Latest news with #SolanoCountyDistrictAttorney'sOffice
Miami Herald
19-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Teen's body found on railroad tracks in 1982, CA officials say. Now man sentenced
The morning of Nov. 16, 1982, a railroad worker riding the rails made a discovery that would rattle a California community for decades. 'Most people who lived in Vacaville will never forget the afternoon' when the Southern Pacific Railroad worker found the body of 14-year-old De Anna Lynn Johnson, Vacaville Police said in a January 2017 Facebook post. 'Her body was found on railroad tracks just a short distance from her home,' the Solano County District Attorney's Office said in a March 20 Facebook post. She 'had been strangled and her body badly bludgeoned,' according to prosecutors. 'At that time, this horrific news travelled quickly and rocked the very fabric of our community.' For decades, her case was cold, until the arrest of Marvin Ray Markle in 2017, prosecutors said. Now, eight years later, the 59-year-old has been sentenced in De Anna's slaying, prosecutors said in a May 16 Facebook post. 'Every parent's worst nightmare is to bury their child,' District Attorney Krishna Abrams said in the post. 'Our hearts go out to De Anna Lynn's parents, who lived that nightmare, and to the rest of her family and friends as they have waited a lifetime for justice.' Initial investigation At the time of her death, De Anna was a ninth grade student at Will C. Wood Junior High School, police said. The night before her body was found, police said she attended a party at a home in Vacaville. Her mother reported her missing when she never made it home, according to police. Kathy Martinez, De Anna's former classmate, told the Vacaville Reporter the killing 'shocked the community. It was so cold.' 'It was frightening,' she told the newspaper. She went on to say that before the slaying, the area felt like 'a very safe community,' however, it 'changed the way we live,' the newspaper reported. During the initial investigation, Markle, who was 17 in 1982, was a suspect, police said. However, police said, 'the case went cold and three decades rolled by as detectives spent thousands of hours attempting to bring her killer to justice.' Arrest Detectives learned in 2004 that Markle was a suspect in a Butte County homicide,and he was arrested in that case in 2013, police said. 'Vacaville detectives attended the Butte County trial and witnessed testimony that helped advance Vacaville's homicide investigation,' police said. Markle was convicted in the Butte County killing and given an 80-year prison sentence in the death of Shirley Ann Pratt, according to police and prosecutors. Then, in January 2017, the Solano County District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Markle in relation to De Anna's death, police said. 'Today is a day De Anna's family never thought would come …' her mother, Ginger Dimpel, said at a 2017 news conference announcing Markle's arrest. 'We miss her very much, and we rely on happy memories and live on knowing that De Anna believed in God because of rainbows, but we believe in God because of De Anna.' Guilty verdict Markle pleaded not guilty in February 2017, according to The Vacaville Reporter. Several retired police officers who originally investigated De Anna's case in 1982 testified in court, prosecutors said. In March, following a three-week trial, a jury found Markle guilty of first-degree murder, as well as 'the enhancement for Personal Use of a Deadly Weapon,' prosecutors said, McClatchy News previously reported. 'I am so thankful for the dedication of the Vacaville Police Department and members of our office that no matter how much time went by they remained steadfast in their commitment to De Anna Lynn Johnson to solve her horrific case,' District Attorney Abrams said. Markle was given a 26 years to life prison sentence, 'consecutive to the life sentence he is currently serving,' prosecutors said. 'The defendant deprived De Anna Lynn of a life that he has lived,' Abrams said. 'Although nothing will bring De Anna Lynn back, hopefully this conviction provides some sense of closure and justice for our community.' Vacaville is about a 30-mile drive southwest from Sacramento.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Yahoo
Alleged Zizians follower pleads not guilty to murdering Vallejo landlord
(KRON) — A data scientist who reportedly followed an extremist group known as the 'Zizians' pleaded not guilty to murdering an 82-year-old Vallejo landlord. According to police and prosecutors, Maximilian Bentley Snyder stabbed Curtis Lind to death on the landlord's property on January 17. Despite facing a first-degree murder charge, Snyder hummed songs during his arraignment on Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Snyder is scheduled to return to a Solano County courtroom on June 16 to set a date for a preliminary hearing. Snyder is one of several followers or members of the extremist rationalist group who are facing criminal charges. Crimes connected to the Zizians include two killings in Vallejo, a Pennsylvania couple's slaying, and a deadly a highway shootout in Vermont. Prosecutors said Jack 'Ziz' Amadeus LaSota is the leader of the Zizians. Zizians killings investigation: Who's who LaSota, a computer programmer and transgender woman, resided in Berkeley and on a boat, named The Caleb, anchored near Half Moon Bay between 2016-2021. LaSota faked her own death in 2022, when her sister told the U.S. Coast Guard that 'Ziz' fell overboard into the San Francisco Bay. She was declared legally deceased in San Mateo County. Her whereabouts were unknown until February, when 33-year-old LaSota was arrested in Maryland. In early 2022, LaSota and her boat crew befriended Lind, according to reports. They moved from their sunken boat in Pillar Point Harbor to Lind's Vallejo property on Lemon Street. The homicide victim's loved ones wrote on a GoFundMe page, 'Curt found joy in interesting conversations with anyone he came across. He was the type of man who could easily engage in a conversation with a complete stranger and leave with a new friend. Curt had a deep love of the ocean and lived many years on boats and ships he refurbished himself.' Lind later sought to evict LaSota, Alexander Leatham, Emma Borhanian, and others for failing to pay rent while living in vans and box trucks on his property. In November of 2022, two days before the eviction deadline, Lind was impaled with a sword and partially blinded in an attack. Lind killed Borhanian in self defense during the sword attack, investigators said. Concluding that Lind acted in self-defense, officials charged Leatham with murder. After surviving the sword attack, Lind was attacked again in 2025 by a knife-wielding assailant. Prosecutors allege that Snyder murdered the landlord on January 17 to prevent Lind from testifying in court against his earlier attackers. 'The victim, C.L., was a witness to a crime. (Lind) was intentionally killed for the purpose of preventing his testimony in a criminal proceeding,' the Solano County District Attorney's Office wrote in a criminal complaint. On January 24, Redding Police Department officers found Snyder in Redding, Calif. and arrested him. Snyder was transported to Solano County Jail, where he currently remains in custody. The Vallejo Police Department said Snyder's last known permanent address was in Kirkland, Washington. Last year, Snyder sought a marriage license with a 21-year-old woman, Teresa Youngblut. She is now also behind bars and charged in connection to the death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. The agent was killed in a highway shootout on January 20 in Vermont near the Canadian border. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
