guilty

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - A three-week long investigation into the death of a 35-year old Gardnerville man has led to the arrest of Brittany Miller of Dayton, Nev.

On December 19, 2020, Jason Kaspian was found deceased due to a suspected overdose from an opioid-based substance in his Vista Grande Drive apartment. An investigation by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) into Kaspian's death lead them to the person they believe sold him the controlled substance.

A world-renown veterinarian living in Truckee leaded guilty today to one count of tax evasion.

Jack Ray Snyder, 63, was indicted in 2018 after it was alleged he failed to report significant income and filed false tax returns between 2012 and 2014. Besides the income discrepancy, Snyder was charged with deducting non-deductible personal expenses and overreporting his property taxes.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - If you were planning on setting off fireworks around Lake Tahoe this 4th of July, you can forget about it. They are illegal around the lake and in neighboring counties. A mild winter and a large amount of forest fuels put the area at a high risk of fire this summer, and fireworks could be devastating.

Without the official fireworks shows at the north and south ends of the lake, many fear people will resort to the fireworks bought at roadside stands and Indian reservations. While those are legal in the areas they are sold, they are not legal at Lake Tahoe.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A search warrant served at a South Lake Tahoe home on April 15, 2020, has resulted in the arrest of a local 39-year-old snowboard and soccer coach on alleged child pornography charges.

Timothy Daniel Mackey was arrested without incident by the FBI and U.S. Marshals at his home during the search.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A jury of seven men and five women took just 80 minutes on Tuesday to find Dion Jermaine Vacarro guilty of murdering Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. in South Lake Tahoe on January 30, 2016.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It was a snowy night on January 30, 2016, when Dennis Wright, Jr. brought at least 100 pounds of pot to the Beverly Lodge on Lake Tahoe Boulevard to sell to an interested party. Wright, who was better known as Spike, 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 motel.

Over seven years after the death of a juvenile, the person found responsible plead guilty Monday in federal court to distribution of a controlled substance known as 25I-NBOMe that caused death the death of the minor in 2012.

According to court documents, during September 2012, Elijah Richter, 28, of Camino, Calif. imported hallucinogenic drugs, including a controlled substance known as 25I-NBOMe, from Europe to his residence in El Dorado County. He placed orders on his computer through Silk Road, a now-defunct “dark” website.

On Thursday, Dec. 12, a federal jury returned indictments against six defendants who made false claims for benefits in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire and received funds from FEMA to compensate for their losses, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

An Oakland, California man pleaded guilty to being a serial bank robber who committed 19 heists across the Bay Area and Northern California, including South Lake Tahoe, between March 2018 and February 2019.

Duane Kurt Makela, 50, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco Thursday to ten armed bank robberies, seven unarmed bank robberies, and two attempted bank robberies.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The South Lake Tahoe man who led multiple law enforcement agencies on a high-speed pursuit in El Dorado County and Sacramento in May was indicted by a federal grand jury today on two counts.

The El Dorado County (EDC) District Attorney's Office recently helped with a state-wide investigation focused on offenders operating a criminal enterprise from both inside and outside state prisons.

Sixteen members and associates of a prison-based gang have been charged after a long-running investigation into drug trafficking and murders inside and outside of California’s prisons.

The EDC DA office's investigative division has the kind of highly trained and experienced detectives that are often called in to help with operations of this magnitude.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The man responsible for abusing a baby from the time he was eight days old and his death five weeks later is looking at spending the next 43 years in prison after being found guilty on March 21, 2019, in Judge Kenneth Melikian's courtroom.

Michael Swope, 32, was convicted of second-degree murder of baby Sammy as well as three counts of felony child abuse causing great bodily injury for breaking various ribs on the baby over infant's short and traumatic life.

After a six-month investigation into drug transactions in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the El Dorado Sheriff's Department Narcotics Task Force executed search warrants at two locations in South Lake Tahoe on August 23, 2017. Large amounts of heroin, methamphetamine and approximately 12 firearms were seized in the search. Lynwood Towle, Shawn German, Melissa Griffis, Paul Ryan, and Krystal Long were all arrested, charged, and eventually pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from those searches.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Wilbert Christopher Holt pleaded guilty in the South Lake Tahoe Superior Court on January 28, 2019, to Criminal Threats with a Deadly Weapon.

A month prior, Holt was highly intoxicated when he threatened his mother with a knife. He held a knife in his hand in the open position and told his mother he would "cut her." He then warned her not to call the police.

Do you know what it is like to be caged like a wild animal? Do you know what it is like to scratch at the insides of a jail cell wall as you scream for your freedom? Do you know what it is like to have your nightmares as your only company?

I can’t say that I know what it’s like. I really can’t.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Almost two years after their executive director embezzled almost $60,000 from the Lake Tahoe Humane Society (LTHS), the nonprofit tasked with helping local pets, is folding after 51 years of serving the South Lake Tahoe community.

A new board of directors had taken several steps, including the sale of their Emerald Bay Road building and laying off of employees, to get LTHS back on their feet but could never get the nonprofit's community standing back.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Two attorneys with local ties will soon be sworn in as El Dorado County superior court judges, filling a gap that brought in visiting judges to local courts for over a year.

Mike McLaughlin, partner at Feldman McLaughlin Thiel LLP, will become the new judge of Department 4 in South Lake Tahoe, and Jamie Pesce, a deputy district attorney, will be assigned to family law in Department 5 of the local court system, located in the main Courthouse in Placerville.

A world-renown veterinarian living in Truckee, California is facing tax evasion and filing false tax returns.

A federal grand jury returned an eight-count indictment today against Jack Ray Snyder, 61, alleging he failed to report significant income and filed false tax returns between 2012 and 2014. Besides the income discrepancy, Snyder is charged with deducting non-deductible personal expenses and overreporting his property taxes.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The former executive director of the Lake Tahoe Humane Society will be back in court on Monday, September 24 to face felony charges of embezzlement.

Nicola "Niki" Congero has been offered a plea agreement by the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office and has until the 8:30 a.m. hearing Monday to give them her answer. She is being represented by El Dorado County Public Defender James Warden who has been with Congero during her court hearings on August 28 and September 10.

Firefighers now have a containment line around three percent of the Boot Fire as 6,873 acres have burned. Fire activity moderated yesterday with little fire growth occurring. More than 570 firefighters and numerous helicopters are making headway.

Increased fuels due to the wet winter and spring, drying vegetation, high fuel loading, and increasing daytime temperatures have prompted the Bridgeport and Carson Ranger Districts on the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest to announce the implementation of fire restrictions beginning August 04.

September 13, 2015 was the worst day in the lives of the Molly McAffe, and Adam and Gavin Buchanan families. They lost a son, grandson, sister, daughter, aunt, nephew, cousin, and their lives will be forever haunted by the heinous acts of another relative, Nolen Buchanan.

It was a very emotional afternoon in El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Kingsbury's court Thursday during the sentencing of the now 18-year-old responsible for shooting his father, his father's fiancé and his 8-year-old brother and then setting their cabin on fire in Greenwood, Calif.

A Sacramento man is facing over 20 years in prison after a jury in South Lake Tahoe found him guilty on 11 counts of felony Pandering and 3 counts of Felony Pimping.

Isiah Campbell was arrested on March 3, 2017 after El Dorado County detectives set up an undercover operation targeting human trafficking and prostitution in the Placerville area.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - An El Dorado County jury of five women and seven men deliberated about two hours Wednesday, coming back with a quick verdict in the case of Nolen Keith Buchanan, the Benicia, California teen that had been accused of killing his family and setting their cabin on fire to cover his tracks.