Sentence of "life without parole" handed down almost 7 years after South Lake Tahoe murder

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Dion Jermaine Vaccaro heard his fate in El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe on Friday, November 18, 2022. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 1st-degree murder and the court imposed another 25 years to life because the jury found that he has used a gun to commit the murder. The court also imposed three years for robbery, and two years for witness intimidation.

A jury found Vaccaro guilty in February 2020, but due to COVID and legal moves, he wasn't sentenced until his new attorney could step in after the verdict and work through options for Vaccaro.

It was a snowy night on January 30, 2016, when Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. and his girlfriend Kyndra Ghiorso brought just over 100 pounds of pot to the Beverly Lodge on Lake Tahoe Boulevard to sell to an interested party. That person chose not to purchase for $100,000 and left. Spike started to load up his truck with the duffle bags of pot when two men came around the corner and demanded the money they thought he'd have.

Wright never made it back to his home in River Pines, Amador County that night. Instead, he was shot and killed at about 7:45 p.m. in the parking lot of the South Lake Tahoe motel and Kyndra was hit in the face with a pistol, and her purse was stolen.

Details came out at the trial of Tevarez Lopez of how he organized the gathering of the 100 pounds of pot to be used in the transaction, and also contacted Vaccaro to get people together to go to Lake Tahoe to steal the expected $100,000. (See more details here)

Family members and friends gave their victim's impact statements, with Vaccaro looking at them as they spoke. Spike's mother told him they had a funeral almost seven years ago, but she never got to say goodbye and had the song "Dancing in the Sky," by Dani and Lizzie play in the courtroom as the family gathered.

Vaccaro spoke, telling the court that the facts and narrative of the case has been altered and that he was never given access to all 18,000 pages of discovery, and that there were still a few hundred hours of recorded jailhouse phone calls being kept from him, both things the District Attorney's office denied. He said his council James Clark was ill during the trial and did not give him a fair chance at a defense with very few meetings over the years leading to that trial.

It is expected Vaccaro will appeal the verdict and take his case to the appellate courts.

After the murder, detectives from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) rounded up the suspects from around the country (ages are at the time of arrest):

2/16/16 - Tristan Batten, 18, was arrested in Vallejo, Calif. (he pleaded guilty on 11/22/16 and was sentenced 26-years-to-life is in the Mule Creek State Prison)

2/17/16 - Harvest Davidson, 20, of Antioch, Calif. was arrested in Sacramento, Calif. Sentenced this week (see below).

2/27/16 – Vanessa Muzio, 18, was arrested in New Mexico and has since pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder and served her time.

4/19/16 - Domenic Randolph, 22, was arrested in Harrison County, Texas. His next court date is December 2022.

4/28/16 - Tevarez Lopez, 33, of Georgetown, Calif. was arrested in the County Jail where he was being held on other charges. He was found guilty by a South Lake Tahoe jury on 11/21/21 and will be sentenced on Dec. 2.

5/31/16 - Dion Jermaine Vaccaro, 26, was arrested in Oklahoma City. (Sentenced to Life Without Parole, see above)

9/15/16 – Andrew Adams, 25, was arrested in his hometown of Suisun City, Calif.(He pleaded guilty on 7/12/21 and is serving a sentence of 15 years-life in the California State Prison, Sacramento)

Also in court on Friday, Judge Kingsbury sentenced Harvest Davidson who had taken a plea deal this fall and learned his fate.

"This is the best justice I can give the family," said Deputy District Attorney Casey Mandrell.

Davidson came to South Lake Tahoe with the other men, and since he knew what Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. and Kyndra looked like, his one job was to point them out to Vaccaro and the others. He was not directly involved in the shooting and robbery, but he enabled it to happen.

The family and friends of Spike were able to give their victim's statements prior to his sentencing. He stared straight ahead, listening to person after person detail how their lives have changed since the night of his killing. They listed the countless family events Spike wasn't out, and how Davidson's part on the snowy January night changed their lives forever. Janet Wright and Spike's dad Dennis have made countless trips up to Lake Tahoe to be at every single court date for the defendants, even when those charged with their son's murder were only appearing via Zoom or through their lawyers.

The family has planned days, weeks, months, and years around justice for their son.

Due to the negotiated deal, the judge sentenced Davidson to eight years in state prison for the second-degree robbery of Spike and he admitted the person with him had a firearm. He was sentenced for the second-degree robbery of Kyndra, also with a person who had a firearm.

Davidson has been in the El Dorado County Jail for 2,467 days and received conduct credits, giving him 2,902 days served. Davidson may never end up in state prison as his term will soon be completed and prisoners are not normally transported if the remaining term is under 30 days. He will also be on parole for up to three years and prohibited from owning a firearm.