MADERA COUNTY — The Madera County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously during a special meeting today to approve the Draft Sales Tax Expenditure Plan aimed at putting a public safety tax measure before the voters in March 2017. This is the next step toward putting a one-cent sales tax measure on the ballot, revenues from which would be specifically designated ...

FRESNO — One defendant was sentenced and one pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to cultivate marijuana in the Sierra National Forest in Madera County with the intent to distribute, announced Acting United States Attorney Phillip A. Talbert. Francisco Javier Gomez-Rodriguez, 38, of Pihuamo, Jalisco, Mexico, was sentenced on Tuesday by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to three years ...

MADERA COUNTY — A Clovis woman remains behind bars as she faces charges of felony DUI and manslaughter after causing a crash that killed one and injured three others on May 21. Candice Ooley, 23, has appeared in court on three separate occasions, each time asking for her bail to be reduced, and each time, having it raised by Judge ...

MADERA COUNTY — The Clovis woman accused of causing the death of Frederico Nunez Silva while driving intoxicated was arraigned today in Madera Superior Court. She pleaded not guilty to all three felony counts and one misdemeanor charge. Candice Ooley, 23, was arrested on Friday, May 20, after she crashed into the back of a Hummer in which Silva, 47, ...

MADERA COUNTY — The first phase of the District Attorney’s Office’s Veteran’s Court Plan will be launched at the Caring Veteran’s of America, Inc. Veteran’s Stand Down on May 21, at the Sierra Pines Church in Oakhurst from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Along with the first phase of the Veteran’s Court, the Stand Down will include free medical examinations ...

MADERA COUNTY — One of two juvenile females accused of vandalizing vehicles at the home of a Yosemite High School soccer coach in Oakhurst has admitted to her part in the alleged crimes, while another continues to deny everything. Both teens appeared in Madera County Juvenile Court on Friday, Mar. 25. According to Madera County District Attorney David Linn, the ...

MADERA COUNTY – A total of six charges have been filed against two Oakhurst area female juveniles taken into custody for alleged vandalism earlier this week. The charges, all Penal Code Section 594 Felony Vandalism violations, stem from actions taken against Oakhurst resident and YHS boys soccer coach Victor Salazar and his family on Sunday and Monday, Mar. 20 and ...

MADERA COUNTY – A North Fork couple who pleaded guilty in January to killing the husband’s brother back in 2013 have been sentenced to a combined 30 years in prison. On Feb. 22 in Madera Superior Court, Judge Rigby sentenced Marc McMurrain, age 37, to 22 years behind bars for voluntary manslaughter. His wife Jennifer McMurrain, 35, was sentenced to ...

MADERA COUNTY – A Coarsegold man who vandalized a PG&E facility last year has been convicted of felony vandalism in Madera Superior Court. Nicholas Trowbridge, 32, of Coarsegold, was convicted before the Honorable Judge Ernest LiCalsi, and sentenced to two years in county jail. Reports indicated that on July 4, 2015, Mr. Trowbridge went to the PG&E transformer facility in ...

FRESNO – Federal judge Lawrence O’Neill today lifted the injunction that closed the Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino over a year ago. After months of negotiations on a memorandum of understanding with Madera County, and a settlement agreement with the National Indian Gaming Commission announced yesterday, Judge O’Neill handed down his ruling today in U.S. District Court in Fresno, removing ...