Man who killed Arcata street musician headed for probation times-standard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from times-standard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On March 25, Russell Holt – who allegedly killed Ricky Smith, who was in his 70s, and known for his "hungry for peace" cardboard sign accompanied by jovial guitar playing – entered an open guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter and assault likely to produce great bodily injury. The agreement was entered after a judicial intervention and against the objection of the prosecutor, who wanted a trial. If Hinrichs finds “unusual circumstances” within the probation report, she could impose two years of probation instead of an 11-year prison sentence, though if Holt violates the terms, the sentence could be fully levied.
Kreis' response, filed on Feb. 23, disputed the bulk of the CJP’s complaint, the bulk of which accused him of hearing cases litigated by his friends, but also includes antisemitism – former Deputy Public Defender Rory Kalin accused Kreis of calling him a “jew boy” and pushing him off a pontoon at a Lake Shasta party in 2019, but the case against the county for wrongful termination was dismissed and the suit against Kreis settled – getting a court clerk fired for speaking about his relationship with the court’s family law facilitator, waving his penis in the face of a sleeping friend, using cocaine and giving an unwanted butt pat.
Today, the Honorable Judge Joyce Hinrichs sentenced 38-year-old Casie Lynn Dean to serve an
agreed upon 7 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of Mr. Carol Johnson, in violation of
Penal Code section 192(a), and for smuggling narcotics into the jail, in violation of Penal Code
section 4
The allegations in the notice of proceedings include a retread of the fallout from a 2019 boat party on Lake Shasta – a party that resulted in a lawsuit – where Kreis allegedly called former Deputy Public Defender Rory Kalin a “Jew-boy” before pushing him in the lake, and hearing cases Kalin litigated days later. However, the notice included a far greater scope of complaints, including a sexually inappropriate incident with Kreis’ former friend, attorney Joanne Carter