SEX & GUNS
The case of Mathis, Mathis and Norbury — no, it's not a law firm — it's the defendants, Penny Mathis, Jack Mathis and Audie Norbury, the love triangle senior citizens accused of embezzling from the Ukiah Gun Club along with some gun charges.
Two weeks ago they were offered a "global" resolution to everybody's headaches, and it was rejected by every defendant, except Mr. Norbury, whose lawyer is Justin Petersen, and it was somewhat a scene out of a nursing home as the alleged culprits farted around the balliwick. It was also if not shocking but at least rude that the lawyers for the other two defendants had not seen fit to show up and put the onus on Mr. Petersen, carrying his left arm in a sling, a bow to his snowboarding offspring, but still…
DA David Eyster swept the offer off the table Thursday, even though the other lawyers had run and hid, and left it all to the man with the empty sleeve, Justin P.
Thumbing back through some ancient history, we find the Petersen family tangled up in their own legal difficulties in Wyoming; and we have a local name, Mayfield —!— who told me he helped the Petersen boys out of their legal difficulties in Wyoming, etc.
Goodness! There's more Mayfields here than there are McEwens!
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CROWNINGSHIELD PLEADS OUT
A preliminary hearing scheduled to begin this morning in Ukiah did not happen as a result of the murder defendant changing his plea to guilty.
The Defendant in a Mendocino Coast murder case changed his plea to guilty on Friday, averting a scheduled preliminary hearing in Mendocino County Superior Court.
Andrew Curtis Crowningshield, age 27, of Little River, plead guilty to the willful, premeditated and deliberate murder of Autumn Renee Smith, age 22, of Fort Bragg, on February 4, 2018, along Highway 1 in Little River. He also admitted as true that he intentionally used a 9mm handgun, discharging same multiple times causing the death of the victim. The defendant and victim had a young child together.
As required by the District Attorney, the defendant also stipulated to a state prison sentence of 50 years to life (25 years to life for the first degree murder plus a consecutive 25 years to life for his personal and intentional use of the firearm causing death).
The defendant's matter was referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study to accompany the defendant to the Department of Corrections, said study to assist CDCR in its intake and required prison classification review.
The 50-to-life sentence will be formally imposed on June 7, 2018 at 9 o'clock in the morning in Department B in the Ukiah courthouse. Anybody interested in this case or this defendant is welcome to attend and watch that proceeding.
The prosecutor handling this case is DA David Eyster. The investigating law enforcement agency responsible for gathering and piecing together all the evidence against this defendant was the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Cindee Mayfield accepted the defendant's change of plea this morning. Judge Mayfield will also be the sentencing judge on June 7th.
(District Attorney press release)
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FALLIS & CROWNINGSHIELD
Judge Cindee Mayfield ascended the bench and bid the lawyers, “good morning,” smiled all around until everyone knew, or should have known, they’d get a fair hearing. Then she called the “People v. Fallis…”
“David Eyster for the People.”
“Christiane Hipps for Mr. Fallis, who is present and in custody, your honor.”
“This comes on for arraignment on the information and a further bail/O.R. hearing.”
DA Eyster: “The People are opposed, judge.”
Hipps: “Your honor… “
What ensued was one of those spirited legal debates that old veterans engage in, like Errol Flynn and Tony Curtis playing with swords. What with all the clang and squeal of debate came down to was that Mr. Negie Fallis, however suspicious he may look in the disappearance of Khadijah Britton, was, after all, entitled to cheap bail, since he had no visible income.
Mayfield: “Denied.”
Fallis was returned to the jail and Andrew Crowningshield was brought in. He appears to have shaved his beard off. His lawyer, Kristine Burk, met with DA David Eyster and the plea forms were filled out before Judge Mayfield called the case, so everything went smoothly.
Count I. First degree murder, 25-years-to-life. First Special Allegation: did personally discharage a firearm that resulted in death, another 25-to-life, consecutive. Total: 50-years-to-life.
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