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Neighbors unload on new Yosemite chief
The man who manages Yosemite National Park is a natural target for the wrath of gateway community residents, who are usually upset about something that is — or isn’t —happening at the park.
That’s why nearly 100 persons showed up last Wednesday when the monthly Oakhurst Action Council forum convened with new Yosemite Superintendent Dave Mihalic as the guest speaker.
But while the purpose of the Mihalic visit (postponed from the March forum) was to discuss Yosemite-gateway community relations, the superintendent was peppered with opposition to the most recent plans for the national park.
As firmly as he could, Mr. Mihalic repeatedly told the audience that the way to comment about the future of Yosemite National Park is to write or speak up at one of the several upcoming public hearings.
His advice mostly fell on the deaf ears of persons who had the superintendent in sight and wanted to unload.
And that they did.
The multi-volume Yosemite Valley Plan details what will happen in the future, but first one of five options must be chosen.
Long before that happens, the public can comment.
That’s what Mr. Mihalic kept explaining last Wednesday. “Your comments can make a difference,” the superintendent said several times.
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Shrabel sentenced in Putman murder
MADERA — For one reason or another, the request by defense attorney, Jim Elia, for a new trial in the case of Charles Shrabel, has been postponed time after time over the past few months.
On Friday, Mr. Elia got his day in court but instead of being granted the motion for a new trial by Madera County Judge John W. DeGroot, his client was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Jaime Lynn Putman, 21, of Oakhurst.
The judge denied the motion, calling the murder “cold-blooded and brutal.” He added that there wasn’t credible evidence that anyone else was involved in the young woman’s death.
(The request for a new trial was based upon late-arriving evidence, specifically a tape with one of the “Fresno connection” — a group of known drug dealers and users whom Mr. Elia believed was responsible for Ms. Putman’s death.)
A 12-person jury found the 23-year-old North Fork man guilty of second-degree murder in December. All along, Shrabel contended that Ms. Putman had given him permission to take her truck to Northern California to visit his girlfriend. However, after a thorough examination, investigators say that Ms. Putman’s blood was discovered all over the truck bed.
In earlier testimony, detectives say that Shrabel made statements, after being read his Miranda rights, to the effect that he had seen her alive, that no one else drove her truck, and that he had no explanation for the blood in the truck.
FULL STORY
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