The Sacramento Update

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man accused of opening fire at a park in Del Paso Heights in 2020, killing a 9-year-old girl and injuring several others, has been scheduled to face trial in mid-January. Laise Burton Hands, 23, appeared in custody at a hearing back in August, where he was held to answer on five felonies including murder, assault, and gun charges.

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — The 21-year-old man accused of selling the counterfeit pills made of fentanyl that killed Kade Webb last December is being investigated for his role in two more overdose deaths, The Update has learned. The revelation was recently revealed in court papers written by a sheriff’s investigator in a successful effort by the District Attorney’s Office to hold Schewe without bail.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man pled no contest last week to a gun possession charge linked to the firefight in May that left rapper Lul Tys dead. As The Update first reported, investigators continued to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Tys, real name Jacob Steven Lopez, after he was found dead in an apartment complex in Citrus Heights. Police said at the time that officers found Diaz wounded in the apartment complex’s walkway after several people called 911 about a shooting.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A swanky wine connoisseur who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for embezzling his client’s premium bottles, later sparking an inferno in his warehouse that resulted in estimated damages of over $200 Million, has been released from federal prison 14 years early. Chief US District Judge Kimberly Mueller approved a motion for the compassionate release of Mark C.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A former tennis pro who taught Sacramento-area kids how to play the sport slowly groomed one of his pupils to the point of eventually taking her virginity in a motel room, prosecutors revealed at a hearing last month. He would also subject the 14-year-old girl to sexual humiliation by ejaculating on her face when she performed poorly at matches.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California gymnastics coach who was sentenced to 2 years in state prison for molesting one of his former gymnasts pled guilty in a similar federal case on Tuesday, reaching an agreement with the government that he will spend 10 years in prison. Keith Wayne Willette, 59, pled guilty to two counts of child porn possession around a month before he was slated to go to trial for the offenses in Sacramento’s federal court, originally charged via indictment in 2019.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An Elk Grove man charged in Sacramento’s federal court with selling tank helmets to Iran’s military pled guilty on Monday, with his co-defendant backing out of a similarly structured plea deal as the hearing was underway. Dariush Niknia pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to export to an embargoed country, which can land him in prison for a maximum sentence of 20 years.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A county jail inmate originally held on a public intoxication charge is now facing a murder rap for allegedly beating a man to death as he slept on the floor of the jail’s drunk tank in 2019. Prosecutors quietly unveiled the presence of a murder charge against Jesse Mansfield in the death of Simmie Henry McDade in a memo to a sheriff’s commander in June, which served to legally clear a crew of seven deputies working that day of wrongdoing in the death.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The family of a Sacramento prisoner brutalized by a guard who has since pleaded guilty to covering up the death is suing for civil rights violations. In a complaint filed last week in Sacramento’s federal court, the siblings of Ronnie Price accuse Arturo Pacheco, Ashley Aurich, and warden Jeff Lynch of violating Price’s eighth and fourteenth amendment rights by using excessive force and working to cover the death up afterwards.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Prosecutors reached a resolution Friday with a lawyer representing former UC Davis nurse Edgar Gomez Burgion, according to District Attorney spokesperson Shelly Orio. Burgion pled no contest to two counts of felony child abuse, according to Orio, despite the DA’s previous consideration of adding more.