Three days after a 52-year-old man was found bleeding to death of multiple stab wounds in front of his apartment, the Arcata Police Department believes it has cracked the case and, this morning, announced the arrest of an 18-year-old Hoopa man. On Sunday evening, police were called to the Courtyard Circle apartments in Valley West […]
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Murder Arrest in Cold Case
Humboldt County Sheriff’s investigators made an arrest this morning in an eight-year-old homicide case, taking Jared Damien Boyce, 27, of Fortuna, into custody on suspicion of murdering his mother-in-law, Stephanie Lee Fowler, whose remains were found in 2009 in a burned out structure in Loleta. Fowler, a 34-year-old mother of six, was reported missing in […]
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Plea Agreements Reached in Federal Murder Case
Two men accused of the 2008 robbery and murder of a San Francisco man in Southern Humboldt have reached plea agreements with federal prosecutors. Ryan Carroll and Robert Lee, both accused in the killing of 35-year-old Reetpaul Singh Rana in a marijuana deal gone bad on Dyerville Loop Road, north of Alderpoint, each reached agreements […]
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Motion to Dismiss Filed in SoHum Murder Case
One of the men accused of killing and robbing a San Francisco man in Southern Humboldt seven years ago is asking a federal judge to dismiss the case against him, arguing that repeated delays have violated his rights and his ability to mount a defense. Ryan Carroll has been behind bars since his January 2010 […]
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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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‘Senseless is an Understatement’: No Motive Found in Double Murder
It’s been almost a year since 29-year-old Vincent Earnest Sanchez picked up a shotgun and shot both his half-brother and a life-long family friend at point-blank range in a Eureka home, but it remains unclear why. Sanchez was sentenced earlier this month to serve 40 years to life in state prison after pleading guilty to […]
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Judge Denies ‘Unseemly’ Motion in Kneeland Murder Case
The federal case against a Kneeland man accused of murdering a worker on his marijuana farm will continue to trial, a judge ruled this week. Through his attorney, J. Tony Serra, Mikal Xylon Wilde had argued that the six-count indictment charging him with cultivating more than 1,000 marijuana plants with intent to distribute and murder […]
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‘Unfit for a Free Society’
A week after Bodhi Tree was sentenced to serve 105 years to life in state prison for murdering two people in Arcata last year and shooting a third in Eureka, a pre-sentencing report made public as a part of his case file sheds new light on the 29-year-old and his path through the criminal justice […]
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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 […]