Casey Ayer News Today

Staff Writer

Two of the six suspects arrested in the 2020 shooting of 36-year-old Shanta Olsen have pleaded guilty, with the cases against the other four suspects pending, authorities said.

Deputy District Attorney Casey Ayer has seen the pattern too many times. In her four-plus years serving as a Nevada County prosecutor, Ayer has prosecuted probably hundreds of domestic violence cases as head of the office’s family violence unit. But in far more cases than she would like, Ayer said that she has had to drop charges against accused abusers — most often because of a lack of cooperation by the victim. “Victims’ stories change because their hearts change, and sometimes that e...

A Nevada County man accused of assaulting a jogger will receive psychiatric care through a pretrial diversion program instead of facing prison time, benefiting from a 2018 law that attorneys say is changing how defendants…

By Liz Kellar | Staff Writer A jury on Thursday found a Grass Valley man not guilty of arson during a state of emergency, but instead guilty of a lesser charge of recklessly causing a fire, after he was charged with breaking into a downtown home and setting fires outside. The jury was hung on a charge of first-degree burglary, said Deputy Public Defender Micah Pierce. Juan Carlos Hurtado-Ramirez, 34, was arrested by Grass Valley police officers on April 28 after the tenant of a residence in the...