Teen pleads guilty to murder of 13-year-old sister in brutal 2016 slaying
SACRAMENTO – Placer County teenager Tanner Wood pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the 2016 slaying of his 13-year-old sister in the basement of their Rocklin home, part of a deal his attorney said would spare a painful trial.
A prison sentence of 16 years to life awaits the 16-year-old Wood at a Sacramento sentencing set for Nov. 2: 15 years for the murder of Ashley Wood, plus an additional year for using a deadly weapon.
Wood used a pickax to kill his sister, California attorney general’s prosecutors said Friday. The teen also used a knife and a sledgehammer, they said.
The crime was shocking for its brutality and for the two at the center of it – the young children of a Placer County homicide prosecutor, one dead, the other bound for prison, leaving a family with unfathomable loss.
Authorities found Ashley Wood’s lifeless body on the dirt floor basement of the family home. Tanner, then 14, was captured in a field little more than a mile from the home.
Prosecutors said Tanner had planned the crime for weeks before the July 19, 2016, killing.
The unusual case was heard in Sacramento County and prosecuted by state attorneys after the Placer County district attorney’s office declared a conflict of interest.
“After two years, we reached an agreement to avoid what would have been a devastating trial for everyone,” said Wood’s attorney, Kevin Adamson, after the Friday afternoon hearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Arguelles.
Wood was led by deputies into the Sacramento courtroom in his dark green jail uniform, shackled at the waist and ankles.
He spoke clearly, but only to tell Arguelles he understood the rights he surrendered: the right to a jury trial; the right to appeal his sentence; the right to contest the Sacramento venue.
“Yes, I understand,” Wood said to each, as a pair of Placer County probation officers waited to escort him back to El Dorado County, where he will remain until his November sentencing.
At 16, Wood will remain in juvenile custody until he is 18, when he will be transferred to state prison, Adamson said.
“It’s an appropriate resolution given the young age of the client. He will have an opportunity to potentially parole after 16 years and I’m confident he will do a lot of growing during that period,” Adamson said following the hearing. “My heart goes out to his parents – it’s a tough day for them – they are fantastic people who are having to deal with the unthinkable.”
SACRAMENTO – California lawmakers who vowed to craft a plan to address the growing danger of wildfires this summer knew they’d spend a lot of time talking about life and death. Few may have known how much time they would spend talking about the survival of electric utility companies.
In public and private discussions at the state Capitol, a pitched battle is underway over how much slack the Legislature should – or can – provide for the state’s utility companies facing liability under a strict standard they have been held to for more than a half-century. Industry representatives have warned that those rules, combined with the forecast of a hotter and drier California, mean that proactive fire policies won’t be enough to prevent the kinds of costs that could lead to bankruptcy.
“Even if the utilities take all those actions, and even if they are without fault, they could nonetheless be held liable,” Henry Weissman, an attorney representing Southern California Edison, said during legislative testimony Thursday.
As many as seven public hearings on the issue – easily the most high-profile and heavily lobbied topic of the summer in Sacramento – are expected to be held by the time the Legislature adjourns for the year on Aug. 31. Legislators are not required to change the rules governing utilities and the effects of wildfire, but those who support such efforts are working to instill a sense of urgency under the Capitol dome. Additional attention was drawn to their case this week by thick smoke from fires in Lake and Shasta counties that hung heavy over Sacramento, a poignant reminder of what scientists call the “new normal” for wildfires in California.
While each of the hearings convened so far was expected to focus on different ways for utilities to improve wildfire prevention, the sessions have all been drawn back to the thorny topic of legal liability. On Thursday, lawmakers discussed the merits Pacific Gas and Electric workers make their way through a fireravaged neighborhood in Santa Rosa in October 2017. of a proposal by California California’s current Gov. Jerry Brown to create fires have not been linked a new standard for “inverse to sparks caused by power condemnation,” the legal lines or other equipment, attributed principle that governs billions instead to a vehicle of dollars in payments mishap and alleged arson, made by utility companies among other things. Last whose equipment contributed year’s fires, however, saw a to sparking a fire. strong linkage to the utilities.
If there were any legislators Pacific Gas and Electric who supported Brown’s Co., which owned equipment plan, they didn’t speak up. In that state officials blamed particular, they criticized it for multiple Northern California for attempting to set a standard fires last year, has for a utility’s actions estimated liability costs of at without consensus on what a least $2.5 billion. company’s responsibility is Lawmakers were adamant in preventing its equipment in Thursday’s hearing that from causing fires. they wouldn’t do anything to
“Who’s to decide at this push costs onto utility customers. point, when there aren’t any Last year, state regulators standards, what is and isn’t refused a request by negligent conduct?” state San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Sen. Hannah-beth Jackson, to recover some $379 million a Democrat, asked. in fire costs from ratepayers.
Local firefighters continue to assist with wildfire efforts