by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department

A 26-year-old man died Saturday after a two-vehicle accident that knocked out power in the Ski Run neighborhood of South Lake Tahoe, police reported.

William Olazaba of South Lake Tahoe was pronounced dead at Barton Memorial Hospital after the 1:35 a.m. accident on Pioneer Trail at Ski Run Boulevard, the South Lake Tahoe police said Saturday.

Olazaba was a passenger in a sedan driven by Roberto Olazaba, 22, of South Lake Tahoe that broadsided a sport-utility vehicle passing through the intersection.

The driver of the SUV, Nick Corea, 26, of South Lake Tahoe, was treated and released at Barton Memorial. Roberto Olazaba was admitted to the hospital for observation.

The collision briefly shut off power to the Ski Run neighborhood after one of the vehicles stuck a power conversion box.

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer was killed Friday night in a dramatic vehicle accident that closed Highway 12 in Solano County for most of the evening.

The officer's name has not been released, but he worked in Solano County, said Officer Chris Parker, a CHP spokesman.

The accident occurred at 5:50 p.m. Friday on a notoriously dangerous stretch of Highway 12. An eastbound Toyota pickup truck had entered a turn lane and was making a left turn across the two westbound lanes in order to enter a driveway, just west of Red Top Road.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: Sometime in the early '90s, a young man named DeVarr Williams was killed in Lincoln Village. What were the details?
Submitted by: Rich, Citrus Heights

ANSWER: DeVarr Williams died in February 1994, a week after he was shot as he stood outside a liquor store in the Lincoln Village area.

A 13-year-old boy has been transported to a hospital after he was stuck by a vehicle in Roseville late this afternoon.

The accident occurred about 4:45 p.m. Police spokeswoman Dee Dee Gunther said three teenagers were trying to cross Washington Boulevard. Two waited but one boy decided to dash across, she said. The youth was not in a crosswalk.

He was struck by a Nissan sedan that was southbound on Washington Boulevard.

Four Sacramento-area men were recently charged in federal indictments with receiving or sharing child pornography.

James Capalbo, 61, of Davis was charged with receipt of child pornography. The Nov. 29 indictment alleges that between March 28 and April 26, 2011, Capalbo knowingly received visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

A traffic stop in Rocklin early this morning led to the arrest of two people after police reported finding burglary tools and evidence of identity theft in the vehicle.

Shortly after 4 a.m., officers stopped a vehicle in the area of Taylor Road and Interstate 80 for a vehicle code violation. The driver was identified as Larry Ledezma, 29, of Shingle Springs and the passenger as Krystin Gonzales, 22, of Lincoln. Both were found to be on searchable probation, according to a Police Department news release.

During a search of the inside of the car, officers found burglary tools and evidence of identity theft. Police are investigating possible identify theft involving victims from the Lincoln and Rocklin areas, officials said.

By Loretta Kalb
lkalb@sacbee.com

Today's mass killing at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school where 27 people, including 18 students, died at the hands of a lone gunman, has grim similarities to violence in this region.

Northern California public schools have been devastated by their own history of heartbreak in school shootings.

In January 1989, Patrick "Eddie" Purdy, 24, loaded himself down with a semiautomatic AKM-47 and two pistols and headed to Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, a campus he had attended 16 years earlier.

Before he was through, he had killed five students and wounded 30 children and one teacher. Then he turned a gun on himself and ended his life with a bullet to the head.

Three years later, in May 1992, a disgruntled high school dropout, Eric Houston donned a camouflage hunting vest, loaded his car with a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun and fatally gunned down three students and history teacher at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, north of Sacramento.

He injured 10 other people that day and trapped 84 students in the school building as hostages.

Houston was convicted in 1993 and sent to death row.

A woman was arrested by Sacramento police on suspicion of leaving the scene after hitting a person in a wheelchair.

Regina Medina, 35, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run and driving on an expired license.

Police said that about 4 p.m. Thursday a person in a wheelchair was struck by a vehicle in the vicinity of 30th and U streets. The injuries to the wheelchair user were described as not life-threatening.

The vehicle fled the scene, according to a police activity log. Police allege that Medina was the driver of the vehicle and that she returned to the scene where she was taken into custody.

A drunk driver checkpoint will be in place tonight in South Sacramento.

The Sacramento Police Department will be conducting the checkpoint at 24th Street and Fruitridge Road beginning at 8 p.m. The checkpoint will last about six hours.

Uniformed officers will be checking for alcohol- or drug-impaired drivers. They will also make sure drivers have valid licenses.

DUI checkpoints are proven deterrents in cutting the number of people killed or injured in crashes, according to police.

"Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough," said a press release from the department.

In 2010 more than 10,000 people were killed in the United States in crashes where at least one driver was legally drunk. In California, 791 such deaths were recorded.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: In the late '90s, a coworker broke into a home in south Sacramento, assaulted a young woman and attacked her grandmother with a machete. What was the outcome of his trial?
Submitted by: P.S., Sacramento

ANSWER: Tamecus Reed was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the machete murder of 81-year-old Soledad Abogado and rape of her 23-year-old granddaughter.

A former Elk Grove man has been charged with mail fraud related to embezzlement from his former employer.

A federal grand jury today returned a 20-count indictment against Vincent J. Doyle, 53. Doyle now lives in Syracuse, Ind., according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

According to the indictment, Doyle was the chief financial officer for a civil engineering firm in Sacramento and El Dorado counties. From 2001 until he retired from the firm in 2009, he allegedly used his position to write unauthorized checks form the firm's bank accounts that totaled at least $2.5 million.

A man wanted for probation violations was arrested this afternoon after allegedly stealing a vehicle.

A resident called the Woodland Police Department about 7:10 this morning to report that his 1994 Chevrolet Blazer had just been stolen from his driveway in the 800 block of Cottonwood Street. Officers responded to the area but were unable to find the vehicle or suspect, according to a Police Department news release.

About 12:20 p.m., a Woodland officer spotted the stolen vehicle eastbound on Oak Avenue near Saunders Lane. The officer followed the vehicle while waiting for additional officers to arrive, officials said.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help in locating a missing 13-year-old girl.

Kaylecia Jackson was last seen Wednesday morning when she left her home on Wire Drive, near 47th Avenue and Stockton Boulevard. The girl never arrived at school.

Kaylecia is considered at risk because of her age. She is described as a black girl, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 165 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Sheriff's Department at (916) 874-5115.

Placer County sheriff's detectives relied on DNA evidence to arrest an ex-employee of a care home suspected of impregnating a severely mentally disabled woman.

Sheriff's officials said that they arrested Marquise X. Montgomery, 22, in Elverta on Wednesday night, booking him into the Placer County Jail on suspicion of rape of a person unable to give consent.

Montgomery is suspected of sexually assaulting a woman in a Penryn care home where he was once employed. The 34-year-old woman was discovered a year ago to be about six months pregnant.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested three men in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in his Wilton home nearly two months ago.

Detectives allege the men shot the victim, 60-year-old Kelly McClurg, during an attempt to rob him of marijuana, according to the Sheriff's Department.

The suspects were acquaintances of the victim, officials said.

A woman already doing time for strangling and beating her 6-year-old step-daughter had a life sentenced added to her term as a result of her no-contest plea to a murder charge filed after the little girl died of her injuries six years after the initial attack.

Weili Kao, 43, received the added 15-to-life prison term Wednesday from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette for killing Truly Lo.

Kao beat the little girl and grabbed her by the neck while disciplining her on May 11, 2004. The girl fell into a persistent vegetative state and Kao was convicted and sentenced the next year for felony child abuse.

Sacramento prosecutors filed murder charges agaisnt Kao after Lo died on Dec. 21, 2010. Kao entered her plea to the second-degree murder charge on Dec. 3.

An El Dorado County man was killed in gunfire last night in an officer-involved shooting.

The dead man was identified as Christopher Michael Sheldon, 38, of Pollock Pines.

The incident began when the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office dispatch center received a call about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday from a resident in the 2900 block of Kimberly Lane in Pollock Pines. The caller said that a man at the residence was threatening to shoot himself.

It took thieves three minutes to steal $19,000 worth of power equipment from an Amador County store.

Security camera video shows that at 4:49 a.m. Sunday a man opened a locked gate at Guy's Saw Center in Pine Grove and guided a white van onto the property.

Four men wearing gloves and attempting to hide their faces then jumped from the back of the van. One used a sledge hammer to smash the glass door of the business.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has released the name of the man found dead Wednesday morning in his cell at the Sacramento County Main Jail.

He was identified as Vu Van Ha, 66, of Sacramento.

Sheriff's officials said that Ha had been in custody since Dec. 6, when he was booked on suspicion of felony evasion of a peace officer, hit and run, assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is advising residents of the proper procedures for turning over firearms to a law enforcement agency.

Anyone wishing to bring a gun to one of the Sheriff's Department's facilities must adhere to the guidelines:

• Leave the firearm unloaded in a locked vehicle while contacting sheriff's personnel in the facility.

Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.

QUESTION: In April 2011, Teresa Hess was killed by a vehicle while crossing Laguna Boulevard in Elk Grove. What was the final result of that investigation?
Submitted by: Katt, Elk Grove

ANSWER: Teresa Hess, 54, died April 5, 2011, of injuries suffered a day earlier when she was struck by a pickup truck as she jogged about 8 a.m. across Laguna Boulevard.

Fire officials are urging caution when using space heaters after a 6-year-old boy narrowly escaped injury in a fire at his North Highlands home early this morning.

The boy was asleep about 1 a.m. in a room that had been converted from a garage in the 3600 block of McClellan Drive, with heat provided by two electric space heaters plugged into back-to back extension cords. Two adults were inside the house watching TV, unaware that the space heaters had overloaded the extension cords and started a fire, according to a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District news release.

When the boy's parents returned home, they smelled smoke in the house and found the couch in the room engulfed in flames. The father carried his son to safety while others tried to put out the fire.