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Wednesday, October 2, 2013 THE NEW MEXICAN
Calif. DA investigated in arson will retire country who might be angry enough to burn down her house. She never suspected, though, that a call seeking comYUBA CITY, Calif. — His unusual fort and advice from Adams would put involvement in a lowly arson case him under suspicion too. aroused suspicions and revealed a “It baffled me,” she said. secret: the nine-term California district Other potential suspects include a attorney had an affair with the victim, a wealthy married Sikh fruit farmer — a paid escort. longtime client who is the alleged father On Tuesday, Sutter County DA Carl of the woman’s year-old baby — and Adams announced he’ll step down, just also the woman’s boyfriend at the time. hours after his former lover accused Her 70-year-old estranged husband police in an Associated Press article of is not. overreaching when they counted him as “I’ve made some bad choices with a suspect in the fire investigation. men,” the center of this love quadrangle Sarah Garibay said she had called Adams for advice and support when her said. Another bad choice was an exhouse burned in July. Yuba City police boyfriend now serving a 12-year-prison said Adams’ interest in the case, on top term for killing a local physician in of the woeful texts sent to Garibay pro2010 when he caught the two in the act, claiming jealousy of her other suitors, she said. The district attorney’s office aroused their suspicions and prompted them last month to name him as an arson granted Garibay immunity for her tesfire suspect in a search warrant affidavit. timony, which in hindsight raised eyeRecounting other affairs with married brows across the community. “There was in no way an exchange of men, Garibay said there are plenty of other people across California’s prune sex for favors in the first trial. It makes By Tracie Cone
The Associated Press
for good headlines and soap opera, but it’s not the case,” she said. “I only met him this year.” Adams, 65, seemingly was a pillar of the community — a Mason, Rotary Club officer and past president of the California District Attorneys Association. In a statement announcing his retirement, Adams also said he is a worship leader at his church and a volunteer with several youth organizations. “I’ve made mistakes,” he told the Marysville Appeal-Democrat on Tuesday. Adams said he looks forward to spending time with family, including his wife, who retired two years ago. Adams, first elected in 1982, said in a statement that he’s retiring “with mixed emotions.” The jowly grandfather with a bushy mustache and large wire glasses had kept a low profile recently and wasn’t talking to the press, though he did tell the Appeal-Democrat at one point: “As far as my position in office, I never did anything illegal, unprofessional or unethical.”
SCENE SCENE
The pastor of the Yuba City Church of Glad Tidings disagrees and placed a recent ad in the entertainment section of the local newspaper demanding a grand jury investigation. “What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who pervert the law … they prey on the weak and the disadvantaged,” wrote Dave Bryan, quoting Isaiah. The Yuba City police turned the investigation over to the California Attorney General’s Office. Spokesmen for both agencies have declined to comment. The affair was long over by the time someone set her house on fire, Garibay said, and several other suitors recently had expressed anger, including the married man she sued for child support four days before the arson. The man did not return messages. Garibay said she met Adams last winter when she sought out the district attorney through his Facebook page. He remembered her name. “Before long, we were meeting up for coffee at Starbucks,” she said.
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Colo. teen pleads guilty in killing of schoolgirl By Colleen Slevin
The Associated Press
GOLDEN, Colo. — A Colorado teen charged with kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to all 15 charges against him, against the advice of his attorneys. Austin Reed Sigg, 18, could be sent to prison for the rest of his life for the slaying of Jessica Ridgeway in Westminster nearly a year ago. Jessica was abducted while walking to school, and her disappearance panicked thousands of residents in Denver’s western suburbs. Sigg also pleaded guilty Tuesday to a May 2012 attack on a 22-year-old jogger at a lake in Jessica’s neighborhood. Prosecutors said Sigg entered the pleas because of overwhelming evidence against him. “The writing was on the wall,” Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Weir said after the hearing. Sigg faces a minimum sentence of 40 years in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced after a hearing starting Nov. 18. Prosecutors asked Judge Stephen Munsinger to impose consecutive sentences on some of the other charges so Sigg spends the rest of his life behind bars. Sigg’s lawyers argue the law doesn’t allow that. Sigg cannot face the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the slaying. “In this case, there has been justice for Jessica,” Weir said. Defense attorney Mitch Ahnstedt told the court that Sigg was entering the pleas against his lawyers’ counsel but he didn’t explain why. Sigg’s father, Rob Sigg, said in a statement that he was thankful that the Ridgeway family would be spared the ordeal of a trial. The families of both Jessica and Sigg were in the courtroom Tuesday. Sigg spoke only to answer the judge’s questions about whether he understood what he was agreeing to. After Sigg pleaded guilty, prosecutor Hal Sargent started to describe how Sigg grabbed Jessica, pulled her into his car and tied up her hands and feet, leading Jessica’s mother, Sarah Ridgeway, to leave the courtroom. Munsinger stopped him after defense attorneys objected, saying they weren’t disputing the evidence. Jessica, a fifth-grader who loved purple and performing in a peewee cheerleading squad, left home to walk to school in Westminster on Oct. 5, 2012. She never arrived. Hundreds of people helped search for her. Jessica’s backpack was found two days later in Superior, a town about 6 miles from her home. Days after that, human remains later identified as Jessica’s were found in a park. Authorities, meanwhile, urged residents to watch for any suspicious changes in neighbors’ behavior. Officers guarded crosswalks and photographed cars in the area. Parents escorted their children to and from school. Mailboxes and trees were encircled by purple ribbons — Jessica’s favorite color. On Oct. 19, 2012, a resident contacted authorities to alert them to Sigg because he reportedly had a fascination with death, Westminster police Detective Luis Lopez testified at a preliminary hearing. FBI agents took a DNA sample from Sigg. On Oct. 23, Sigg’s mother, Mindy Sigg, called 911, saying her son wanted to confess. Investigators said Sigg told them some of Jessica’s remains were hidden in a crawl space in his mother’s home, where he lived. They said Sigg described how he abducted Jessica as she walked past his car. He said he bound her arms and legs, drove around, then took her to his house. There, he told investigators, Sigg tried to strangle the girl and then used his hands to kill her. He also allegedly told investigators that he dismembered Jessica in a bathtub.