Early this morning a judge dismissed charges against four septuagenarians stemming from protests against logging on Rainbow Ridge. In June of 2019, four local elders and residents of the Mattole area – Jane Lapiner, David Simpson, Ellen Taylor and Michael Evenson – were arrested and charged after they planned to stop timber fallers for Humboldt […]
J Tony Serra
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Wilde Gets Life for ‘Cold, Calculated, Premeditated Murder’
An apparently defiant and unrepentant Mikal Xylon Wilde will spend the rest of his life in federal prison for the 2010 murder of one of his workers at a Kneeland marijuana farm. Wilde, 33, was sentenced by a federal judge to serve life plus 35 years in prison after a jury convicted him on March […]
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Jury Convicts Wilde of Murder, Five Other Charges
After deliberating for about five hours, a federal jury today convicted Mikal Xylon Wilde of six charges, including the murder of one of the men working his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces life in federal prison when sentenced in the case on June 3. Wilde’s trial began last month with prosecutors alleging that […]
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Jury Selection Underway in Kneeland Murder Case
Jury selection began this morning in the federal trial of Mikal Wilde, who stands accused of killing a worker at the scene of his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces a total of six charges, including cultivation of more than 1,000 marijuana plants with intent to distribute and murder in the commission of a […]
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Possible Insanity Defense in Marijuana Murder Case
A 32-year-old Kneeland man appears to be exploring an insanity defense in the face of federal charges that he murdered one of the workers tending his marijuana farm in 2010. Mikal Xylon Wilde’s attorney, the eccentric powerhouse J. Tony Serra, recently filed a motion advising the federal government that he “intends to introduce expert evidence […]
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Kneeland Man Taps Eccentric, Powerhouse Lawyer for Murder Defense
After months of telling a federal court he intended to plead guilty to charges that he murdered one of the workers tending his marijuana farm, a Kneeland man has reconsidered and appears ready to take his case to trial. Mikal Xylon Wilde, 32, was indicted federally March 1, 2012 on six counts, including murder in […]