Appeals court upholds man’s life sentence in looting case
SACRAMENTO – An appeals court has upheld a life sentence given to a Gridley man who looted an evacuated home during the Oroville Dam spillway crisis in 2017.
A three-justice panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously Wednesday that 39-yearold John Beebe Jr. was appropriately sentenced to 30 years to life in prison under California’s Three Strikes law.
According to the court’s opinion, Beebe contended that Butte County Superior Court Judge Tamara Mosbarger abused her discretion in denying a motion seeking to dismiss Beebe’s seven prior strike convictions before sentencing.
The appeals court disagreed, finding Mosbarger was aware of her discretion, considered the relevant factors and reached a decision “in conformity with the spirit of the Three Strikes law.”
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Friday he was pleased with the appellate court’s decision.
The appeals court, Ramsey said, “agreed with our court to demonstrate that looters in Butte County can expect the most harsh of sentences in an effort to prevent any future fools from doing the same thing.”
Prosecutors accused Beebe of burglarizing a home in Gridley sometime between Feb 12-14, 2017, when more than 180,000 residents downstream of Oroville Dam were ordered to flee the area.
Officials feared the dam’s emergency spillway would fail, sending an uncontrolled torrent of water into Oroville and other communities along the Feather River.
Prosecutors alleged that Beebe stole more than $1,000 in items from the evacuated home, including clothing, jewelry and a computer. Beebe was arrested after officers searched his mother’s home and found several stolen items in a bedroom.
Beebe pleaded no contest to first-degree residential burglary and was sentenced in December.
Beebe’s defense attorney argued at sentencing that Beebe’s criminal history was fueled by an addiction to methamphetamine. Before his conviction stemming from the spillway crisis, Beebe had suffered seven prior strike convictions, including six residential burglaries and an attempted residential burglary.
Thanks to a Chinese policy that went into effect in March, what local people recycle and how they go about it is changing.
The policy – deemed the National Sword by the Chinese government – makes the rules for the country’s recycled imports much stricter. China, a destination for much of the world’s recyclable waste, used to accept recyclables with up to 5 percent non-recyclable contaminates, but under the new policy the country will only accept materials that are less than 1 percent contaminated.
The move has the recycling industry in the United States scrambling to figure out what to do, since China imports 60 percent of recyclable materials from America.
“It’s a big deal. Asia has shut its market down, China has shut down. We can recycle ‘till the cows come home but it won’t matter if there isn’t a market to take it,” said Jackie Sillman, community outreach manager for Recology Yuba-sutter. “Recology is lucky because we do have other markets – like Taiwan and Vietnam – so we aren’t sitting around holding onto product, but that means there will be changes moving forward.”
Recology has reduced its recyclables to 1 percent contamination since the policy was implemented, but at a cost. Sillman said employees are having to work harder and longer – 10-hour days – on the recovery line just to make sure that the facility is producing bales of plastics and papers that meet the requirement.
“If we could get a clean product at the curb, it shouldn’t be that hard to accomplish,” Sillman said.
So how can someone know if their recyclable is contaminated?
“It’s really just about keeping the materials dry. What we are saying is that something like soaked paper causes mildew. If we put that product into a shipping container, by the time it reaches China it’s contaminated. Things like greasy pizza boxes should be put into the green cart because it’s A Recology Yuba-sutter employee picks up a bale of paper ahead of a shipment in July.
compostable. It’s about reeducating people. It’s going to take a couple years to really educate everyone on the new system.”
Sillman said Recology is going to start a “recycling blitz” beginning in the next couple of months to help residential and commercial customers understand what can be put into the recycling bin and how to rid the materials of contaminants.
The plan is to essentially saturate customers with educational information over a two-month period, likely starting in October. Recology is hiring a new waste specialist whose job will be to go to every one of the company’s commercial
customers to give an audit and go over what can and cannot be recycled.
Residential customers will receive new literature educating them about the new policy. Cans will be stickered outlining what materials go where.
“It’s been 18 years since we rolled out our recycling programs. It’s time to throw that out for this new system and come together as a community to make sure our recyclables are clean and dry,” Sillman said. “It’s doable, it will just take some work.
For more information about recyclable materials, visit www.recology. com or www.whatbin.com.