Week in Review: Human Skull Found in Alameda Creek; Burning Big Rig Crashes at Railroad Yard

FREMONT

Jury To Decide: Was Stabbing Death Road Rage Or Self Defense?

Was Cort Holbrook of Livermore overcome by road rage or acting in self-defense when he fatally stabbed Ricky Ziesmer of Fremont in a fight that occurred in a parking lot in downtown Livermore on the afternoon of March 9, 2011? That question has been placed before a jury in a trial that started Wednesday in an Alameda County Superior Court room in Hayward. Deputy District Attorney Brian Owens told jurors that Holbrook, a software engineer and father of two, was angered after having been beaten in a fist fight and stabbed Ziesmer with a double-edged knife. "This was revenge for losing a fight," Owens said. Holbrook's defense attorney, Timothy Rien, painted Ziesmer as a drug abuser and aggressor. "This is a bad apple. This is your worst nightmare," Rien told jurors. Read the full story by clicking on the link above.

A big rig carrying gravel caught on fire and crashed into storage units and a crane at a Niles Canyon railroad yard Friday afternoon, fire officials said. The big rig was traveling near Niles Canyon Road above a railroad yard around noon when the truck’s engine caught on fire. The driver and passenger jumped out of the moving truck. The big rig kept accelerating, went over a wall and ran through two storage buildings and a container unit before crashing into a crane, halting its momentum. Multiple fire crews responded to the scene, spending an hour to control the blaze. No injuries were reported.

Sprouts & Shutters: 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport Opens This Weekend

Brace yourself for a whole new slew of #BEASTMODE and #GymFlow pictures on your social media feed — the new 24 Hour Super Sport in Fremont opens this Saturday. Located at 4500 Auto Mall Parkway, the new gym boasts a massive facility stocked with state-of-the-art equipment. According to the website, the 24 Hour Super Sport boasts cardio equipment, strength machines, free weights, a full-sized basketball court, an indoor lap pool, a sauna and a whirlpool, among other amenities. The gym also offers a Kids’ Club, personal training and a Pro Shop.

UNION CITY

A pair of 18-year-old carjackers are behind bars after leading authorities on a chase from Fremont’s Mission San Jose neighborhood to Union Landing on Sunday. Officers received a report of a carjacking on Curtner Road at about 12:45 p.m. Two suspects stole a gold Mercedes S420 and fled the area. An officer spotted the gold Mercedes heading northbound on I-880 and followed it until it exited off of Alvarado-Niles Road. The driver entered Union Landing where the car lost control and crashed into several parked cars. After the crash, both the driver and passenger fled on foot into the shopping center. Both suspects were eventually arrested after a foot pursuit and chase.

Human Skull Found in Creek Bed

A human skull was found along the Alameda Creek Trail in Union City Wednesday afternoon. A resident told Patch Wednesday that her grandson found what appeared to be a human skull in the creek bed and alerted authorities. “Half of it was brown and half of it was sun-bleached white. It had one tooth in it,” Charlotte Hernandez told patch. The Alameda County Coroner's Office, Sheriff's Department, Union City Police Department and other agencies responded to the scene, where they remained until late Wednesday night. The Alameda County coroner's bureau crime lab and sheriff's detectives continued the investigation Thursday. According to Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson, the bone has been in the creek for at least a year.

Union City Brothers Sentenced for Ecstasy Trafficking

A pair of brothers from Union City were sentenced to prison last week for trafficking large quantities of ecstasy, according to the Department of Justice. Masod Rahimi, 26, was sentenced Feb. 21 by a U.S. District Court Judge to nine years in prison for conspiring to distribute ecstasy. His brother, Mansore Rahimi, 24, received a sentence of two years and 11 months. The Rahimi brothers were identified in April 2010 as distributors of MDMA, a popular club drug known as ecstasy. The brothers also used proceeds from their ecstasy trafficking to buy cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexican drug cartels. They then transported the cocaine and meth to Canada where it was sold at a premium.

NEWARK

Osana Futi Murder Case: Defense Says Wrong Suspect Was Arrested

A prosecutor and a defense attorney presented jurors Tuesday with starkly different versions of the stabbing death of 18-year-old Newark Memorial High School football star Osana Futi in Fremont last April. In his opening statement in the trial of 19-year-old Abraham Hade, of Fremont, prosecutor Elgin Lowe said the "undeniable truth" is that Hade murdered Futi. He said Hade's blood was found on the knife that was used to kill Futi and other evidence also implicates Hade. But defense lawyer Tom Knutsen said Hade "did not stab Osana Futi; he is innocent of these charges and he is wrongly accused." Knutsen told jurors he believes Futi was killed by a friend of Hade's who was only 14 at the time of the murder and told Fremont police that he was the one who stabbed Futi.

Read the full report here.

Bidding Wars: Homes Selling Over The List Price in Newark

Home prices are on the rise in the East Bay. DataQuick reported this week that 1,196 homes were sold in Alameda County in January. That was a 9 percent increase from the year before. In addition, the median home price in the county rose to $385,000, a 30 percent hike from January 2012. One of the reasons for the increase, DataQuick reported, is the continuing lack of inventory in the housing market. The tight demand is causing multiple bids to be made on homes, in some cases driving the price well above the list price. In Newark, a home sold recently for almost $100,000 above the original price. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 5868 Bellflower Drive was originally listed at $360,000. After multiple bids, it sold for $452,000 in January.

Newark has the 250th highest average employee salary among the 477 cities listed in a new public pay study. The state Controller's Office has put together a chart of city and county employee salary, benefits and pension contributions for municipal agencies throughout California. The 2011 salary list shows the average salary for municipal workers across the state is $61,059 a year. The average salary for Newark city workers is listed as $42,612. The total amount spent on city salaries was $15 million.

Click here to see charts comparing the city with statewide averages as well as the top 10 Newark municipal employees in salary.

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