Charged with the 1987 homicide of a 6-year-old Vallejo boy, Fred Marion Cain III pleaded not responsible and denied all enhancements throughout a short jail arraignment listening to Friday in Solano County Superior Courtroom.
Shackled and once more seated in a wheelchair on the protection desk, Cain, 69, and his lawyer, Chief Public Defender Oscar Bobrow entered the plea in Division 11 within the Justice Middle in Fairfield.
Later through the continuing, Decide William J. Pendergast assigned the case to Division 9, denied bail for Cain, then scheduled a readiness convention for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 22, when it will likely be heard by Decide Wendy Getty. She has been assigned the case.
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However earlier than the continuing ended, Pengergast heard an objection from Chief Deputy District Legal professional Paul Sequeira, who asserted that the Public Defender’s Workplace illustration of Cain presents a attainable battle.
Pendergast responded, “I’ve been fascinated with it,” however reminded the attorneys that he wouldn’t be the trial choose.
Sequeira famous, “This can be a capital (punishment) case,” due to its particular circumstances, and the earlier suspect within the case, Shawn Melton, who was twice acquitted of the cost some years in the past, was represented by the Public Defender.
Saying Bobrow may argue “third-person culpability” to a jury, asserting that Melton, regardless of the acquittals, was the precise killer as an alternative of Cain, Sequeira requested: “What hurt would there be if he (Cain) relieved the Public Defender?”
Pendergast beneficial that each attorneys submit motions in protection of their arguments to Decide Getty earlier than the Jan. 22 readiness convention.
Wispy white hair falling to his shoulders, an unkempt white beard rising off his cheeks and chin, and tattoos seen on his proper arm, Cain was then wheeled out of the courtroom and again to Solano County Jail.
Cain faces a homicide cost for the dying of Jeremy Floyd Stoner, with particular circumstances. They embody kidnapping, sodomy, and a lewd and lascivious act on a toddler beneath 14.
Jail data present Cain was arrested a second time, after being first taken into custody close to Medford, Ore., on a warrant served Sept. 27 in Pink Bluff by Solano County Sheriff’s deputies. He was booked into custody in Fairfield with out bail shortly after midday that very same day.
Earlier than Cain’s second arrest, some extra particulars in regards to the case emerged throughout a press convention known as by Solano County District Legal professional Krishna Abrams.
She recounted among the beforehand revealed particulars of Cain’s Sept. 18 arrest, information that gained statewide consideration after the discharge of a press assertion Sept. 21 and a Reporter story posted on-line later that night.
She additionally offered new details about the case not talked about within the ready assertion, together with the identify of the sufferer, who, based on the legal criticism, was killed on or about Feb. 21 in Solano County.
Moreover, Abrams cited earlier felony convictions towards Cain in Contra Costa County Superior Courtroom on Could 22, 1979. He was discovered responsible of sodomy, rape by means of an intoxicating substance, housebreaking, and first-degree housebreaking.
Abrams additionally famous she reinstated the Chilly Case Unit in her workplace after being first elected in 2014 and credited new DNA evaluation and two chilly case investigators, Steve Howisey and Kevin Coelho, for “working tirelessly” to unravel a case she described as “each dad or mum’s worst nightmare.” Stoner’s dying “wracked” the Vallejo group, she added.
Howisey, mentioned Abrams, “took one other have a look at the case” in October 2022, acquiring proof that confirmed a match for the preliminary suspect within the case, Shawn Melton. Nonetheless, after a trial and retrial, with juries unable to succeed in unanimous verdicts, he was launched from custody and finally exonerated.
So investigators decided DNA may result in one other suspect, and it led to Cain, who, Abrams mentioned, was initially interviewed after the killing, on March 3, 1987, however was not taken into custody.
Cain, she mentioned, “did know the kid” and was not dwelling in Vallejo on the time of the alleged killing.
Howisey and Coelho, with members of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Workplace, arrested Cain at his dwelling in Central Level, simply north of Medford on Interstate 5. Coelho, he mentioned, was “compliant” with officers’ instructions.
A former Vallejo police officer, Coelho described the investigation as “very prolonged,” recalling that the case has been “talked about for years” by Vallejo officers and others. He mentioned he “took a private curiosity on this case.”
Within the preliminary press assertion, Abrams famous Stoner was kidnapped close to his dwelling in Vallejo. 4 days after he went lacking, his physique was found on Sherman Island in Sacramento County. An post-mortem revealed that the boy had been sexually assaulted.
On the press convention, she offered extra particulars about why Melton initially was named as a suspect within the case and arrested. She mentioned Melton walked into the Vallejo Police Division and appeared to have his personal investigative service and offered info, as Abrams defined final week, “solely the particular person chargeable for the kid’s dying would know.”
Abrams instructed The Reporter that, given the fees towards Cain, he “is eligible for the dying penalty right now, however we won’t make the ultimate choice till after the preliminary listening to is concluded.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 signed an government order halting executions in California whereas he’s in workplace, however capital punishment convictions stay attainable within the Golden State.
