ER - Omholt to face trial in 3rd case

Omholt to face trial in 3rd case
by Kara D. Machado, 2/10/2007

Jason Ryan Omholt was bound over for trial Friday for the third of four cases in which he is currently involved.

On Friday — the second day of Omholt’s preliminary hearing — Superior Court Judge Dale A. Reinholtsen ruled there was sufficient evidence to bind Omholt over on three of the four counts charged against him in the third case: robbery, with a special allegation that he committed the crime with a gun; being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm; and felony evasion.

Reinholtsen did not find enough evidence for Omholt, 28, of Eureka, to answer to a fourth count, the use of tear gas.

Friday’s proceedings began at about 8:45 a.m. and ended at about noon. However, when Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Arnie Klein attempted to add additional charges — based on preliminary hearing testimonies — the proceedings were continued to 4 p.m. Friday.

Reinholtsen ultimately told Klein to file the additional charges at another time.

On Jan. 29, Omholt was bound over on two other cases: one that stems from an Oct. 23, 2006, incident in which he allegedly assaulted a man with a deadly weapon, and the second stemming from an Aug. 20, 2006, incident in which Omholt allegedly made threats to a man at a Eureka motel and Eureka gas station.

The fourth case — to be addressed at a future preliminary hearing — stems from the Dec. 22, 2006, attempted murder of Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Braud, a peace officer.

Omholt faces at least 25 years in prison if convicted of all the charges in the three cases currently against him, Klein said.

“If convicted of the attempted murder of Deputy Braud,” Klein said, “Mr. Omholt faces life with the possibility of parole.”

Humboldt County Chief Conflict Counsel Glenn Brown, Omholt’s attorney, said Omholt has pleaded not guilty to all the charges filed against him.

Two witnesses testified Friday: Mandi Denise Jackson, 30, of Eureka, and HCSO Deputy Bryan Maus.

Jackson was noticeably emotional during most of her testimony.

Jackson testified that she spent about a week, off and on, with Omholt and his stepbrother — Zachary Cruz Cooke, then 17 — up to the Nov. 15, 2006, robbery of Roger’s Market.

Omholt and Cooke robbed Roger’s Market — located in the 700 block of School Road in McKinleyville — Jackson testified.

On the night of the robbery, Jackson said Omholt was driving, Cooke sat in the front passenger’s seat and Jackson sat behind Cooke.

During a pursuit involving Maus after the robbery, Jackson testified that she saw Omholt pass something over to Cooke before telling him, “in a stern voice,” to shoot the officer.

Cooke leaned to his right, Jackson testified, and put a gun out the window, but the gun didn’t go off.

When Brown questioned Jackson, she became more emotional, sobbing at times with her shirt pulled up to her eyes.

Brown questioned Jackson about conflicting statements she gave to HCSO Detective Marvin Kirkpatrick the night of the robbery, the day after the robbery and in regard to her testimony Friday.

Jackson repeatedly told Brown she couldn’t remember things she had said because the night of the robbery was so “traumatic” for her.

Jackson said she initially lied to the HCSO detective so no one else would get in trouble. And, Jackson maintained she was being truthful Friday.

During Jackson’s testimony, it was put on the record that she would be given immunity. However, during the first portion of her testimony, Jackson said she would pay for her involvement, she just wanted “protection.”

Maus testified about his pursuit of the suspect vehicle on the evening of Nov. 15, 2006, and about his interview with one of the two Roger’s Market clerks who were robbed.

Maus said he was responding to the robbery at about 8:09 p.m. when he saw a vehicle matching the description of the suspected robbers’ vehicle.

The suspect vehicle pulled over at one point and Maus said he began to initiate a traffic stop.

However, the vehicle pulled away, turned around toward him and passed him, Maus testified.

The pursuit ended on a portion of Thiel Avenue, where the suspect vehicle jumped the curb and came to rest on a pile of gravel, Maus testified.

That is when Maus said he saw one person flee the vehicle on foot after exiting from the driver’s side door. The passenger door of the suspect vehicle was not opened, Maus said, until Jackson opened it from inside.

Maus testified that he found a pistol inside the vehicle and a black wallet — with a Roger’s Market clerk’s identification inside it — on the ground.

Maus also testified to finding an unspecified amount of money, mostly outside the vehicle.

Of the Roger’s Market clerk interview, Maus said the clerk told him he was helping his mother out on the night of the robbery when he saw one robber come into the store, wearing a ski mask and holding a black pistol.

When the clerk was ordered to the ground, he remembered hearing the voice of another robber, the sound of spraying and his mother screaming, Maus testified.

The clerk told Maus his wallet was taken prior to him being pepper sprayed.

Omholt has been incarcerated since his Jan. 3 arrest, which occurred after a three-hour standoff in Eureka.

Cooke, 18, was fatally shot on Jan. 4 in Eureka after, police have said, he fired at members of a collaborative law enforcement task force.

The additional charges Klein spoke of on Friday include a second count of robbery — pertaining to the Roger’s Market clerk — and second-degree burglary with a special allegation that it was done with a firearm.

“We are contemplating adding the attempted murder of a peace officer and assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer,” Klein said, “both pertaining to Deputy Maus.”

Omholt is scheduled to return to Humboldt County Superior Court Judge W. Bruce Watson’s courtroom on Wednesday to be arraigned on the three cases for which he has currently been bound over.

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