Three arrested after two teen girls fatally shot in Napa
A Vallejo man was arrested Monday night on suspicion of murder in the shooting deaths of two female teenagers Saturday night on a Napa street, and two women also were arrested in connection with the case, Napa police announced Tuesday morning.
John Richard Wesley Nicholson Jr., 22, was detained by Napa police officers at 7:23 p.m., the department said in a news release. He was booked into the Napa County jail on suspicion of two counts of murder.
SWAT teams from the Napa Police Department and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office went to Vallejo to arrest Nicholson, along with detectives of the Napa Special Investigations Bureau, police said later Tuesday.
Later, at 3 a.m., two Santa Rosa women were arrested in connection to the shootings – Jessica Whitten and Judith Adolph, both 19, Napa Police said. Both face an allegation of aiding in a felony.
Sonoma County sheriff’s detectives detained Adolph and Whitten, who were booked into the Napa jail at 9:26 a.m. The two women were being held on $10,000 bail.
The allegations stem from the shootings of a 17-year-old and 19-yearold at about 8:10 p.m. Saturday, in the 400 block of Riverside Drive near the Napa River. One victim died at the scene and the other died of her injuries at a local hospital, police said earlier.
Police have said the victims both had family connections to Napa, but have given out few other details about them. Although their relatives were told of the deaths, the Napa County Sheriff’s Office is not expected to release their names until the completion of autopsies, which is expected to take place Thursday.
Witnesses saw a black compact sedan drive away after the gunshots on Riverside Drive, at a spot near the base of the Sea Scout ship Chaser and with apartment complexes on the opposite side.
Although Napa Police has thus far given out few details about the circumstances of the shootings, a witness told Fox affiliate KTVU Channel 2 about the approach of a dark-colored car and an argument between three females he said preceded the gunfire. He also described holding one of the victims as she died at the scene.
A makeshift shrine to the victims has steadily grown since their deaths as passers-by have laid down candle jars and flower bouquets off Riverside Drive. On Monday evening – just over an hour before Nicholson’s arrest for murder – half a dozen visitors, who declined to speak about the victims, posted signboards to a chain-link fence off the street memorializing the victims – identified only as “Sasha” and “LLS” – with arrays of photos of the teens and their friends.
The fundraising website GoFundMe posted a page “Help us lay our girl Sasha to rest,” which organizers said would collect donations toward her family’s funeral expenses. The page had raised more than $13,000 by Tuesday morning, exceeding a $10,000 target.
Murders have been rare in recent years in Napa County, according to previous Napa Valley Register reporting. However, the most recent homicide occurred in American Canyon on March 19, when Omari Elijah Lyles, a 30-year-old Richmond man, was fatally shot on Tapestry Lane. No arrests have been announced in connection with Lyles’ death.
The last reported homicide within Napa city limits was Jan. 29, 2019, when an unknown attacker killed 54-year-old Douglas D. Davis Jr. of Napa as he rode his bicycle on the Napa Valley Vine Trail. Police have not announced any arrests in that case.
The most recent murder prosecution involving a Napa city resident stemmed from the fentanyl overdose of Monica Flores, a 17-year-old Vintage High School student, in May 2022. A year later, two men and a woman from Santa Rosa were arrested in connection with Flores’ death, and the two men were charged with second-degree murder for allegedly selling fentanyl-laced pills to the teen – the first such prosecution in Napa County. All three suspects have pleaded not guilty.
Napa Police is asking anyone with information about the Riverside Drive shootings, including video or still photo surveillance, to contact Detective Dustin Dodd at 707-257-9568 or ddodd@cityofnapa.org.