Here are the hot stories in the Bay Area for
Tuesday, May 10, 2011:
Hayward police make arrest in counterfeiting case
Police arrested a man on suspicion of counterfeiting after buying
more than $8,000 in fake bills for 25 cents on the dollar during a
three-month investigation that involved the U.S. Secret Service.
Police believe Rowland Butsy II, 32, of Sacramento, may have been
selling up to $10,000 in fake bills a week throughout the Bay Area and
don’t know how long it may have been going on.
“He was too prolific, and the product was pretty good,” said Lt.
Roger Keener. “Hayward was definitely a target where he was selling
his bills. You give him $1,000 and get $4,000, and you can buy a lot
of stuff for $4,000.”
Keener said the bogus bills ranged in denomination from $5 to $100,
but most were $20s.
Read more of Eric Kurhi’s Oakland Tribune article at
InsideBayArea.com. Read more crime and
courts news here. Follow
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San Jose: 1988 ‘cold case’ homicide goes to trial
Kristi Harris’ killer left a subtle clue she would soon meet a
terrible fate: He removed the screen from the ground floor window of
her San Jose apartment, tossing it aside on the patio.
When the 21-year-old hairdresser arrived home on that hot August
morning in 1988, she either didn’t notice the missing screen, or
didn’t pay much mind, figuring her roommate had forgotten her key and
climbed through the window again.
But moments after Harris began blaring a Donna Summer record,
authorities say, her neighbor leapt from out of nowhere, slashing her
back and throat with a kitchen knife he used to cut the window screen.
The neighbor, Charles Grant, left a puddle of blood — and something
else, prosecutor Brian Welch alleged Monday in his opening statement
in Grant’s murder trial: his DNA under her right fingernails.
“Today has been a long day coming, more than 22 years,” Welch told
the jury of four women and eight men. “This is one of those murder
cases that will change the way you look at your children and how you
feel about your safety when you walk in your home at the end of the
day.”
Read more of Tracey Kaplan’s San Jose Mercury News story
at MercuryNews.com. Follow the Mercury News on
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San Carlos Mayor Omar Ahmad dies from heart attack
San Carlos Mayor Omar Ahmad died from a heart attack this morning,
shortly after calling 911 from his home, the city announced. He was
46.
Paramedics responded to the call and transported Ahmad to Sequoia
Hospital in Redwood City, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival,
according to San Carlos officials.
He had presided over a city council meeting Monday night. Vice
Mayor Andy Klein said Ahmad didn’t say anything at the meeting about
feeling bad and appeared to be in his usual good spirits.
“We’re all pretty shocked here. No one saw this coming,” Klein said.
Read more of Bonnie Eslinger’s Palo Aloto Daily News
story at MercuryNews.com/peninsula. Follow Eslingers on
Twitter. Follow the
Daily News on Twitter.
Sheriff’s cadet held on $1M bail in fatal hit-run
A San Francisco sheriff’s cadet accused of vehicular manslaughter
and drunken driving in the hit-run accident that killed a 61-year-old
pedestrian was ordered held on $1 million bail Tuesday, the S.F.
Chronicle said.
Superior Court Judge Nancy Davis set the bail for Jose Jimenez, 23,
who did not enter a plea in his first court appearance in the death of
San Francisco resident James Hudson.
Hudson was killed at 2:30 a.m. Friday as he was crossing Masonic
Avenue and Turk Boulevard.
After hitting Hudson, authorities say, Jimenez continued south on
Masonic in his 2009 Hyundai as a cabdriver called police. He crashed
into several parked cars near Fell and Clayton streets before slamming
into concrete planter boxes outside St. Mary’s Medical Center on
Stanyan Street, police say.
San Rafael police catch suspected Safeway purse snatcher
San Rafael police have arrested a man they say snatched a woman’s
purse as she shopped at Safeway in Terra Linda on Monday, after the
suspect allegedly returned to the store Tuesday morning.
Around 11:55 a.m. Monday, the 78-year-old victim was unloading
items from her shopping cart onto the conveyer belt at the checkout
counter, police said. When the woman, who lives in San Rafael, reached
the cash register, she realized her purse was missing.
Surveillance video from the store showed a middle-aged,
brown-haired man, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt with writing and
numbers on the front, take the purse from the victim’s cart. The man
then walked to the store’s front restroom, took an undisclosed amount
of cash, credit cards and an identification card from the bag and
dumped the purse in a garbage can.
He walked out of the store and apparently used one of the victim’s
credit cards to buy gasoline in San Rafael within the hour.
Read more of Jessica Bernstein-Wax’s Marin Independent
Journal story here. Follow
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Special window thwarts smash-and-grab robbery
attempt at downtown Vallejo store
Victory Stores owner Raymond Prather said Vallejo police told him
the window damage looks like it was caused by a baseball bat, though a
large rock nearby may have been what did it.
Either way, someone took what looks like two good swings at one of
the large picture windows fronting the longtime Army-Navy surplus
store on Virginia Street on Sunday night.
The attempted break-in — the first in at least three years —
failed because of the special glass Prather had installed, he
said.
“The alarm company called me about 11:30 p.m. (Sunday) night, and I
told them to call the police and I jumped in my car and came down
here,” Prather said. “I thought I was going to have to camp out here
all night, but the police said they’d keep an eye on the store, and I
didn’t worry after that.”
Vallejo Police Department spokesman Jeff Bassett said this is a
common burglary technique.
Read more of Rachel Raskin-Zrihen’s Vallejo Times-Herald
story here. Follow
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Area Buzz, a summary of news from Bay Area News Group staff writers,
The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact
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