Crime

A local man facing arson charges alleging he lit fire to a pickup truck has a court hearing set for 9 a.m. Thursday.

A judge has denied a hand-written request for a shorter or nullified sentence from Breanna Stewart, who is serving a two-year prison term for vehicular manslaughter.

Samuel Turner, the man ruled insane in the 2007 slaying of Elizabeth Gomez, will return to a state mental hospital for at least another year, according to court records.

Hollister police officers on Friday arrested two men and a juvenile female for possession of a loaded stolen handgun found in a vehicle at 5 p.m. According to a police statement, officers arrested Marco Mendoza, 27, and Omar Ortega-Hernandez, 20, who were both found with open alcohol containers in the vehicle. A 17-year-old female juvenile was also in the car.

The El Camino Club based in Gilroy that consists of California Highway Patrol officers and supervisors assigned to the Hollister-Gilroy office recently picked up trash on the shoulders of Airline Highway.

The homeless suspect from the stabbing homicide at a Hollister cemetery in March 2011 has accepted a plea deal on a lesser charge and faces a likely sentence of six years in prison, according to court records.

The Sunday morning house fire in Hollister started in a garage converted for recreational use, the fire chief said.

Police in Monterey and San Benito counties will be watching for drivers who are drunk or high on drugs on game day as part of the "Avoid the 20" campaign.

Jan. 27

Volunteers from the American Red Cross provided blankets to the members of a Hollister family that lost their home in a fire Sunday morning. The fire, on Park Street, between Sally and Prune streets, did not result in injuries, but the residents lost many of their belongings.