The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 7

iSKTOND EDITION 4 Saturday July 10 1993 The Modesto Bee The State Warden to decide how to kill killer In Brief But the 36-year-old inmate has responded in writing that he wants the warden at San Quentin to choose the method of execution say state Department of Corrections spokesman Tip Kendall said Friday Mason confessed to robbing and strangling four elderly Oakland women in 1980 Two years later after his arrest and while awaiting trial he strangled a following concerns that lethal injection might be the "most humane" method of execution The new state law says that a death-row inmate can choose between gas and lethal injection If he declines to choose the law states that the inmate is sent to the gas chamber The state attorney office had set a deadline of last night for Mason to make his decision San Francisco Chronicle SAN QUENTIN David Edwin Mason a convicted murderer who has chosen to be executed rather than fight his death sentence in the courts decided to let "the select how he is put to death As a result the San Lorenzo drifter who confessed to killing five people in the early 1980s appears to be headed for the gas chamber decided not to decide So going to be getting said Denise Davis a spokeswoman for State Attorney General Dan Lungren in Sacramento execution is scheduled for Aug 24 at San Quentin Prison where he is now on death row He is the first person to be offered the choice between gas and lethal injection under a new statute enacted last year All sides ready as abortion fight hits San Jose who breaks the law will be arrested and brought to Mayor Susan Hammer Workplace homicides high SAN FRANCISCO One in five workplace deaths in California in 1991 was a homicide according to a San Francisco Examiner computer analysis of death records California Department of Health Services records examined by the newspaper showed that 154 employees customers and visitors were slain at work sites in the state in 1991 That is 20 percent of the 763 workplace deaths found in 217400 death records surveyed Only nontraffic accidents took more lives the records show Fewer people died in traffic accidents from suicides or by disease Rare transplant goes well LOS ANGELES A woman and her fetus were doing well Friday as she recuperated from a liver transplant a surgery that has only rarely been performed on a pregnant patient her doctor said Paula Severseike is believed to be only the fourth woman to undergo liver transplant surgery during pregnancy 20 weeks pregnant and the doctors seem to think I can go to full term and I look good getting Severseike said from her hospital bed Surgery was performed July 1 at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center said Dr Ronald Busuttil director of liver transplant program The 34-year-old San Diego woman needed the transplant because she suddenly developed liver failure Workers comp cure? SACRAMENTO After 16 negotiating sessions a Senate-Assembly committee appeared Friday to be close to finishing a major overhaul of workers compensation system The conferees scheduled another meeting for 8 pm Sunday to fine-tune the language of the legislation State Sen Patrick Johnston D-Stockton expressed cautious optimism that the final package will be voted upon Monday Man shoots estranged wife BONITA A man burst into a real estate office and shot his estranged wife to death Friday Chula Vista police said The woman real estate agent Kim Tepper was declared dead at the scene She worked at the Century 21 office where the shooting occurred said Lt David Miller The shooting occurred shortly before 1 pm police said The suspect was identified as Theodore Tepper Three real estate agents wrestled him to the ground until police arrived He was taken into custody By JOHN ENDERS The Associated Press SAN JOSE Police and health clinic volunteers were out in force Friday as abortion opponents from Operation Rescue geared up for more than a week of clinic blockades and rallies Operation Rescue planned a rally for Friday night at a church in San Jose while abortion rights advocates with yellow and blue sashes stood watch outside the main Planned Parenthood clinic in San Jose Half a dozen police cars and several uniformed officers patrolled the sidewalks and parking lot behind the clinic City officials said they were ready for anything are going to enforce the law Anybody who breaks the law will be arrested and brought to justice That will be applied evenhandedly no matter what side you are Mayor Susan Hammer said can assure you and everybody in the city that we are as well prepared for any eventuality as any city can she said expect San Jose is going to go up in Abortion opponents planned to blockade the clinics to prevent women seeking abortions from entering Abortion rights activists say they will work to keep the clinics accessible they are we will be there in their Susan Fogel an outspoken leader of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights said is a war and going to win Other groups including local branches of the National Organization for Women and the American Association of University Heidi Nattenberg of Honolulu a childhood friend of massacre victim John Scully places a tribute on the 101 California St building after the public memorial service Friday The Associated Press Women also pledged to keep clinic doors open Operation Rescue planned to have 500 protesters in the streets on weekdays and 1000 or more at weekend rallies It said it is training its members to avoid violence San Jose police said the entire 1200-person force was available if needed during the week of planned protests Spokesman Officer Manny Vasquez said police would be stationed 24 hours a day at the six San Jose clinics where abortions are performed Operation Rescue leaders have said their demonstrations are prayerful and nonviolent although they have been characterized by mass arrests Two summers ago police arrested more than 2700 demonstrators during a 46-day clinic blockade in Wichita Kan Some of those arrested were arrested more than once Last spring police arrested more than 600 during Operation Rescue protests in Buffalo NY San Jose is one of seven cities across the nation targeted by Operation Rescue through July 18 The other cities targeted are Philadelphia Cleveland Minneapol-is-St Paul Dallas-Ft Worth Jackson Miss and Orlando-Mel-bourne Fla Glitches and shift change delayed dispatch to killings I was going to put my finger on any specific thing say Lt Bruce Lorin dogs maul Redding man Two women slain at store FOUNTAIN VALLEY Police searched Friday for a man described as a swaggering after the shooting death of his sister-in-law and another woman at their embroidery shop Police released a photograph of Douglas Stanley 57 of Westminster and said agencies nationwide had been alerted to look for him Stanley may have headed for Utah or Wyoming where he worked in the past or he may have fled to Mexico where he had bought medication for a heart condition said police Sgt Darryl Nance By ELIZABETH WEISE The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Authorities on Friday blamed an equipment overload a shift change and the absence of a fail-safe emergency computer system for the four minutes and four seconds it took to dispatch officers to last high-rise shooting But a faster response time probably would not have prevented the deaths of eight people and the injury of six others authorities said Although all the victims were shot within the first four minutes of Gian Luigi rampage response time was below average in that area of the said Lt Bruce Lorin of the Management Control Division Ferri armed with two semiautomatic pistols and a briefcase loaded with ammunition went on his shooting spree July 1 on several upper floors of a financial district skyscraper Lorin who was in charge of the investigation presented a chronological list of events reported by police communications at a Friday news conference A 911 dispatcher referred to by authorities as Dispatcher received a report about a man with a gun at 101 California St at 14:57:57 She sent preliminary information about the incident to police dispatchers 18 seconds later with a three second equipment delay Lorin said Fifty-four seconds later Dispatcher ended her shift and Dispatcher logged on to the system Thirty-five seconds later Dispatcher told all units to stand by She then attempted to retrieve additional information about the report from her computer to give officers background before they went to the scene Other dispatchers were feeding information about the incident onto her screen which overloaded She was unable to re- trieve additional information At 15:02:01 Dispatcher sent two police units to the scene The computer entry was made at 15:02:42 four minutes and four seconds after the initial call When asked whether it was normal for operators to change shifts in the middle of an incident Lorin said that dispatchers normally get about ten with a calls a day He emphasized that when the transition was made dispatchers did not know there had been shooting The operator felt she needed more information before sending an officer to confront a man with a gun Lorin said what we train them to said 911 dispatch supervisor Karen Petromilli The two minutes the dispatcher spent trying to get more information about the situation before she sent patrol cars was crucial in causing the delay Lorin said I was going to put my finger on any specific thing say he said Mayor Frank Jordan has appointed Adm John Bitoff to head a management audit of the emergency services Bitoff a retired Navy officer said he would release a report two weeks from Friday Thousands of people gathered outside 101 California St Friday for a public memorial service for victims of the shooting Ferri 55 an unsuccessful real estate dealer was bent on punishing those he blamed for his financial woes according to police Inspector Earl Sanders a lead investigator in the case even hit it with a steel said Bertagna Bertagna who was dispatched to the scene along with police fire and emergency medical personnel said Hines suffered numerous bite and puncture wounds His right arm was mangled so badly it was almost unrecognizable she noted He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where he was listed in fair condition Friday afternoon The dog with the gunshot wound was killed at the scene Bertagna said The other animal is scheduled to be put to sleep after a mandatory 1 0-day quarantine The neighbor John Franklin was cited for two misdemeanor counts of by allowing a dog to run each of which carries a $211 fine Bertagna said Franklin had been previously cited for allowing the same dogs to run free McClatchy News Service REDDING A Redding man was seriously injured Friday morning when two large dogs mauled him while he was gardening in his back yard Redding police said Raymond Hines 78 was apparently standing in the back yard of his Velia Street home watering his shrubs when two male Rottweilers belonging to his next-door neighbor entered his back yard and attacked him The dogs apparently had escaped from the yard through an open gate the police spokesman said Redding animal-control officer Annette Bertagna of Haven Humane Society said three neighbors rushed to the scene when they heard wife shouting for help and attempted to pull the animals off Hines One of the dogs was eventually subdued but the other release its grip until one of neighbors shot and critically injured it Reno gets earful in LA LOS ANGELES A federal judge told US Attorney General Janet Reno on Friday that federal drug sentencing guidelines were unfairly destroying the lives of black defendants while drug kingpins went free In uncommonly candid remarks made at a town hall meeting US District Judge Terry' Hatter of the Central District of California also said that prosecutors were making their careers the of minority defendants Hatter is among a growing number of judges and lawyers questioning the federal guidelines Devised as a weapon in the war on drugs the sentencing rules often require severe prison sentences for even first-time offenders who may have sold or transported small amounts of drugs Freshman state legislator atones for anti-Semitic slur Plea bargains in drug case SAN FRANCISCO A Contra Costa County man has been sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison in connection with a huge 1991 heroin seizure But two other Blackhawk residents arrested in what authorities called the largest US seizure of the drug were given probation and ordered to pay $50 fines on reduced charges Jim Chen 39 Tuesday was sentenced to 21 years 10 months in prison in connection with the 1080-pound seizure at the Port of Oakland He had pleaded guilty to one felony in exchange for four other charges being dropped Kelly Chen 37 and her husband Michael Chen admitted they knew after the fact that something was being brought into the country illegally A federal judge sentenced them to three years probation and ordered them each to pay a $50 fine Charges against Lu Chin Sheng 27 and Lucy Chen 36 were still pending The Associated Press HESPERIA A first-term assemblywoman apologized everyone in Friday for using anti-Semitic slang in a televised legislative hearing Kathleen Honeycutt will erase from her vocabulary because a politician but because it hurts said Brad Mitzelfelt field representative at home office The 52-year-old Republican whose district sprawls across San Bernardino Kern and Inyo counties opened a Friday call-in show on KHIZ-TV in Victorville with an apology to all Californians Mitzelfelt said No one responded on the show but the offices fielded up to 30 calls about the remark Mitzelfelt said about the number get from an organized phone-in on major legislation Honeycutt a member of the Consumer Pro game asked that Honeycutt be censured The incident came two months after another first-term Republican Pete Knight of Palmdale circulated a racist poem aimed at Mexican immigrants was really appalling is how casual it said Assemblyman Richard Katz D-Pa-norama City was very clear that it was just an expression to her that she uses all the time I think she even understood why it was She does now said Mitzelfelt feel the aide said Honeycutt was meeting Friday with fellow Republicans for some guidance on a more formal response which would likely be delivered Monday he said a lot of things that people say that can offend and they give a thought he said is one she given thought to apparently and she will tection Committee used the phrase Wednesday while discussing an obscure bill relating to the construction industry gives the contractor great leverage to kind of Jew down the subcontractor if he is going to have to wait for the said Honeycutt When she finished speaking Assemblyman Byron Sher D-Palo Alto said he found the remark offensive and Honeycutt apologized had used the term in the past and never thought of the offense it would cause someone who is she said afterward just had not occurred to me I needed correcting on it and I stand Other representatives demanded more of an apology from Honeycutt a newcomer to politics who owns a roofing manufacture company and was elected in November on a Christian fundamentalist anti-abortion platform Assemblywoman Jackie Speier D-Burlin- The Associated press Kathleen Honeycutt.