Dear AVA,
This is Mr. Gutmann, "The One and Only!" You might remember me
from an article you published a while back titled "Something Nice" by Bruce McEwen. I was the one who was "supposed" to get the life sentence for the premeditated attempted murder of William Troy Passmore, but thanks to the fine work of the Ukiah police department's so-called hotshot detective Chris Long and prosecutor Killion who "concealed" evidence that ultimately blew the case, I will be coming home just in time. "Thank you all very much."
As we speak I'm sitting here in San Quentin State prison's lockdown unit (Carson Section) due to being (allegedly) a validated Northern Structure prison gang member. (Yes! It's truly an honor!) With an indeterminate SHU term awaiting transfer to the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit where I will drink coffee and watch color TV. However apparently California's supermax-Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (see "Cate v. Lira" for details) is quite the popular hangout for "alleged" prison gang members nowadays as it's so overcrowded that it's bursting at the seams and on average is taking inmates a two-year wait to get there.
In the meantime I'll be maxing and relaxing, drinking coffee, reading books, laughing at the world and being my utterly remorseless self.
Of course, I do have one regret and that is as luck would have it sometimes modern medicine saves the wrong people! But we can't always have our way now can we?
Anyways, believe it or not, there are more then a few "upstanding individuals" here with me from the "Ukiah area" (which would be the rest of Mendocino County), who for legal reasons I cannot list here as the California Department of Corrections will say it's proof of gang activity that would sincerely appreciate a subuscription to the revered "Anderson Valley Advertiser" — the last real newspaper.
Send it to me and I will make sure the rest of the criminals, crooks, dealers and killers from California get to share in its delights.
Sleep easy, leave the door unlocked!
Ruthlessly yours,
Mr. Luke Gutmann # AC1022
4C2 San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Footnote: Shout out to "Bert" Schlosser! Shout out to my baby's Mama mamas, your baby's mamas and all the ladies at Low Gap Road with no morals or boundaries! See you soon.
And to all the haters, take a long walk off a short bridge, probably just mad because your kids look like me. That's life. Oh and did I mention I'll be getting out! That I got a release date! That this is temporary! That we will be rubbing elbows real soon? Please send me a free subscription to your newspaper. I get out in 2022.
* * *
AVA, Dec. 23, 2009 — There were so many stab wounds in William Troy Passmore’s upper back they all kind of ran together and were hard to count, but he had at least twenty holes in him, maybe more.
When DA Rayburn Killion asked Passmore to take off his shirt to show the jury his ventilated shoulder blades the jury's faces went white.
The stabber, the alleged stabber that is, and his lawyer considered their shoelaces.
Killion: “How sure are you that the defendant is the man who stabbed you?”
Passmore, having waited for the defendant to meet his eyes, “One hundred percent.” he said.
The defendant, Luke Gutmann, held Passmore's gaze before checking his shoelaces again.
Gutmann and Passmore, at a residence on Cindy Street not far from Ukiah's Pear Tree Shopping Center, had had a disagreement over a computer.
Mr. Gutmann exchanged some whispers with his lawyer, Mr. Bert Schlosser who, for the sixth time, discovered that the prosecution had not given the defense tapes of interviews “concealed” by the policeman who'd recorded them.
Every time Mr. Schlosser cross-examined a witness he found that the cops had taped interviews but not given these tapes to the defense.
Judge Richard Henderson was not happy. When he'd sent the jury home for the weekend, he came down with both feet on prosecutor Killion for withholding the evidence every defense is entitled to. Schlosser had moved again to dismiss the case because so much had been withheld, not that there was much dispute over the basic facts of the event.
The contested computer was torn in two, and Passmore came very close to dying before the knife was finally wrested from his erstwhile friend's furious hands.
According to the testimony of one witness, Brittany Finley, Gutmann then fled down the street to a waiting vehicle driven by, she said, one Richard Fambrini.
Gutmann, it was concluded by the court, will go away to state prison for four-and-a-half years.
Your not asking the right questions, why did he do it and why did Brittney know a week ahead of time and not tell troy,why was she sleeping with the guy who stabbed troy,and what was on the computer that he wanted to steal it…….Gerald did has much to offer this, for sure
Start here and poor troy just went out the door
Anyone want to come clean yet
Troy is such a pillar of the community. He should be granted sainthood!
This is troy I’ve did more for the community then most know ..the river clean up for 30 years volunteer for it since day one ..funny non of the commentators I’ve never saw help out on any clean ups in 30years rest your neck
The story here is business as usual in our clogged courts. Police do not investigate, DA does not read reports, Public Pretender pleads them out.
Look at all the felonies! Police blotter is filled with them. Charge petty crimes with excessive jail time is a real incentive to the amateur criminal to plead out. The professional criminal knows guilt is hard to prove in a jury trial. Do not confess! Do not take plea deal!
Everyone in the court system becomes lazy with the revolving door and lots of petty crooks fill our prisons while the sloppy approach and common violations of procedure during arrest and jail leave open door to overturn convictions.
My 19 days in Low Gap Inn 2008 showed me this too clearly yet 3 felonies? Including Mayhem on my booking report faded when I said “jury trial”
A large drunk man, Daniel Hastings attacked me without warning in the woods, I hurt him badly so I called ambulance. He had a knife.
Police arrest me and never even go down the hill to examine crime scene.
Daniel Hastings drank himself to death behind Grace Hudson park a few years later.