News Briefs

Published online on Monday, May. 05, 2008

Police

Two arrested in theft of urns from cemetery

Joshua Leland Enos, 26, and Brian Jay Young, 40, were arrested Thursday in connection with the theft of brass cemetery urns from Holy Cross Cemetery at 2105 W. Belmont Ave., the Fresno County Sheriff's Department reported.

The theft of about 40 urns valued at $3,200 was reported to deputies on April 28, sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice said. Officials at Monge's Metals recycling yard contacted the Sheriff's Ag Task Force that two subjects had brought the urns in a day before, where they were paid about $86 for them.

Anyone with information on agriculture-related crime is asked to contact the Sheriff's Ag Task Force at (559) 898-0667 or Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-STOP.

Two arrested after wiring removed from home

Carlos Gomez Hernandez, 39, and Humberto Pacheco-Hernandez, 24, both of Parlier, were booked into Fresno County Jail on Saturday on suspicion of burglary and vandalism after wiring was removed from a house in the 8000 block of East South Avenue, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department reported.

Two die after car crashes into empty parked truck

Two people died Monday when their car struck the rear of a parked tractor-trailer rig in Merced.

The two victims, both men, died at the scene. Their car, a silver 2003 Nissan two-door, hit the unoccupied truck just south of Austin Avenue and Devonwood Drive, Merced police said.

Police said investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the accident and to identify the victims.

Pregnant Fresno woman killed in crash in Oregon

A Fresno woman and her unborn child were killed Sunday in a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver south of Roseburg, Ore., state police there said.

Killed was Chanthea Elizabeth Prak, 20, of Fresno, who was eight months pregnant. Prak was in the Army and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., police said.

The driver of the other car, Cheryl D. Rowe, 40, of Albany, Ore., also was killed.

Prak was a passenger in a Hyundai Elantra driven by Andrew Cruz Cajita, 21, of San Mateo, who was flown to a Portland hospital with critical injuries.

Oregon State Police said Rowe was driving a Pontiac Grand Am the wrong way on Interstate 5 about 3:30 a.m. Cajita attempted to swerve out of the way, but Rowe's car struck Cajita's car on the driver's side.

Two arrested in burglary

Two suspected burglars were arrested Monday as they fled an apartment on the 5500 block of North Tenth Street in Fresno, police said.

Police said one suspect was a juvenile and identified the other as George Ochoa, 18.

Officers were called to the scene about 1 a.m. for a burglary in progress. When they arrived, the apartment's occupant told them he arrived home and heard two men inside. The officers saw the pair in the apartment loading items into bags.

The suspects fled through a window, but were captured after Ochoa was hit by a Taser and the juvenile was bitten by a police dog. In a nearby apartment that officers said was connected to the suspects, several thousand dollars of the victim's property was found, police said.

Three held in robbing of man in Tipton

Tulare County sheriff's deputies arrested two men and a woman on suspicion of robbing and hurting a man in Tipton on Saturday, officials said.

The suspects took about $980 worth of money and property from Rigoberto Martinez about 1:10 a.m., officials said.

Martinez was treated for injuries at Tulare District Hospital and released. Deputies are investigating whether a fourth suspect, a woman, was involved,in the planned incident, officials said.