NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials at California State Prison-Sacramento are investigating the fatal Thursday stabbing of an inmate from Lake County who was serving a sentence for second-degree murder.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation identified the inmate who died as Humberto Torres, 33.

Torres was received from Lake County on Jan. 26, 2000, and was serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder with a firearm, authorities said.

Officials said Torres had been an inmate at California State Prison-Sacramento, also known as CSP-SAC, since June 18, 2015.

Prison officials have named inmates Rudy De Lossantos, 38, and Michael Robles, 33, as the suspects in Torres' killing.

Officials said Torres was on C Facility – one of three maximum security facilities at the prison – at 1:30 p.m. Thursday when he was attacked by De Lossantos and Robles, who stabbed him multiple times.

Torres was pronounced dead at 1:56 p.m. Thursday, officials said.

Prison officials used six rounds of 40 millimeter rubber bullets, two blast dispersion grenades and OC pepper spray to disrupt the attack, after which a stabbing instrument was discovered, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's report.

Three correctional officers were taken to an area hospital for minor injuries suffered during the incident, officials said.

De Lossantos is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for first-degree murder and was received from Orange County on Nov. 1, 2006. He has been an inmate at CSP-SAC since May 27, 2015.

Robles is serving a 200-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder and was received from Riverside County on Feb. 25, 2005. He has been an inmate at CSP- Sac since May 24, 2013.

Opened in 1986, CSP-SAC is located adjacent to Folsom State Prison. It was first known as New Folsom until its name was changed in 1992.

CSP-SAC is a Level IV maximum security prison that houses 1,204 inmates serving long sentences or who have been management problems at other prisons.

The prison also houses inmates requiring specialized mental health programming and inmates with high risk medical concerns.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Law enforcement from Lake, Marin, Mendocino and Napa counties as well as state and federal agencies will take part in extended remote search training exercises next week.

The training will take place from 7 a.m. to midnight on Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13, around Lake Mendocino and the Cal Fire Station at Howard Forest, according to Lt. Shannon Barney of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Barney said the agencies participating in the training will include the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the California National Guard, Cal Fire, Search and Rescue Teams from Lake, Napa, Marin, and Mendocino counties, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In recent years California State Wilderness Search and Rescue professionals have seen an increase in extended search and rescue missions in difficult-to-access, mountainous terrain across California.  Many of these incidents have occurred in Mendocino County or in adjacent counties, Barney said.

These searches often require a large commitment of advanced search and rescue teams and significant logistical support that must be brought to the scene, according to Barney.

Barney said these search and rescue missions also are often dependent on aviation resources to insert and extract teams and to be available to provide rescue support in the event of injured searchers or lost persons.
 
As a result, California State Search and Rescue coordinators, with the assistance of California Office of Emergency Services, have drafted a plan or guideline to be presented to the California State Sheriff’s Association for adoption, according to Barney's report.

Part of this plan calls for a more formal plan involving air assets of cooperating agencies, such as the California National Guard and Cal Fire, to assist in deploying or extracting resources to remote areas and or to provide medical extractions (hoist) to injured subjects, either the missing/lost persons or searchers, Barney reported.
 
In addition to wilderness search and rescue missions the National Guard and Cal Fire can be called to assist other emergency response personnel, including law enforcement, during incidents involving emergencies or natural disasters and law enforcement missions, Barney said.

This assistance is provided as a mutual aid support system and can include: providing critical transportation of personnel, medical evacuation, general evacuation, logistical supply, and technical night search capabilities using forward looking infrared cameras, according to Barney.
 
Barney said this joint training effort will utilize helicopter resources and crews from the California National Guard and Cal Fire specifically to train law enforcement and search and rescue teams in the capabilities of and safe operations of their respective helicopter platforms. 

These helicopters will include the National Guard CH47D Chinook, U/HH60 Blackhawk, UH72A Lakota and the Cal Fire UH1H Super Huey, Barney said.

Starting on Monday, July 11, the public will see an increase in helicopter operations regarding this training exercise in the area of Lake Mendocino, around the Ukiah Municipal Airport and on the Ridgewood Grade near the Cal Fire Station, Barney said.
 
For safety reasons during this training the US Army Corps of Engineers has closed the South Lake Mendocino Wildlife Area, including all hiking trails east of the Lake Mendocino Dam to the general public. These areas will reopen on Thursday, July 14, Barney said.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The murder trial of a man accused of carrying out a fatal drive-by shooting last July in Clearlake is under way.

On Friday opening statements took place and the first witnesses were called in the trial of Billy Raymond Mount, 36, of Clearlake, who is accused of the July 2015 shooting that claimed the life of 40-year-old Steven Galvin, also of Clearlake.

Judge Andrew Blum is presiding over the trial.

The District Attorney's Office has charged Mount with homicide, assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm – in this case, a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Mount previously served a prison term for a 2007 felony robbery case, according to court records.

He's also facing numerous special allegations, including shooting a firearm from a vehicle, discharge of a handgun, personal use of a firearm, inflicting great bodily injury and being a member of a criminal street gang. Regarding the latter, the prosecution alleges that Mount is a known skinhead.

One of the key issues in the case is that, shortly before he died, Galvin identified a man other than Mount as his attacker.

The prosecution alleges that it has evidence to support Mount as the shooter, but the defense is arguing that Galvin's statements about his attacker – which were some of the last words he spoke – must be heeded.

In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Sharon Lerman said Galvin, also known as “T-Bone,” was walking alone through a residential area on 35th Avenue in Clearlake at around 3:40 p.m. on July 2, 2015, when a little white truck pulled up and two gunshots rang out.

Galvin was shot in the back, and died within an hour at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, according to the statements in court on Friday.

Lerman said Galvin was “shot in cold blood, on the street, in broad daylight.”

Firefighters and officers arriving on scene found Galvin on the ground, writhing in pain. He was mumbling and difficult to understand.

However, he spoke clearly when Clearlake Police Det. Ryan Peterson asked him, “Who did this to you?”

“Cyclops,” Galvin would say, four different times.

The individual known as “Cyclops,” however, isn't Mount, but Clearlake resident David Cox, who in court was identified as a known skinhead and white supremacist.

Cox was located and detained within an hour of the shooting, said Lerman.

“The story could have ended there,” said Lerman. However, it doesn't, she added.

Rather, the prosecution maintains that Galvin was unable to tell the whole story.

Within days, Clearlake resident Sean Whiteman would tell police that he was driving the pickup witnesses saw at the scene, and that it was Mount who had used a handgun to shoot and mortally wound Galvin.

Lerman said Whiteman also led police to the handgun that they believed was used, based on forensic evidence, and Mount's DNA and fingerprint was found on a CD cover in Whiteman's truck.

Explaining why Galvin would have named Cox – or Cyclops – as his attacker, Lerman said Galvin knew Cox was angry at him. Cox believed Galvin had stolen his tablet computer and was reported to have told other skinheads to go after Galvin, who he had a confrontation with two days before the shooting.

Mount and Cox would meet about an hour before the shooting, with Mount later reported to have been riding around town with Whiteman in his little white pickup.

Cox, who Lerman said has a criminal history like many of the case's witnesses and key players, has been granted limited immunity in the case.

Defense attorney Andrea Sullivan told the jury during her opening statement, “Sometimes things are exactly as they seem.”

Sullivan argued that it was Cox, not Mount, who was the gunman responsible for fatally shooting Galvin. She said the situation between Cox and Galvin had escalated to the point where they had pulled guns on each other on more than one occasion, and she argued that Cox had multiple chances to commit the slaying.

None of the eyewitnesses identified Mount as the shooter, according to Sullivan. “Not one.”

She added that Whiteman has been discredited and there is no physical evidence in the form of DNA, gun residue or fingerprints linking Mount to the killing.

“The prosecution in this case is based on a theory,” a theory that Sullivan argued has its foundation not on the evidence by on “smoke and mirrors.” She urged the jurors to give Galvin justice by actually listening to him.

Officers, paramedic testify

Witnesses on the stand on Friday included Clearlake Police Det. Elvis Cook and Officer Matthew Huot, who were among the first officers who arrived at the shooting scene, finding Galvin on the ground in the middle of a home's front yard.

Both men would also go to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, where Galvin was transported in anticipation of meeting an air ambulance but died before he could be flown out.

Cook also would go looking for Cox at the Kingfisher Mobile Home Park, where he lives with his grandmother, but didn't find him. Cook then went to a home on Maple Street that Cox was known to frequent, and it was there that Cox was found and detained by police.

Jason Trudell, a paramedic with the Lake County Fire Protection District who responded to the scene and assisted with transporting Galvin to the hospital, also testified.

Trudell recounted that it was difficult to get answers out of Galvin, who was having trouble breathing and moving around a lot. Galvin was vague about what had happened to him, first telling paramedics that he was assaulted, and later saying he was shot.

It took a few minutes for paramedics to find the exit wound, which was very small and on the right side of Galvin's chest, with no external bleeding. Galvin also appeared to be coughing up fluid tinged with blood, which indicated to Trudell that he had a possible lung injury.

On the way to the hospital landing zone, Galvin's vital signs dropped and he lost consciousness, Trudell said. Galvin's vital signs then briefly improved before his pulse stopped and paramedics diverted him to the hospital emergency room, where he died.

Also testifying on Friday was Det. Peterson, the case's arresting officer. As part of his testimony, Lerman played a brief video taken from Peterson's body camera, which he activated at the scene.

The footage showed Peterson arriving at the shooting location on 35th Avenue, getting a camera from his car and documenting the location before making his way over to the paramedics and Galvin, who was lying face down on the ground and writhing.

Galvin clearly stated the name “Cyclops” when asked who was responsible for his attack. He also said, “Help, I need some air,” then gasped and kept repeating “air.” Yet he pulled off an oxygen mask paramedics attempted to put over his face.

Peterson said he knew Cox as Cyclops. As Clearlake Police's gang enforcement officer, Peterson had met Cox about a year before the shooting. He said Cox had come to his attention in part because of his very distinctive appearance; Peterson said Cox's face is covered with tattoos, and when Cox met Peterson he identified himself as a skinhead who recently had been released from prison.

At the shooting scene, Peterson and his fellow officers canvassed the neighborhood, speaking to witnesses and looking for evidence.

Three days later Peterson would later contact Jeremy Green, a friend of Mount's, at a red-tagged home where Green, who is homeless, has been staying for some time.

During the investigation, Green had told Peterson that Mount admitted to him that he had shot someone. However, Green – who was brought from the Lake County Jail to testify in the trial – appeared to change his story while on the stand.

Green said he had been high on drugs when Peterson had spoken to him last July, and that because he was scared of police he told Peterson what he thought Peterson wanted to hear.

He also claimed that he only remembered parts of the conversation with Peterson, that he didn't recall bringing up Mount and the shooting to Peterson, and that the questioning in court was confusing him.

“Mr. Green, you don't really want to be here, do you?” asked Lerman.

“No,” he said. Lerman followed up by asking if he didn't want to hurt his friend. He said no.

He said he and Mount – who he thinks of as a brother – were driving around with Whiteman in the white pickup and doing drugs on the day of the shooting. Green recalled the day as mostly “a blur.”

Green also recounted stopping to buy drugs at the Maple Street house where Cox frequented, and Cox and Mount having a conversation in a back room. Afterward, Mount was “a little distracted” and upset, but calmed down.

During cross-examination by Sullivan, Green said he had been afraid that he was going to be implicated in the shooting.

When Sullivan asked if he would lie to protect Mount, his friend, Green said, “I haven't lied yet.”

The trial will continue at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 13.

Mount's trial is among three murder cases currently in trial or set to go to trial, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.

Hinchcliff said another four murder cases are set for sentencing or other proceedings, and two more homicide cases are set for preliminary hearing or are pending preliminary hearing and not yet set for trial.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

On June 27, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the SB 833 legislation sponsored by state Sen. Hernandez.

SB 833 will greatly reduce the future scope of California's Medi-Cal Estate Recovery against the estate of deceased Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

For Medi-Cal recipients who die on or after Jan. 1, 2017, claims by California Medi-Cal Estate Recovery will be reduced to what is minimally required under federal law.

Federal law requires the state to seek adjustment or recovery from an individual's estate for specified medical assistance, including nursing facility services regardless of age if the person was permanently institutionalized, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services, if the individual was 55 years of age or older when he or she received the medical assistance.

Presently Medi-Cal Estate Recovery can, subject to limitations, seek recovery from the estate of the surviving spouse of a deceased Medi-Cal recipient if the surviving spouse's estate includes assets which the surviving spouse had received from the Medi-Cal recipient's estate (at death).

Under SB 833, Medi-Cal will no longer be able to recover from the surviving spouse's estate with respect to Medi-Cal recipients who die on or after Jan. 1, 2017.

The surviving spouse of such a person will not have to transfer any assets received from a deceased spouse's estate to safeguard them from recovery claims against the surviving spouse's own estate, when the surviving spouse later dies.

This is a major victory for those who advocated Medi-Cal Estate Recovery reform.

Under SB 833, Medi-Cal only will be able to proceed against assets that are part of the deceased Medi-Cal recipient's “probate estate.”

The probate estate is limited those assets that would be included in a probate were the deceased recipient's estate to be probated.

Presumably this applies regardless of whether or not the deceased recipient's estate is ever actually probated or not; that is, assets inside the estate of a decedent which is appraised at under the $150,000 probate threshold would presumably be considered to be a part of the decedent's probate estate for Medi-Cal Estate Recovery even though no probate is required.

This offers a planning opportunity: Effective Jan. 1, 2017, assets that transferred into a living trust prior to the deceased settlor's death are, therefore, not subject to Medi-Cal Estate Recovery claims against the deceased settlor.

The same is true for assets held as joint tenancy estates and or life estate assets; these pass automatically at death without becoming part of the decedent's probate estate.

Likewise, it would appear that the same outcome will also apply for real property transferred by means of the new transfer on death deed.

This will likely motivate persons who receive Medi-Cal to consider how best to keep their assets outside of their probate estate (one way or another) to avoid Medi-Cal recovery against their estates and so protect their loved ones.

That assets held in a decedent's revocable living trust will avoid both probate and Medi-Cal estate recovery simultaneously is important.

Living trusts can provide more protections to decedent's intended beneficiaries and offer more "what if contingency planning than is true of joint tenancy, life estate or TOD deeds.

In addition, SB 833 will also provide the following benefits: Persons will be able to request an itemized bill each year listing the cost of the Medi-Cal services received (for a $5 cost); interest to be charged against the probate estate of deceased Medi-Cal recipient will be at a lower rate; homesteads of "modest means” will be exempt from Medi-Cal recovery; and acupuncture will added as an approved Medi-Cal service (now effective).

The foregoing is great news. Of course, we do not have all the answers regarding the new legislation. More remains to be seen in 2017 once the legislation begins to be implemented.

Dennis A. Fordham, Attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Last weekend's Independence Day celebrations around Lake County were accompanied by a slight increase in drunk driving arrests and crashes, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP ran one of its regular “maximum enforcement periods” from the evening of Friday, July 1, through the night of Monday, July 4, putting all available officers on area roadways to watch out for driving under the influence cases as well as speeding and distracted driving, the agency said.

Officer Kory Reynolds of the CHP's Clear Lake Area office said the statistics for the weekend showed DUI cases were up when compared with 2015.

Reynolds said this year's DUI arrests totaled eight, compared to seven in 2015.

In addition, there were two DUI collisions last weekend compared to one during the same weekend last year, Reynolds said.

He said the crashes both occurred on Sunday and were noninjury.

One occurred on North Shore Drive in Hidden Valley Lake, and involved one vehicle hitting a parked car, possibly backing into it, he said.

The other crash was on Soda Bay Road near Kelseyville Sunday afternoon and involved a vehicle into a pole, as Lake County News has reported. That crash resulted in extensive utility repairs that required the roadway to be closed until Monday morning.

Reynolds said both crashes resulted in arrests, but he did not report the names of the arrested drivers.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Dinosaurs were fearsome creatures. Some had thick scales, sharp teeth, and, in many cases, lightning-fast reflexes.

One thing they didn’t have: a planetary defense office.
 
When an asteroid targeted Earth 65 million years ago, it took those masters of Earth by complete surprise.

While we know of no large object that is on a collision course with Earth in the next 100 years, descendants of survivors from that catastrophic impact are determined not to make the same mistake.
 
In 2016, human astronomers now routinely scan the heavens for signs of potentially hazardous objects.

When one is discovered, alerts are issued to observers around the world so space rocks cannot easily disappear into the blackness of space.

NASA-funded survey projects have found 98 percent of the known catalogue of almost 15,000 near-Earth objects – asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. The list is growing at a rate of about 1,500 per year.
 
Meanwhile, researchers are giving serious thought to an even bigger problem: What would we do if a dangerous asteroid is discovered? How will we know if and when it will impact? Is it possible to deflect or destroy it before it reaches Earth?
 
All of this work – from discovery to tracking to potential mitigation – is being done by a sprawling network of government agencies, private and public universities, and both amateur and professional astronomers.

Helping them work together is the job of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
 
“Planetary Defense is a team sport,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

This office was established at NASA Headquarters to coordinate the players in planetary defense related activities across NASA, other US government agencies, and with international efforts and projects to detect any asteroid impact hazard and plan the appropriate response.”
 
A recent real world example illustrates how this all works.
 
Paul Chodas, manager for NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, described what happened: “The object was first detected by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona on October 3rd, 2015, and tagged as detection WT1190F.”
 
Within a couple of days, astronomers suspected it was probably an artificial object: It was faint and small with its motion visibly altered by the gentle pressure of sunlight – a bit like a solar sail or perhaps a hollow rocket body.
 
As tracking data accumulated from multiple observers, astronomers realized that they would get a closer look. This would be a real world case to exercise the team’s skills.

WT1190F was predicted to hit Earth on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. Orbit calculations by JPL analysts pinpointed the impact time and site: WT1190F would burn into the atmosphere off the coast of Sri Lanka.
 
For years, Peter Jenniskens of the SETI institute working with NASA’s Ames Research Center has been leading teams researching entry dynamics on airborne campaigns to observe objects ripping through Earth’s atmosphere.

In 2006, for instance, they recorded the return of NASA's Stardust Sample Return Capsule with its cargo of cometary dust. They’ve also observed a number of defunct spacecraft re-entries and a few natural meteor events.
 
Supported in part by the United Arab Emirates Space Agency and the International Astronomy Center, Jenniskens assembled a group of experts to witness the re-entry of WT1190F.

They flew to the Indian Ocean on a G450 aircraft armed with cameras and spectrometers. Exactly at the time and place predicted by NASA’s Near Earth Object Observations program, WT1190F produced a magnificent fireball in broad daylight.
 
“The spectra of one large fragment contained bands of titanium oxide and a line of hydrogen. So the object could have been a titanium-walled vessel containing residual fuel,” Jenniskens said.

Chodas, who had been attempting to reconstruct WT1190F’s past orbital motion, said, “My educated guess, is that it was Lunar Prospector’s trans-lunar injection module, which had a titanium case. Although we may never know for sure.”
 
One thing is certain: Astronomers supported by NASA found it, tracked it, and predicted where it would hit with pinpoint accuracy.

These are exacting skills that will come in handy the next time an actual asteroid comes to visit. 
 
For more about asteroids and NASA’s planetary defense capabilities, go to www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense .