RIVERSIDE – The family of a veteran awaiting burial at Riverside National Cemetery had to find a new grave site because police believe he killed his wife before he died in a car crash, authorities said.
The bodies of Marine Corps veteran James Alan Summers of Corona and his wife, Veronica, were found May 31 after their sport utility vehicle plunged down a 200-foot embankment.
Police detectives first thought both died in the crash, but after a coroner's report they came to believe Summers bludgeoned his wife to death before he drove off the road, Corona police Sgt. Jerry Pawluczenko said.
Federal law bars anyone convicted of capital murder – or those who flee or die before trial – from burial at a national cemetery. The law was put in place in 1997 after Timothy McVeigh, a Persian Gulf War veteran, was sentenced to die for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.
Associated Press
Small quake shakes
Mammoth Lakes area
MAMMOTH LAKES – Authorities say a magnitude-4.3 earthquake has struck the Sierra Nevada, but there are no reports of damage or injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 7:44 a.m. yesterday and was centered nine miles southeast of Mammoth Lakes.
A Mammoth Lakes police sergeant said the quake felt like a “little bump.”
Associated Press
Five people accused
of mortgage fraud
SACRAMENTO – A federal grand jury has indicted five Sacramento-area residents on mortgage-fraud allegations.
The five are charged with defrauding lenders by submitting fake loan applications for dozens of homes. They were indicted Thursday.
Prosecutors say Sheryl Hayden and her husband, Robert Martinson, both of Newcastle, were trying to unload investment properties as the housing market cooled.
They allegedly enlisted the help of loan processors Rick and Melissa Villegas of Sacramento and Kathleen Delapp of Auburn.
Their attorneys could not be reached to comment yesterday.
The indictments allege that the fraud included kickbacks to fake buyers and forged signatures on applications.
Victims included Aegis Mortgage and IndyMac Bank, a federally insured financial institution.
Associated Press
