Blog Jammin’ CRIME / COURTS / BY THADEUS GREENSON / MONDAY, FEB. 17 AT 4:18 P.M.
Questions, Campaigning Follow Stabbing Pleas
A 35-year-old Arcata man may spend as little as two years in county jail for the stabbing death of an Abruzzi chef late last year and it is becoming a campaign issue as the district attorney’s race hits stride. Douglas Anderson-Jordet was found bleeding to death at the intersection of 12th and H streets on Nov. 25, with a single stab wound to the heart (see “Blog Jammin’,” Dec. 11). He died en route to the hospital. On Feb. 13, the three suspects in the case — Juan Joseph Ferrer, 35, Nicholas Benjamin Stoiber, 28, and Sophie Buttercup Rocheleau, 24 — pleaded no contest to charges stemming from AndersonJordet’s death, a couple months after all were arrested on suspicion of murder. Ferrer pleaded to aggravated involuntary manslaughter, Stoiber pleaded to assault and Rocheleau to battery. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ferrer will be sentenced to four years’ confinement but will serve only two with good behavior, according to prosecuting Deputy District Attorney Elan Firpo. Under California’s new realignment law, he will also be spared state prison and will serve his sentence in county jail. Stoiber and Rocheleau are unlikely to serve any jail time in the case. Reaction to news of the plea agreement was swift, with some focused on Firpo’s candidacy to succeed Paul Gallegos as the county’s next district attorney. “Two years in county jail? Wow… I guess I know who I won’t vote for in the upcom-
8 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, FEB. 20, 2014 • northcoastjournal.com
ing DA election,” wrote one commenter on the Mad River Union’s story about the disposition. Similar comments cropped up elsewhere, spawning others targeting some of Firpo’s campaign opponents — Maggie Fleming, Arnie Klein and Allan Dollison. On Tuesday, Dollison’s campaign issued a press release stating his opposition to the plea deal. (For more on this case and the full text of Dollison’s press release, visit www.northcoastjournal.com/blogjammin.) The question, it seems, is: Did Ferrer get off light? And, whether the answer is yes or no, what does the case tell us about the race for district attorney? Here’s the quick rundown of what we know happened that night. Firpo told KIEM that all four people involved had been drinking on the night in question, and Kevin Hoover’s story in the Mad River Union indicates the defendants claimed Anderson-Jordet “had aggressively insulted Rocheleau with homophobic and racial slurs.” Hoover’s article states those claims were “partially corroborated” by an independent witness. The confrontation turned physical when Stoiber punched Anderson-Jordet in the mouth, according to Hoover’s story, adding that, “at some point,” Ferrer stabbed Anderson-Jordet below the rib cage at such an angle that the knife punctured the victim’s heart. Reached on Feb. 18, Ferrer’s attorney, Marek Reavis, disputed that version of events, saying he “would have loved” to take the case to trial. Reavis said his client, who identifies himself as a member of the LGBT community, Stoiber and Rocheleau were in the street when Anderson-Jordet approached. “All three individuals were