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Springtime is when wildlife rehabilitators across the country are inundated with wild babies of all kinds. Many of these turn out to be unnecessary rescues by well-intentioned, kind-hearted people. A lot of seemingly abandoned young are actually being cared for by their parents.

Drugs

The family of Tara Romero is shocked and dismayed by the April 15 acquittal of Primitivo Hernandez, the 27-year-old Gilroyan who stood trial last month on charges of murder and attempted murder in relation to the 2011 drive-by shooting that took the Morgan Hill teen’s life.The 12-person jury found Hernandez not guilty after deliberating for about five days following attorneys’ closing statements in the month-long trial. He has been in custody since his arrest just a few hours after the Nov. 4, 2011 shooting outside the Village Avante apartment complex at the intersection of Cosmo and Del Monte avenues.“That stabbed us in the heart,” Tara’s father Joe Romero said of the verdict. “I’m really pissed off at the whole system. I’m totally disgusted.”Joe Romero faithfully attended the trial—which also included suspect Fernando Mateo Lopez—throughout the month of March. He was deeply surprised by the verdict of not guilty for Hernandez, as he thought the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s case against both defendants was solid.“We respectfully disagree with the jury’s decision” to acquit Hernandez, said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Miguel Valdovinos.Hernandez was released from custody April 19, according to the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections website. In an April 19 court hearing, Hernandez pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault in a separate incident that occurred in Santa Clara County Jail in 2013, Valdovinos added. In that incident, Hernandez assaulted Ramon Gutierrez, who is also in custody as a suspect in the 2011 murder of Tara Romero.After pleading no contest to that assault, Hernandez was sentenced to three years probation and received credit for time served in jail, Valdovinos said. Gutierrez suffered minor injuries in the 2013 assault and “didn’t make any helpful statements” against Hernandez. Valdovinos said he did not know why Hernandez assaulted Gutierrez.Second suspect convicted of second degree murderMateo Lopez, 24 of Gilroy, was found guilty by the same jury April 15 of second degree murder in relation to Tara Romero’s death, according to Valdovinos. The jury also found him guilty of five counts of attempted murder and three counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, as well as enhancements for carrying out the crime as a member of a criminal street gang. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 20. Each count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, Valdovinos said.Mateo Lopez was tried in the same courtroom as Hernandez in Santa Clara County Superior Court.Hernandez and Mateo Lopez faced the same list of charges, but only Mateo Lopez now faces imprisonment. The five counts of attempted murder are related to five teen victims who were shot at when a Chrysler drove by them and and one or more occupants opened fire. Three of these victims were hit by the gunfire and survived; they were friends and classmates of Tara Romero’s at Sobrato High School, and they testified in the March trial.A total of five suspects were arrested by Morgan Hill police hours after the shooting, and have been in custody since their arrest. Ricardo Diaz, 23 of Morgan Hill, pleaded guilty to murder and testified against Hernandez and Mateo Lopez in their trial. He agreed to a minimum sentence of 25 years.The trial for suspect Esmeling Bahena, 22 of Morgan Hill, began this week with jury selection, according to Valdovinos. Police reports said the suspects fled to Bahena’s home on Barnell Avenue after the shooting. An MHPD officer followed the Chrysler there from the scene of the shooting after the vehicle ran a stop sign on Wright Avenue.Gutierrez, 21 of Morgan Hill, has been in custody at state mental health facilities since he was declared incompetent to stand trial after a 2012 preliminary hearing on the Tara Romero murder.Bahena and Gutierrez are charged with murder and attempted murder, according to authorities.While authorities said the suspects planned and carried out the drive-by shooting to settle an ongoing feud with rival Norteno gang members, the victims were not involved in gang activity.The prosecutor and investigators who testified during the trial for Hernandez and Mateo Lopez presented mounds of evidence that connected Mateo Lopez to the shooting, including his thumbprint on the ammunition magazine of an SKS rifle identified as the murder weapon, and text messages between him and other suspects arranging the Friday evening attack—which was planned to be directed at rival gang members.The state had less evidence connecting Hernandez to the shooting even though he was caught hiding in Bahena’s apartment building after police called out the other suspects and attempted to clear the residence the night of the shooting. His attorney Nicole Lambros argued to the jury that while Hernandez might have been affiliated with the same Sureno street gang as the other suspects in the past, and he was in the car with them during the 2011 shooting, he did not know the others were planning a drive-by shooting that night.“When you try cases in front of a jury, anything is possible,” Valdovinos said. “The whole issue was whether or not (Hernandez) was an aider or abettor.”Tara Romero was a 14-year-old freshman at Sobrato when she was gunned down. She and her friends had been out celebrating a birthday at Community Park earlier that evening. They were waiting for a ride home when the shooting happened, according to testimony.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge upheld the City of Morgan Hill’s bid to keep a citizen-initiated zoning measure off the June 7 ballot.In a March 24 hearing, Judge Theodore Zayner heard arguments from the city and the Morgan Hill Hotel Coalition, the party that submitted a petition demanding the city council repeal its previous decision to zone a 3.39-acre parcel on the southeast corner of Madrone Parkway and Lightpost Way from Industrial to General Commercial. The petition, which was certified by City Clerk Irma Torrez in May 2015, contained the signatures of more than 4,000 Morgan Hill voters.“The Court decided against the voters today,” MHHC attorney Asit Panwala wrote in a March 29 email to the Times, shortly after the judge issued his written decision.Panwala added that on April 1 the MHHC, which represents six hotels in Morgan Hill, filed a notice of its intent to appeal Zayner’s decision.The MHHC has argued that changing the property’s zoning, which has been zoned Industrial for several years, would deprive the local economy and residents of an opportunity to benefit from a future development that could bring high-paying jobs to Morgan Hill.They also fear that the Madrone Parkway property’s owner—Riverpark Hospitality—will create a glut of hotel rooms in the struggling market by fulfilling its plan to build a new 149-room hotel on the site.A string of council decisions that started in March 2015 with the 3-2 rezoning vote led to the current litigation. Riverpark Hospitality requested the rezoning. Prior to that decision, in November 2014, the council changed the property’s General Plan land use classification from Industrial to Commercial.The MHHC circulated its petition asking the council to either repeal the March rezoning decision or put the question up to the voters. When presented with the petition and asked to make a decision in July 2015, the council declined to repeal the zoning or place it on a ballot, based on the advice of then-City Attorney Renee Gurza.Then in January 2016, the MHHC sued the city for violating the state elections code by rejecting the certified, voter-initiated petition.In February 2016, Interim City Attorney Gary Baum revisited the council’s original rejection of the petition. He recommended the council approve a ballot measure asking the voters if they wanted the Riverpark property to retain its original Industrial zoning, but at the same time challenge the measure in court.The March 24 hearing was the deciding venue on that legal tussle over the measure, which became known as Measure D. If Judge Zayner’s decision withstands the MHHC’s appeal, the measure will not appear on the June 7 ballot.The city’s legal representatives—including Gurza and Baum—have maintained that keeping the Riverpark property in its original Industrial zoning would be illegal because it would make the zoning inconsistent with the city’s General Plan.The judge agreed, citing the 1985 case deBottari v. City Council as the precedent. Baum cited the same case in his argument supporting the city’s position.“Were the voters to consider and approve (the General Commercial zoning), previously passed by the City Council, there would be no conflict as the proposed zoning would be consistent with the General Plan,” reads Zayner’s ruling in part. “However, were the voters to reject the ordinance, that would leave in place an inconsistent—and legally invalid—zoning designation.”The MHHC and its attorneys argued that the city could have zoned the property another type of commercial other than General Commercial, which is the only designation in the Morgan Hill zoning code that allows a hotel. Another type of commercial use would have permitted a development that brings even more jobs and revenue to the local economy, according to the MHHC.“It is very clear that the city took (its) position because they fear a lawsuit from the developer,” Panwala said. “I frankly don't understand how the developer could possibly have a suit…(No) permits had been issued and certainly there could not have been an expectation that he would be able to build a hotel on industrial land when he bought it.”The MHHC filed an appeal with the Sixth District Court of Appeal. “We feel the voters should be able to vote on this measure,” Panwala said.

City officials tout the new downtown Morgan Hill parking structure—which is set to open next month—as much more than a garage.The 3.5-story, 273-space building is mostly known to residents as the display board for two prominent public art pieces that decorate the exterior. But inside—and within the details just outside the structure that sits between East Third and Fourth streets—are features that facilitate the city’s downtown vision of a multimodal transit-oriented neighborhood, as well as a destination and gathering place for public events.There is even more public art inside, and the project—which includes new retail space on Third Street—is also a tribute to the natural resources and agricultural history of Morgan Hill and the “Sunsweet” property on which the garage lies.“I think this is going to be the most beautiful parking garage, anywhere,” Morgan Hill Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez said on a March 25 tour of the facility. “It has amazing art, it blends well into the rest of downtown and it has beautiful vistas. Morgan Hill should be very proud of this structure.”Inside are interactive features that inform visitors what businesses and amenities they can find in downtown Morgan Hill, along with electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle lockers.“We wanted to make the garage very friendly. All the parking spaces are full-size” rather than compact, Ramirez noted.The facility’s floors are color-coded in line with the mineral poppy jasper’s color scheme, which features different shades of red, yellow and orange. The north side of the top floor is reinforced to allow public events and large crowds of visitors for car shows or live performances. This space will be available for rent, Ramirez said.The Third Street plaza, which encompasses the front of the new retail space and the area under the branches of a giant oak tree, contains planter boxes and furniture made of lumber, tin and other materials “repurposed” from the former Sunsweet site, Ramirez explained. Chairs in front of a public high-top table, where visitors can plug in their phones or laptop computers for al fresco browsing, resemble tractor seats.A wooden deck under the oak tree that covers the new plaza between Huntington Station restaurant and the garage is designed to protect the tree’s root system, Ramirez added. This structure can also accommodate a band or other type of live performer.“It will be great when they finish it,” said Morgan Hill resident Wayne Lunceford, who was walking by the garage’s pedestrian entrance on Third Street with wife Jane earlier this month. “We’re looking forward to there being more activity in this area.”Jane added, “It is very attractive. We’re ready for it to open.”A walkway exiting the west side of the garage connects the facility with existing restaurants as well as planned new construction closer to Monterey Road.For security, the interior of the garage is equipped with surveillance cameras and blue call boxes that ring directly to the police station with the touch of a button.The three-story elevator shaft contains windows that allow visitors to see their change in perspective over downtown.Occupants of the 4,000-square-foot retail shell are not yet determined. Developers Rodrigues/Imwalle have a contract with the city to serve as that property’s landlord. The space can accommodate up to three tenants, and interior improvements can be built to suit their needs, Ramirez added.

There should probably be a parade on Tuesday, April 19 in Gilroy. After all, it’s National Garlic Day and we are, of course, the Garlic Capital of the World.

Passover is a major Jewish spring festival commemorating the Exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago. The Jewish people observe the weeklong holiday by holding a festive meal called a seder, which means order in Hebrew. During the seder, people gather to read from a book called a Haggadah, or telling.

Suspected meat caper soughtPolice are seeking a man who allegedly stole about $700 worth of meat from a Morgan Hill Safeway grocery store. MHPD posted information about the incident, as well as photos of the suspected thief and his vehicle, on the department’s Facebook page April 12. “He didn’t even care that employees were taking pictures of him,” reads the MHPD post.MHPD: Driver of stolen mini-van arrested with gun in waistbandMHPD officers recovered a stolen mini-van and arrested its driver on suspicion of vehicle theft and “multiple warrants” in the area of Cochrane Road and Sutter Boulevard about 3 p.m. April 12, according to authorities. The driver was also armed with a handgun in his pants waistband. The mini-van was reported stolen out of Dublin, and the driver’s warrants were out of Oakland, reads a post on the MHPD Facebook page. Several MHPD patrol vehicles responded to the traffic stop.

David Wolfsmith, a Morgan Hill gym owner accused of sexually assaulting five female victims, is out of custody on $100,000 bail following his April 11 arrest, according to authorities.Wolfsmith faces 10 charges related to five female victims, and up to 40 years in prison if convicted on all counts, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Tim McInerny. Wolfsmith, the 49-year-old owner of Wolfpak Training Center in downtown Morgan Hill, is charged with eight felony counts of sexual battery by fraud, one felony count of lewd and lascivious act on a child younger than 14 and a misdemeanor count of annoying or molesting a child.His first court date has not yet been scheduled, McInerny said.Morgan Hill police arrested Wolfsmith, 49, at Wolfpak Training Center, 17300 Monterey Road, after a “lengthy investigation,” according to MHPD Sgt. Carson Thomas.“The initial victim came forward in February to report she was assaulted by Wolfsmith,” Thomas said in an email to the Times. Since then, police have identified a total of five alleged victims, including two minors.He was arrested about 4:15 p.m. April 11, according to police.Wolfsmith and his wife Julie Wolfsmith are the listed business owners of Wolfpak Training Center, located at Suite 120 at 17300 Monterey Road, according to Morgan Hill Accounting Assistant Angela Rivera. Julie Wolfsmith is also the owner of Dezign Salon, located downstairs from Wolfpak in the same building.A sign outside the front door leading upstairs to the Wolfpak center displays only the business’ logo which includes the name “Wolfpak” and no additional description of the facility.There is also a construction firm upstairs in the same building, but that company is not owned by or licensed to the Wolfsmiths.The website wolfpak.biz identifies Wolfsmith as the former head coach of the Ann Sobrato High School cross country team as well as track coach, personal trainer, triathlete and “coach extraordinaire.”“The Wolfpak is an organization promoting better health and fitness through the sports of Running and Triathlon,” the website says. Members are age 12 to 60-plus. Members train not only at the downtown gym, but also at local high schools, lakes and in the ocean.“We offer camaraderie with an emphasis on doing our VERY best,” the website continues. “We have a very close knit group who supports and helps each other as needs arise.”Wolfpak members also compete in area triathlons, according to the website. The team is run by David and Julie Wolfsmith.The MHPD investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about this incident, or who thinks they might be a victim, can call MHPD Det. Pevehouse at (669) 243-4914.

City officials will take a closer look at how to make pedestrians more visible while traversing key downtown Morgan Hill crosswalks, which have been criticized as too dark in the evenings and not marked clearly enough for motorists.These crosswalk measures—focusing on Monterey Road—could include overhead lights or reflective hand-held flags that walkers could carry while crossing. However, city staff suggest avoiding the use of permanent speed bumps or flashing beacons that could be obtrusive to downtown patrons and the overall “ambiance” that the city is trying to create, according to discussion at the April 6 Morgan Hill City Council meeting.Councilmembers directed staff to proceed with a list of downtown traffic safety improvements approved by the five-member body in September 2015, and add some form of crosswalk delineators on Monterey Road to the effort.The council requested an update to the ongoing “traffic calming” efforts after a vehicle hit two pedestrians in the crosswalk at Monterey Road and Third Street in a March 12 accident.Despite that accident, in which police say one of the pedestrians was cited for public drunkenness, MHPD Capt. Shane Palsgrove said at the April 6 meeting, “We consider downtown a very safe area.”The motorist in the March 12 collision was cited for a traffic violation. Palsgrove said that was the only traffic accident downtown so far this year, and there were a total of six collisions in 2015. Much of downtown was under construction in 2015, limiting Monterey Road traffic to single lanes at times.Police have recently conducted speed surveys on Monterey Road and deployed the city’s radar trailer—an educational effort to let motorists know how fast they are driving. During a week in late March, the speed survey found that about 97 percent of motorists on Monterey Road travel slower than 31 mph, Palsgrove said. The speed limit on Monterey Road downtown is 25 mph.Historically, most downtown accidents are the result of traffic violations, including illegal turning movements and running red lights, Palsgrove added.“We can account for most variables, but we cannot control for the human element,” Palsgrove said.Four lanes a ‘long walk’Regardless of what the numbers show, councilmembers and the public agree that certain downtown crosswalks could use some additional lighting or other enhancements to make pedestrians more visible, especially at Third Street.Morgan Hill resident Chris Monack told the council April 6 he recently spent a few hours sitting still in the area of Monterey Road and Third Street, watching the interaction between pedestrians and vehicles. “The city needs to do something that identifies the crossing for pedestrians,” he determined.City Councilmember Larry Carr said the need for better pedestrian safety stems from the council’s decision last summer to keep Monterey Road in its current four-lane configuration, after a “road diet” experiment failed to win over the public and downtown businesses.“Pedestrian safety and traffic calming are a big part of the downtown,” which is likely to become even busier in the coming years with new parks and restaurants under development. While Carr noted that all the downtown crosswalks that are not protected by traffic signals could benefit from more safety measures, “the particular focus is Third Street.”“That is going to continue to be a more popular place to cross the street...We set the direction that Monterey Road is going to continue to be two lanes (each way), and it’s a good long walk from one side to the other.”Can the downtown vibe and pedestrian safety coexist?Those in charge hope they can create a downtown vibe that is friendly to visitors (notably restaurant patrons) without sacrificing traffic safety.Some efforts to do that were approved by the council in September 2015, including a traffic signal at the intersection of Monterey Road and Fourth Street. Morgan Hill Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez said that measure will be a “big win” for slowing down traffic. The traffic signal, which is intended to accommodate vehicles exiting and entering the parking structure on Fourth Street, is expected to be installed by April 2017 at an estimated cost of $350,000.City staff and the council are leaning away from flashing lights at crosswalks because it doesn’t fit in with the preferred downtown atmosphere. The same argument goes for permanent speed bumps, which create noise and exhaust fumes, and are “not the best treatment for a dining district that has active outdoor dining,” Ramirez said. This is one reason why permanent speed bumps were removed from the Third Street area in 2015, when the road diet began.Morgan Hill resident Kathy Sullivan told the council, “Flashing beacons can be visual pollution, which will shine in the faces of our restaurant patrons.”Ramirez added, “Short of having traffic signals at every intersection, I don’t know what we can do to provide absolute pedestrian safety. There are a number of measures we are exploring.”City staff have also noted that the speed limit cannot be arbitrarily lowered if the city wants to be able to crack down on speeders. By state law, enforceable speed limits must be based on approved surveys that demonstrate how fast motorists typically drive on the surveyed roadway.Speed bumps currently in place on Monterey Road at the Fourth Street intersection are temporary. They were installed in order to get motorists used to the coming traffic signal, and to handle the extra traffic that will be generated by the new parking garage when it opens later this spring.Other traffic safety improvements approved by the council in September 2015, either already completed or in development, include adding green bicycle markings in the roadway imploring motorists to share the road; narrowing vehicle lanes from 10.5 to 10 feet in width; slurry sealing the street for new directional stripes; movable pedestrian signs installed at key crosswalks; more bike parking; and lighting in Monterey Road street trees.The total cost of these efforts—including the Fourth Street traffic light—is about $600,000.