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An inmate who walked away from the low-security Washington Ridge Conservation Camp and led law enforcement officers on a chase across four counties before being recaptured a month later was sentenced to 16 months in state prison Friday.
Lincoln resident Jeffrey Lynn Shook, 37, fled from the conservation camp, located along Highway 20 between Nevada City and Washington, on July 7, 2010. Investigators learned that Shook was associated with the Aryan Brotherhood and might be hiding with a prison associate in the Happy Camp area about 40 miles west of Yreka.
Siskiyou County investigators found Shook during a surveillance operation, then joined forces with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a California Highway Patrol air support unit to visit the trailer park in which he was staying.
Shook first tried to flee in an Ford F-350 pickup that was stolen out of Red Bluff, but ground and air forces boxed him in. He surrendered peacefully to officers.
Shook had been serving time since February 2006 for vehicle theft and was scheduled to be paroled in 2013. During his criminal odyssey after his escape from the fire camp, he allegedly stole at least three vehicles and led law enforcement personnel on three vehicle pursuits.
He was considered armed and dangerous, having been shot by police in Orange County after a vehicle pursuit, then again in 2005 by SWAT officers from Yuba City after Shook tried to run over a Placer County detective.
In Nevada County Superior Court Friday, Shook's deputy public defender, Tamara Zuromskis, took exception to a statement in his probation report that he allegedly told an officer he felt his escape was the fault of staff, who put him in a fire camp so close to home. Shook denied making the statement, Zuromskis said.
Shook said walking away from the camp was a spontaneous decision, spurred by the expectation he would be locked up after staff found him with a cell phone, according to the probation report.
He pleaded no contest to escape and was sentenced to 16 months; he was given credit for 142 days.
Lincoln resident Jeffrey Lynn Shook, 37, fled from the conservation camp, located along Highway 20 between Nevada City and Washington, on July 7, 2010. Investigators learned that Shook was associated with the Aryan Brotherhood and might be hiding with a prison associate in the Happy Camp area about 40 miles west of Yreka.
Siskiyou County investigators found Shook during a surveillance operation, then joined forces with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a California Highway Patrol air support unit to visit the trailer park in which he was staying.
Shook first tried to flee in an Ford F-350 pickup that was stolen out of Red Bluff, but ground and air forces boxed him in. He surrendered peacefully to officers.
Shook had been serving time since February 2006 for vehicle theft and was scheduled to be paroled in 2013. During his criminal odyssey after his escape from the fire camp, he allegedly stole at least three vehicles and led law enforcement personnel on three vehicle pursuits.
He was considered armed and dangerous, having been shot by police in Orange County after a vehicle pursuit, then again in 2005 by SWAT officers from Yuba City after Shook tried to run over a Placer County detective.
In Nevada County Superior Court Friday, Shook's deputy public defender, Tamara Zuromskis, took exception to a statement in his probation report that he allegedly told an officer he felt his escape was the fault of staff, who put him in a fire camp so close to home. Shook denied making the statement, Zuromskis said.
Shook said walking away from the camp was a spontaneous decision, spurred by the expectation he would be locked up after staff found him with a cell phone, according to the probation report.
He pleaded no contest to escape and was sentenced to 16 months; he was given credit for 142 days.
In other court news:
• A man alleged to have killed longtime Grass Valley resident Sarah Burr and their unborn child will be in court in Placer County Superior Court in Roseville for a hearing Nov. 3.Lee Konnerth, 35, of Colfax, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of homicide. Konnerth also faces special allegations of multiple murder and use of a firearm during a murder, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Placer County Sheriff's deputies responded to Konnerth's house near Colfax May 15, after an off-duty police officer who was in the area heard a gunshot. The officer discovered Burr, 29, lying on the porch, and she later was pronounced dead at the scene.
Konnerth remains in jail on a no-bail warrant.
• A year-long sentence for Sara Martinez Fabila, 43, of Meadow Vista, has been stayed so that she can enter a residential treatment facility.
Fabila had been sentenced in September to 365 days in jail after she allegedly punched a woman in the head on April 2, and then hit her with a chair, a large flowerpot and a flower stand.
To contact Staff Writer Liz Kellar, e-mail lkellar@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4229.
