The Ukiah Local Newspaper

Girls varsity Weekend FORUM basketball entertainment Our readers write .............Page 6 ..............Page 3 ...................................Page 4 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Cloudy with rain; H 49º L 41º 7 58551 69301 0 THURSDAY Dec. 27, 2007 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 149 Number 262 email: [email protected] POST-CHRISTMAS LOCAL RETAIL SCENE Shooting account Sales trump returns won’t wash Couple report they were attacked while trying to sell marijuana; deputies suspect sexual assault, kidnapping By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office plans to ask the Mendocino District Attorney’s Office to file sexual assault charges against a man who showed up at Howard Memorial Hospital with a woman Monday morning, claiming they had both been shot during a robbery. At around 7 a.m. Monday, Jasper Sierra, 30, of Laytonville, and a woman the Sheriff’s Office is not identifying, arrived at the hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. Sierra had been shot in the foot, and the woman had suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Sierra and the woman told sheriff’s deputies they had been attacked while trying to sell an unknown amount of marijuana in a turnout of Highway 101 near Rattlesnake Summit in Laytonville. Deputies drove up Highway 101 to look for the scene of the alleged robbery but were unable to find the turnout or evidence of the crime, according to sheriff’s reports. Deputies then went to the home Sierra and the woman share on Bell Springs Road. Officers found no evidence of marijuana sales but did find evidence of other offenses while searching the house, according to the MCSO. Evidence found at the house and state- MacLeod Pappidas/The Daily Journal ments made by the woman led detectives to Freedom Skate Shop owner Justin Capri leafs through a record book documenting hundreds of gift certificates sold believe the injuries were the result of before Christmas. Capri keeps careful records of the purchases in case customers lose their certificates. domestic abuse and sexual assault, according to sheriff’s reports. According to sheriff’s reports, detectives believe that Sierra allegedly sexually Shoppers busy redeeming gift certificates assaulted the woman and at some point shot her in the leg. The bullet passed By ZACK SAMPSEL certificates and day-after Christmas sales. returns.” through her leg and hit Sierra in the foot, The Daily Journal “It’s never been too bad,” said Desire Wal-Mart continued with its day-after according to sheriff’s reports. Penovaroff, a customer service manager at Christmas tradition of dedicating four MCSO Detective Clint Byrnes said he hile some people spent Wal-Mart, who in her two years experience checkout lanes to returns, but lines never could not say what evidence was found at Wednesday in line waiting to at the store has found the day after got long as handfuls of people entering the the home or what the victim told detectives W return ill-fated Christmas Christmas to be less hectic than expected. store were there for returns, with the rest because the case is under investigation. presents, others were busy shopping, filling “I don’t know, maybe people are just The woman was treated and released up their carts and cashing in on gift happier this year, but we haven’t had many See SHOPPERS, Page 14 from the hospital Tuesday. Sierra is still being treated for his injury at Howard Memorial Hospital, Byrnes said. Byrnes said Sierra has not been arrested because the case is still under investigation. According to sheriff’s reports, the Sheriff’s Primary voter registration Office intends to ask the DA’s Office to file charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and domestic violence against Sierra. in state 500,000 above 2003 Anyone with information about this case Voter registration still lags ers are registered Democrats. Alameda, is asked to contact the Mendocino County Imperial, and San Francisco counties Sheriff’s Office at 463-4111 and ask for behind population growth Byrnes or Detective Tim Goss. have the highest percentages of Ben Brown can be reached at [email protected]. The Daily Journal Democratic voters. Almost 34 percent A half million more Californians of registered voters are Republicans. have registered to vote in the presiden- The counties with the highest concen- tial primary than four years ago, accord- tration of GOP voters are Placer, Modoc Domestic violence ing to the secretary of state’s newest and Sutter. Report of Registration, released The American Independent and arrest on Christmas Democratic parties will allow decline- Wednesday. The Daily Journal The report, with data gathered 60 to-state voters to vote in their parties’ The Mendocino County Sheriff’s days before a statewide primary elec- presidential primaries. The other four Office arrested a Ukiah man early tion, reflects updates to voter registra- political parties have “closed” pri- Christmas morning after he allegedly tion rolls, including the removal of maries. No decline-to-state voter can attacked a woman and used his vehicle to those who have died, moved out of state request more than one party’s ballot, block her in her home. or have been determined to be ineligible and if a decline-to-state voter does not According to sheriff’s reports, at to vote, as well as the addition of new request a specific ballot, a nonpartisan around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, sheriff’s registrants. ballot with only ballot measures and deputies were dispatched to a home in Compared to the same period before nonpartisan offices will be provided. the 2200 block of Road H in Redwood the last presidential primary, registration The bulk of California’s voters are Valley on reports of domestic violence. lags behind California’s population clustered in Southern California, in Los When deputies arrived, they found the growth. While the overall registration Angeles (3.9 million voters), Orange suspect, 21-year-old Luis Gonzalez, number has grown, the percentage of (1.5 million voters), San Diego (1.3 mil- blocking the victim into her driveway people who are eligible to vote and lion voters), San Bernardino (724,682 with his car, according to sheriff’s actually registered to vote has dipped voters) and Riverside (711,703 voters) reports. from about 68.4 percent to just below counties. The woman, who the Sheriff’s Office 67.3 percent. Fewer people are on the voter rolls did not identify, said Gonzales had Both major political parties have than in September 2007, when the 154- attacked her and threatened to kill her, seen their registration percentages fall day Report of Registration was according to sheriff’s reports. as more voters decline to state a politi- released. Gonzalez was arrested on suspicion of cal affiliation. Nearly 20 percent of The last day to register to vote in the battery of a cohabitant, false imprison- California registered voters choose not Feb. 5 Presidential Primary Election is ment and making criminal threats and to affiliate with any political party. Jan. 22, and the last day to sign up for a was booked into the Mendocino County Nearly 43 percent of California vot- vote-by-mail ballot is Jan. 29. Jail on a $25,000 bond. 2 – THURSDAY, DEC. 27, 2007 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] who have in the past called for such a bill. FUNERAL NOTICES Al-Askari, who is a parliament member, said the amnesty The world briefly would not cover those convicted of terrorism, corruption, [\ Bachelor’s degree in crimes against humanity and kidnapping. Secretarial Skills. She The draft will also not involve prisoners being held by taught college secretarial American forces, said Sadiq al-Rikabi, another al-Maliki advis- courses for 5 years Turkish warplanes strike suspected er. and assisted her husband Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq in his dental prac- ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes hit eight sus- Police investigate deadly tiger escape at tice, taking care of the pected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Wednesday, SF Zoo; human role not ruled out office and bookkeeping the third cross-border air assault in 10 days, Turkey’s military duties. She volunteered at said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The big cat exhibit at the San her church, school The warplanes struck in an “effective pinpoint operation” Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene Wednesday as and the Community targeting eight caves and other hideouts being used by the sep- investigators tried to determine whether a 300-pound Siberian Services Center on Cher- aratist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the mil- tiger that killed a visitor escaped from its high-walled pen on its ry Street. itary said in a statement posted on its Web site. own or got help from someone, inadvertent or otherwise. Mavis is survived by her No rebel deaths were immediately reported. Police shot the animal to death after a Christmas Day ram- husband of 65 1⁄2 On Tuesday, Turkey’s military claimed that more than 200 page that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure sur- years, Joseph Beckner of Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq have been hit since Dec. rounded by what zoo officials said are an 18-foot wall and a 20- Ukiah, daughters 16, killing hundreds of rebels. Wednesday’s strikes were the foot moat. Two brothers who also were visiting the zoo were Judy Hindman of Tucson, third aerial operation confirmed by the military since Dec. 16. severely mauled.

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