Santa Cruz, California - [email protected]
I'm a reporter who has won five awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
As a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism, I have more than 10 years of reporting experience. (Résumé above)
SANTA CRUZ >> Krista Lynn DeLuca grew up in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. She was brought up by her mother and stepfather, but her mother died when she was 14. Her stepfather, Ron Pinotti, raised her and his son in an apartment. DeLuca became a rambunctious and social teenager, her family said.
Crime
SANTA CRUZ >> As a sharper picture formed of a shy 15-year-old raised in a troubled and sometimes violent home, Adrian Jere Gonzalez appeared in court for the first time to face charges of raping and killing 8-year-old Madyson 'Maddy' Middleton.
SANTA CRUZ -- The gunman who killed two plainclothes Santa Cruz police detectives Tuesday grabbed their guns and took their car, launching a chase that forced three school lockdowns and a fatal shootout near a busy grocery store parking lot, authorities said Wednesday.
SANTA CRUZ -- Model, makeup artist and self-described "hustler" Alix Catherine Tichelman got all of the attention and none of the glamor she had been seeking when she appeared in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Wednesday, facing felony charges of manslaughter, heroin possession and other allegations.
SANTA CRUZ -- Finding a cause of death is just the start of an investigation for Richard "Doc" Mason, Santa Cruz County's forensic pathologist of 34 years. Mason, who will retire Friday at age 78, doesn't just explain that a man was murdered with two stabs in the chest, for instance, he finds answers to dozens of questions that police want and prosecutors need to find and convict the killer.
SANTA CRUZ -- One of two men convicted in the murder of Los Angeles businessman Elias Sorokin was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
Television & Video
Investigative & Enterprise
SANTA CRUZ -- Volunteers who hauled out more than 950 discarded tires in five days from a ravine near Highway 9 and Paradise Park were stunned this month to find their project halted by the property owners.
SANTA CRUZ -- In the depths of her heroin addiction 20 years ago, Frankie Marie tried to escape the pain in her life. Abused as a child and troubled in her adult life, she first experimented with heroin in Oregon.
SANTA CRUZ -- The day after Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler were shot and killed, residents began pouring donations into two funds intended to help their families. However, nearly a year later, none of the more than $556,800 collected by the city, two banks and the Santa Cruz Police Officers Association has been given to survivors.
Capitola -- Capitola City Councilman Ed Bottorff was arrested on suspicion of engaging with a prostitute in Mountain View last year.
SANTA CRUZ >> Steven Husong has some vivid, violent dreams from his past. The former Soquel resident and Army National Guard sergeant said one recurring dream dredges up memories from Camp Doha in Kuwait, when a young colleague of Husong's became depressed after more than three months at the base.
SCOTTS VALLEY >> A Scotts Valley police sergeant accused of embezzling $2,660 from a car-show fundraiser called Cops N Rodders has been fired from the force and is fighting to get his job back. Although police and the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office determined that Sgt.
Technology
SANTA CRUZ >> A new mobile application called Vioozer is like "Twitter upside down," says its founder, David Hammel. A user asks a question, but rather than sending it out to the world with a Tweet, the person pins it to a location on a map.
SANTA CRUZ >> When someone is unconscious and not breathing, the seconds it takes to provide CPR separates life from death. Thursday, Santa Cruz County 911 dispatchers, police and firefighters touted a new smartphone application called PulsePoint that connects victims with people trained in CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
SANTA CRUZ -- A new cellphone application launched across California on Wednesday makes it easier to view maps and information on registered sex offenders.
Breaking news
SANTA CRUZ -- In the first homicide in Santa Cruz in more than a year, a 39-year-old woman was brutally stabbed to death just before noon Monday on a sidewalk on the 300 block of Broadway. Several neighbors saw a man attacking a woman with a knife about 11:50 a.m.
SANTA CRUZ -- For five hours Monday, fugitive Maurice Lamont Ainsworth Jr. led police on a manhunt after he escaped from a sheriff's deputy at a hospital, tased her, held a gun to the head of a preschool teacher and invaded at least one occupied house.
WATSONVILLE -- Margarita Lopez, the mother of slain 14-year-old Jesse Lopez, sobbed in front of a shrine of pictures and flowers that crowded the living room of their home off Green Valley Road on Wednesday morning.
Surfing
SANTA CRUZ -- In an all-Australian final decided by less than a point, Taj Burrow took down crowd favorite Matt Wilkinson Tuesday at the O'Neill Coldwater Classic at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz.
PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA -- If spectators wanted throttling, 40-foot waves, spectacular high-speed wipeouts and a duel between two of the best big wave riders in the world, they got it on Friday at the Body Glove Mavericks Invitational. The surf was much larger than at last year's event, with 40-foot wave faces and conditions that competitors said were dicey and dangerous.
Santa Cruz pro surfer Nat Young talks about winning ASP Rookie of the Year, a second place finish in Portugal and his favorite event of the season, the Volcom Fiji Pro.