Crime

Calling her a thief and a criminal, Judge Ariadne Symons sentenced a former real estate broker to eight years in custody on 15 charges of embezzlement and passing bad checks.

The embattled Purple Cross Rx medical marijuana dispensary on Bolsa Road - which this week was sued by the county in an effort to get it to close its doors for good - is hoping to expand its business model by marketing marijuana vending machines to pharmacies, medical facilities and dispensaries throughout California.

A 41-year-old man who had been sought for being with a 14-year-old runaway girl from Hollister is now in custody, according to a police captain.

The sixth suspect has been charged in a murder of a Hollister man on Park Hill in January 2011, while four of the five juveniles accused in the case appeared in court Tuesday to retain attorneys.

Two people were arrested on felony warrants after a traffic stop in Watsonville on Saturday night.

The Hollister Police Department has released surveillance photos  identifying the suspect in an attempted kidnapping last week at a downtown laundromat.

A pickup truck struck a dump truck on Union Road at about 2:30 p.m. Monday.

A motorcycle crashed into a fence shortly before 10:30 a.m. Sunday on Airline Highway near La Gloria Road in southern San Benito County, but the rider did not want medical attention, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Police in the past two days have arrested six suspects in connection with the January 2011 beating homicide of a 39-year-old Hollister man on Park Hill and have alleged it was retaliation against the victim for being a witness to another crime.

Two suspects accused of robbing two Hollister stores on San Juan Road in April 2010 – and leading police on a chase through Salinas before ending in a crash that killed a fourth accused assailant – had their scheduled jury trials moved from March to June, according to court records.