Police

Martinez Police received a call from the Pleasant Hill Police Department (PHPD) just after 11 a.m. on Sunday, requesting backup assistance after receiving reports of shots fired in a home adjacent to Sun Valley Mall. After a five-hour standoff, during which a 32-year-old male suspect repeatedly exchanged gun fire with police, a Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team member shot and killed the man.
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“It was a horrible raping,” said defense lawyer Daniel Russo yesterday when a tardy colleague asked him the result of a court hearing in the case of Michael Gressett, the former county deputy district attorney accused of raping a coworker last year.more...

The owner of a group home at 211 C Street told the Gazette yesterday he did not intend to reopen the facility after it was partially destroyed in a fire last Friday.

James Fickling, who owns and operates at least three known group homes in Martinez, supposedly for “mentally challenged” individuals, said he had been upset for years over problems between his tenants and surrounding neighbors. more...

A carjacker struck Sunday morning at a local 7-11 and remains at large after stealing a pickup truck at gunpoint.

At 7 a.m., in the parking lot of the 7-11 at 550 Morello Avenue, a robber described as a blond-haired, blue-eyed male in his 20s, roughly 5’9” and 200 pounds, approached a driver, whose name is not being released by police at this point in the investigation, who was sitting in his white 2004 Chevy pickup. Pointing a gun to his head, the carjacker ordered the man to drive to Concord and forced him out near the Concord BART station.more...

UPDATE

22-year-old Martinez resident Jennifer Judkins is still missing without a trace.

Detective Dave Mathers confirmed Friday that MPD interviewed Judkins’ boyfriend, with whom she shared a home on Terrace Way, as well as other family members. None are considered suspect in her disappearance.

Judkins was last seen on Sunday, Jan. 4, when her father dropped her off near the courthouse, according to Judkins’ mother, Loretta Tuell of Pittsburg.more...

Kevin Burcell, the popular Alhambra High School English teacher who had removed from his classroom and placed on administrative leave at the start of the school year pending a criminal investigation, was arraigned on Dec. 15.

Charged with two counts of providing alcohol to a minor, Burcell, 33, pled not guilty via his attorney and did not appear in court. A trial was set for Feb. 4.more...