A shooting left three people dead March 3, 2012, in the 700 block of North McClure Road in Modesto. David Siebels, Alyxandria Tellez and Edward Joseph Reinig were shot inside the two-story house.
Ten killers whose capital cases originated in Stanislaus County are among the roughly 550 death row inmates on a list to be spared by Gov. Gavin Newsom before he leaves office, according to a letter he released Thursday.
Newsom is set to leave office in January after terming out and can grant clemency for inmates with a single felony conviction. Those with multiple felony convictions would need to be approved by four of the seven justices on the California Supreme Court. In this article, those cases are designated with an asterisk.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in the letter.
Newsom announced a moratorium on death row inmates in 2019, meaning the practice of capital punishment was put on hold in the state.
The last person put to death in California was Clarence Allen Ray, who was killed by lethal injection in 2006 for three murders and for conspiracy after a Fresno store robbery. He was convicted in 1982 of the murders of Bryon William Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Linda Rocha.
Newsom previously has pointed to his Catholic faith as a reason he stopped executions. He has also noted the disproportionate use of the death penalty on people of color and the possibility of executing innocent people.
Following are summaries of the 10 Stanislaus cases and the killers’ crimes. Clemency would revert their sentences to life without possibility of parole.
James David Beck, Gerald Dean Cruz and Richard John Vieira
CRIME: Killed four people in a Salida duplex by beating them, stabbing them and slashing their throats.
Early May 21, 1990, sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at 5223 Elm St. about people fighting in the street. They found 25-year-old Richard Ritchey dead outside the house. Inside were the three other victims: Franklin Raper, 51; Dennis Colwell, 35; and Darlene Paris, 23. All were bludgeoned and stabbed.
Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for the Salida murders, which were committed by a paramilitary cult whose charismatic and sadistic leader, Cruz, had a deep interest in the occult.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: Vieira, April 2, 1992; Beck and Cruz, Nov. 2, 1992
Michael Leon Bell*
CRIME: Killed a Turlock convenience store clerk.
In January 1997, newlywed Semon Francis was robbed and killed for $261 as he worked a graveyard shift at a Quik Stop store on West Monte Vista Avenue in Turlock.
Surveillance video showed Francis dusting a candy display at the Quik Stop on West Monte Vista Avenue when a masked gunman wearing a hooded jacket entered the store.
The gunman, later identified as Bell, ordered Francis to hand over the money in the cash register. As the clerk lay on the floor, he was shot twice. One of the bullets tore through Francis’ heart and lung.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: June 30, 1999
Brian David Johnsen*
CRIME: Bludgeoned a 74-year-old woman with a hammer, then stabbed her as she lay in bed
Juanita Bragg, 74, and Leo Paul Bragg arrived in Modesto on Feb. 28, 1992, to help their daughter move to Riverbank, where she hoped she would be free of repeated break-ins.
Their daughter was out of town when they arrived at her home. They let themselves in and went to bed.
Early the next morning, March 1, Johnsen opened the door with a key he took in a previous burglary. He beat the Braggs with a hammer and stabbed them. Juanita died, and Leo suffered severe brain damage.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: June 23, 1994
Rodney Jesse San Nicolas*
CRIME: Killed his wife and raped and killed 9-year-old niece.
The bodies of Mary James, 37, and her niece, April James, were found hidden in Mary James’ home on Midway Avenue in Modesto on May 7, 1990, the day after both were stabbed to death.
Mary James’ body was found wrapped in blankets behind a couch in the living room. April James’ body was found stuffed in a bathroom cabinet.
San Nicholas, 37, was arrested in Sparks, Nev., four days after the killings.
Witnesses testified that before the killings, Mary James frequently complained about San Nicholas’ failure to find a job. They said she belittled him and told him on several occasions to move out of the house.
Witnesses including a psychiatrist and a psychologist said San Nicholas “exploded” after the repeated “put-downs” and was in an uncontrollable frenzy when he committed the crimes.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: Sept. 3, 1992
Michael Corey Slaughter
CRIME: Killed two men and wounded a third during a drug buy double-cross.
Slaughter shot the driver of a car and two passengers while they were driving down Highway 99 on Jan. 24, 1990. The Pittsburg men were lured to with about $31,000 to buy cocaine.
Eddie Keith, 19, and Jeffrey A. Derouen, 20, died, and Djamal Littleton, 21, was wounded.
Slaughter was to lead them to a Modesto drug supplier. After shooting them, Slaughter grabbed a backpack containing most of the drug money and fled after the shootings. About three hours later, he paid $17,000 cash to a Modesto dealer for a new Mazda sports car.
The judge noted that the only remorse shown by the defendant after his arrest was when he asked if he was going to be able to recover the car, an MX-6.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: Dec. 5, 1991
Daniel Lee Whalen*
CRIME: Gunned down a senior citizen man during a home-invasion robbery.
Whalen was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery in the shotgun slaying of 67-year-old Sherman T. Robbins, who was house-sitting a rural Modesto farmhouse in March 1994.
Two accomplices, Melissa Fader and Michelle Joe, went to the home, telling Robbins they’d had car trouble and asking to spend the night. He obliged. Then Joe let Whalen in through a bedroom window.
Robbins was lying on a living-room sofa, his hands bound behind his back with a necktie, when Whalen shot him once in the head.
Fader and Joe, who had cut deals with prosecutors in exchange for testimony against Whalen, testified they were outside with a car full of stolen loot when they heard the gunshot.
Whalen and the women later went to an apartment on Paradise Road, where they traded the stolen goods for methamphetamine.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: July 2, 1996
Huber Joel Mendoza
CRIME: Killed three people in a south Modesto shooting rampage in 2001.
Mendoza murdered his mother-in-law, Alicia Martinez, 54, his estranged wife’s cousin Carlos Lopez, 37, and a man his wife was dating, Camarino Chavez, 24.
Prosecutors said Mendoza was in a jealous rage when he donned a bulletproof vest, loaded three guns and crashed through the picture window of his in-laws’ Pelham Place home near Hanshaw Middle School about 3 a.m. on Dec. 12, 2001.
Alicia Martinez escaped out a back door to the home when she heard her wounded teenage daughter, Guadalupe, screaming. The girl, then 16, watched her mother die.
By the time he was done shooting, Mendoza had fired 72 bullets, emptying an assault rifle and two handguns, police said. Afterward, he took Guadalupe Martinez to a hospital and surrendered to a guard.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: April 2006
Richard Tyrone Garcia*
CRIME: Ordered the 2012 killings of David Siebels, 16; Alyxandra Tellez, 19; and Edward Reinig, 31.
Garcia, a Norteño shot caller, ordered Armando Osegueda and Joseph Luis Jauriqui to kill his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend and everyone she lived with in an east Modesto home. The young woman who was the intended target was the sole survivor of the attack in the early hours of March 3, 2012.
ARRIVED ON DEATH ROW: January 2025
The Modesto Bee
Deke has been an editor and reporter with The Modesto Bee since 1995. He currently does breaking-news, education and human-interest reporting. A Beyer High grad, he studied geology and journalism at UC Davis and CSU Sacramento.
Source: www.modbee.com
