Crime

The California Highway Patrol is wrapping up its investigation into the fatal Nov. 6 car accident that killed 19-year-old Gavilan College basketball player Andrel Gaines. And once complete, the case will be in hands of the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to file charges against the two drivers who were involved in the horriffic wreck, CHP Officer Tony Tam told the Dispatch.

Authorities with the sheriff’s office and United Narcotics Enforcement Team served a search warrant at a San Juan Bautista home Saturday morning and recovered an indoor marijuana grow operation.

A judge Friday sentenced Jose A. Covian, the Hollister man accused in the 2007 stabbing murder of Alejandro Hurtado, to a prison term of 25 years to life.

About a year after the allegations went public, the Diocese of Monterey has settled a lawsuit involving suspicions that a former Mission San Juan Bautista priest in 2005 sexually abused a then 14-year-old member of the Madonna Del Sasso parish in Salinas.

A Hollister man arrested in November and accused of abandoning a toddler to flee from police and possessing methamphetamine was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in the county jail and three years of probation.

A Hollister man was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges related to accusations he raped two local women in July 2011 after he had used social networking websites to arrange visits with the victims.

The district attorney’s office chief investigator said prosecutors are “back in the investigation mode” and still contended “crimes occurred” in the case of 41-year-old Clint Wageman, who had been accused of concealing a 14-year-old runaway from Hollister before the related charge was dismissed Thursday.

The man accused in the 2007 killing of a 20-year-old Hollister woman contended in court Thursday he was incompetent for trial proceedings, and a judge gave him a week to return with a doctor’s recommendation on his mental status.

Construction on the new $36 million San Benito County Courthouse on Fourth Street is "imminent," with activity expected on the long-vacant three-acre site expected within the next few weeks, according to court officials.