Public Affairs Reporting
Journalism 135
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Court
Reporting: Spring 2004
Sacramento County
Meet at Sacramento County Superior Court on May 4 at 2 p.m. in the main lobby by the elevators.
Get a copy of the trial calendar in the downstairs lobby or on the sixth floor Master Calendar office which list the trials in progress that day, the judge, the type of case and the case title. It is not available online.
The calendar will list the Department and the floor. Each department has a particular court assignment. Some cases will not be open to the general public. This will be reviewed in class.
Sample of Court Stories by Ramon Coronado
The Sacramento Bee April
20, 2004
Lesser charge in mall shooting
Lack of evidence reduces Arden Fair count to illegal gun possession, rather
than felony assault.
by Ramon
Coronado
Bee Staff Writer
A 22-year-old man arrested in the shooting of a teenager during a melee
last month in Arden Fair mall will not be prosecuted for felony assault
with a deadly weapon, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office
announced Monday. A judge later ruled that Wilson Eddie Debose Jr. will
stand trial on a lesser charge.
Debose is charged with possession of a concealed handgun and remains in custody in lieu of $25,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
Debose was originally charged with assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a concealed gun, but prosecutors dropped the assault charge, citing insufficient evidence.
A preliminary hearing was held Monday on the weapons count. After hearing two police officers describe the shooting and the circumstances that led up to it, Superior Court Judge Pamela L. Smith-Steward ruled there was enough evidence for Debose to stand trial. The judge also heard evidence that Debose lacked a permit to carry a gun, and that there was no record of him legally purchasing a firearm.
Debose surrendered to police four days after he was identified as the gunman who pulled out a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun March 27 and shot one of three people who were attacking him in the crowded mall on a Saturday afternoon, court records show.
Debose was at the mall with his girlfriend and their child, who was in a stroller. The girlfriend threw a drink at one of the three and one of them then slapped her, testimony showed.The wounded 17-year-old was not seriously injured in the 3 p.m. shooting outside Champs, a sporting goods store in the mall's west end.
The teen, who was on a two-day pass from Juvenile Hall where he was serving time for possession of stolen property, was in the audience at Monday's preliminary hearing as a spectator, Deputy District Attorney Alice Wong said.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi said Monday that charges would not be filed against the juvenile and his two companions.
"We have the same problem against them as we did against Debose," Grippi said of being able to prove who started the fight and what amount of force was justified.
The assault charge was dropped because Debose would likely prevail in claiming he fired the gun in self-defense, Grippi said. Debose's lawyer, Richard Johnson, argued that his client should not be held to answer on the gun charge, claiming that the gun belonged to the wounded juvenile or his companions.
Smith-Steward described the defense theory as "interesting," but sided with Wong's argument that by bringing a gun into a packed mall, Debose not only put his child at risk, but also endangered others who were at the shopping center.
Johnson additionally asked that his client be released from custody without bail because the gun charge can be filed as either a felony or misdemeanor. Wong, who filed the charge as a felony, asked that bail be set at $25,000, five times the normal bail for such a charge.
Smith-Steward granted the prosecutor's request, citing the public danger in Debose's conduct.
Debose returns to court April 22, when a trial date may be set.
The last reported shooting in the mall was Dec. 12, 1994, when Marlaw Seraspi, then 21, was shot in the chest on the second-floor promenade near the food court. Seraspi survived. The shooting followed a confrontation between two groups of youths. Isiah Ray Johnson, then 17, was later prosecuted as an adult on a charge of attempted murder but pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon.
* * * The Bee's Ramon Coronado can be reached at (916) 321-1191 or rcoronado@sacbee.com.
.Copyright 2004 The Sacramento Bee
April 17, 2004
Man gets life term in gang rape case
Ramon Coronado
The first of five men convicted of a slew of rape and kidnapping charges
was sentenced Friday in Sacramento Superior Court to 343 years to life.
Rajnesh Navin Narayan, 21, was sentenced for his role in a series of gang rapes. Most were rapes of prostitutes.
Last month, Narayan was also convicted of raping and kidnapping a Modesto 18-year-old, the only victim who was not a prostitute.
Judge Greta Curtis Fall sentenced Narayan to consecutive terms because most of his more than 50 felony counts of kidnapping, sexual assaults and robbery carried special penalty enhancements.
The other men convicted in the attacks are scheduled for sentencing next month. They also face life terms in prison.
Narayan had a separate jury that convicted him first; a second jury returned guilty verdicts for the other four defendants a week later. The other men convicted in the case are: Ravind Roshan Deo, 23; Jasmeel Manoj Kumar, 22; Nalesh Prasad, 20; and Ashmindar Jeet Singh, 25.
The complex case began nearly four years ago during the summer months when almost a dozen Sacramento prostitutes reported having been kidnapped and gang-raped by a carload of men armed with guns and knives. Eleven men were arrested, but charges against four were dropped in 2002 after a jury deadlocked. Two others are awaiting trial.
* * * The Bee's Ramon Coronado can be reached at (916) 321-1191 or rcoronado@sacbee.com.