Ramon Salcido

Sheriff Dick Michaelsen is being criticized by some members of his staff for his handling of the Ramon Salcido case, including charges that he may have aided the suspected mass killer's defense, according to a published report. The accusations are made in a letter drafted and approved by about 80% of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department's management staff and a small number of deputies, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. The letter is scheduled to be considered by the executive board of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Employees Assn.

Ramon Salcido's attorney says he will go to federal court and cite "illegal extradition" in an appeal of the death sentence given to the convicted killer of seven. Sonoma County Public Defender Marteen Miller said he expects to initiate a federal court appeal in San Francisco within the next three weeks for Salcido, the former winery worker sentenced in November to die in San Quentin's gas chamber.

A Sonoma County judge has cleared the way for accused mass murderer Ramon Salcido to travel to UC Irvine this month for a state-of-the-art brain scan that could aid his defense--if the university will accept him. Superior Court Judge R. Bryan Jamar on Tuesday denied a motion by Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Bummerts that Salcido not be removed from the Sonoma County Jail without a special court hearing. Bummerts had warned that flying Salcido to Southern California could be a security risk.

A former winery worker was sentenced to death Monday for killing his wife, two daughters, mother-in-law, his wife's two young sisters and a co-worker in a wine-country rampage. Ramon Salcido's father-in-law, Robert Richards, called him a coward and tearfully asked for swift justice. Salcido, 29, was convicted on Oct. 30 of the April, 1989, murders.

An attorney defending accused mass murderer Ramon Salcido may seek permission to have him tested in Orange County to determine whether the 28-year-old winery worker suffers from physiological brain damage. "I'm trying to see if there is any (organic) or physiological damage to his brain," said Sonoma County Chief Public Defender Marteen Miller. Salcido is accused of killing his wife, two of his daughters, his mother-in-law, her two daughters and a winery co-worker in April.

The public defender representing accused mass murderer Ramon Salcido said he would seek a 30-day postponement in his client's preliminary hearing. Salcido, 28, is accused of an April 14 rampage that left his wife, two daughters, mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law and a co-worker at a winery dead.

A state appellate court rejected pleas by Northern California news organizations to allow cameras into the Redwood City mass-murder trial of winery worker Ramon Salcido. The 1st District Court of Appeal issued a two-paragraph order refusing to hear further argument on the appeal by television, newspaper and radio organizations, which had sought to halt the trial while the issue was in dispute.

Former winery worker Ramon Salcido was lucid when he slashed the throats of his three daughters, left them to die at a dump, and then pondered killing more of his family, a prosecutor said Tuesday during closing arguments. "Before he even leaves the dump, he's thinking about his next victims," prosecutor Peter Bumerts told the jury of eight women and four men. Salcido, 29, has admitted killing seven people, including six family members, during the April, 1989, wine country rampage.

Ramon Salcido, convicted of killing six family members and a co-worker during a wine country murder rampage last year, slashed the throats of his children execution-style because they threatened to become financial burdens, according to a probation officer's pre-sentencing report. Salcido, who has yet to show any remorse, found that "killing became easy" during the outburst, according to the report by Angela E. Meyer, a deputy probation officer in San Mateo County.

Ramon Salcido was sentenced to die in the San Quentin gas chamber for the 1989 wine-country murder spree that claimed the lives of his wife, two daughters and four other people. "I ask everyone to forgive me for the things that I have done," Salcido told Sierra County Superior Court Judge Reginald Littrell. "I want to express that I repent for the things that have happened to the family that I loved the most, and for all the grief and pain I have caused," he said.

Nineteen months after Ramon Salcido slashed his wife and two of their daughters to death in a wine-country rampage that claimed seven lives, a jury Friday said he should die in the gas chamber. Salcido, 29, reacted with the same faraway stare he wore throughout most the trial, as a Spanish interpreter translated the jury's decision. "He doesn't know where he is," defense attorney Marteen Miller said. "He's not insane, but he's a little goofy."

Jurors ended their second day of deliberations without deciding whether to send convicted murderer Ramon Salcido to the gas chamber or to prison for life. Salcido, 29, was convicted Oct. 30 of killing seven people, including six family members, in a 1989 rampage in California's wine country. The panel of eight women and four men must decide between death and life in prison without possibility of parole. Jurors deliberated from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The mother of convicted murderer Ramon Salcido does not believe her son should die for his crimes, she said after arriving in the United States with two other sons. Valentina Salcido Bojorquez, and Salcido's brothers, Leopoldo Salcido, 24, and Arnoldo Salcido, 27, arrived Friday night in San Francisco after a flight from Mazatlan, Mexico. The family members will testify at the penalty phase of Salcido's trial.

Winery worker Ramon Salcido was convicted Tuesday of a murderous rampage through the Sonoma Valley wine country 18 months ago that left his wife, two young daughters, three of his in-laws and his boss dead. Superior Court Judge Reginald Littrell told jurors to return next Wednesday to begin hearing testimony in the trial's penalty phase in which they will decide whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Former winery worker Ramon Salcido was lucid when he slashed the throats of his three daughters, left them to die at a dump, and then pondered killing more of his family, a prosecutor said Tuesday during closing arguments. "Before he even leaves the dump, he's thinking about his next victims," prosecutor Peter Bumerts told the jury of eight women and four men. Salcido, 29, has admitted killing seven people, including six family members, during the April, 1989, wine country rampage.