Nolan Rian Hurd, 23, was charged last September with one count of murder in the death of 20-year-old Nikha Marcella DeGuzman. Though the charges were filed more than three months ago, Nolan was not arrested until Dec. 15, when police in Stockton took him into custody. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.

A probable cause statement filed by Fremont police lays out in horrifying detail how Hurd went from being viewed as a potential witness of DeGuzman’s suicide to being wanted for murder and suspected of covering up a homicide. The shooting occurred in room #219 at a Fremont hotel, but police have not revealed the location of the shooting, nor was it initially reported by local media.

Hurd was identified as a suspect based on the angle of the bullet, gunshot residue tests, witness statements, and his own conflicting accounts of the shooting, authorities say. Despite all this, police initially recommended that Hurd be charged with a lesser count of involuntary manslaughter, not murder, though no explanation is offered for the disparity.

The shooting took place a little before 10 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2022. Police say that DeGuzman was initially shot behind the ear, but that the bullet missed her skull and she was initially conscious and alert. According to police, it was Hurd who called 911 — though investigators believe it was several minutes after the shooting — and that DeGuzman could be heard talking in the background.

Fremont police Det. Rachel Nieves wrote in court records that, “Based on the calls I believe that Hurd was trying to influence her to say she shot herself and convince the witnesses as they arrived that it was self-inflicted.”

The pistol was found underneath DeGuzman’s right leg.

Other hotel guests reported seeing Hurd banging on doors and asking for help after the shooting, while DeGuzman was seen crawling in a hotel hallway before losing consciousness, while Hurd allegedly told her not to leave and trying to get her back into their room. Some heard the couple arguing before the shot was fired, police say.

Nieves also reviewed police body-worn cameras showing Hurd’s initial interacts with the responding officers.

At one point, he can be heard saying, “I love you… what did I do… Please I did the best I can… I did the best I can,” according to police. At his initial interview at the Fremont police department, Hurd simply placed his head on the table, began crying, and ignored an investigator’s attempts to talk to him for 30 minutes, at which point he was released.

DeGuzman was hospitalized and died two days later, on Jan. 29, 2022. Her obituary describes her as a James Logan High School graduate who attended Chabot College and worked as a service representative for Apple, Tesla, and Round Table Pizza. It says she loved animals, was a talented artist, and wrote poetry, literature, and music in her spare time.

“She was a devoted worker, and often took the responsibility of working late nights. She always was self-sufficient and an independent young lady,” the obituary says.

In April, police interviewed Hurd for a second time at the Santa Rita Jail, where he was in custody for an unrelated criminal investigation. They say that this time — after initially claiming he was in the room when DeGuzman shot herself — that he was actually in the bathroom, but he denied touching the gun. Hurd’s mother allegedly told police that he had confided in her that he had, in fact, handled the pistol after DeGuzman shot herself.

Finally, police say they calculated the trajectory of the gunshot, and believed it was fired from the bed. Nieves wrote that “based on the angel of the entrance wound and trajectory of the fired round I believe that it is physically impossible” for DeGuzman to have shot herself.

Hurd is being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Alkhem Session, 30, and Armond Hamilton, 35, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the 2016 killing of 22-year-old Damien Traylor. They were both transferred to the state prison system on Nov. 16 from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, records show.

Session and Hamilton were identified as two of the three people who attacked and shot Traylor outside an apartment on the 800 block of East 24th Street in Oakland on Nov. 4, 2016. One of Traylor’s friends told police that she, Traylor, and another man had travelled from Las Vegas to Oakland that day, and at about 9 a.m. the third friend stopped in that location and burglarized an apartment while she and Traylor slept in their Mercedes.

She told police they were awakened when three angry men confronted her and Traylor about the burglary. During this confrontation Traylor was beaten and shot. She later identified Session and Hamilton from police photo lineups, according to police testimony at the 2017 preliminary hearing. They were arrested about six weeks after the shooting.

The third suspect has not been charged, according to court records. Session and Hamilton will receive credit for the roughly six years they spent behind bars while the case was pending, and will be eligible for parole sometime in 2028.

Both Session and Hamilton are incarcerated at Wasco State Prison, roughly 250 miles from the Bay Area, records show.

Darrin “Mississippi” Lynch, 55, was transferred Dec. 23 to North Kern State Prison to begin serving his sentence. Last August, a Contra Costa jury convicted Lynch of murdering 47-year-old Andrew McCoy.

McCoy was shot and killed on the evening of May 6, 2019, on Shoreline Drive in Pittsburg. Prosecutors argued Lynch hid in a bush for two minutes waiting for McCoy to pass by, then yelled out, “Hey bro,” and shot him when he turned. Because of that, Lynch was convicted of a special circumstances enhancement of lying in wait, which made him eligible for life without parole.

Prosecutors didn’t spell out a clear motive, but a relative of McCoy testified she saw him arguing with Lynch a month before the shooting.

Lynch’s attorney argued during trial that prosecution witnesses were liars who were “spoon fed” testimony as part of a lazy police investigation. Lynch is appealing his conviction and sentence, a process that typically takes years.

The Bethel Island woman was arrested Jan. 11 on suspicion of murder solicitation, records show. She was taken into custody at her home around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, according to jail records.

According to authorities, the alleged murder plot came about after the 54-year-old grew frustrated with how her divorce case was going. Court records show the woman and her wife had each taken domestic violence restraining orders out against the other as the 2022 divorce case unfolded.

Police say that the 54-year-old allegedly offered another woman up to $30,000 to murder her estranged wife. And they allege she had a specific plan in mind: to have the would-be hitwoman steal a car and run the ex-wife over as she walked home from a corner bar.

Part of her plan, authorities said, was to make it look like a routine car accident or random hit-and-run crash.

On social media, the woman describes herself as an “animal lover” who is “following Jesus.” She once ran a local antique shop and a pet dog sitting business.

As of Friday, she was not charged and remained in a Contra Costa jail lieu of $1 million bail. It is unclear if she has retained an attorney.

A spokesman for the Contra Costa District Attorney said law enforcement has not yet asked for charges to be filed against her. Prosecutors have until Tuesday morning to file criminal charges or she will be released from custody.

No one else has yet been arrested, and the investigation remains open, authorities say.

Multiple sources told the Bay Area News Group that Price and her new leadership team in their first full week in office moved to place at least three deputy district attorneys, including senior prosecutors, on leave.

Deputy District Attorneys John Brouhard, Butch Ford and Colleen McMahon are among the attorneys Price placed on paid administrative leave — a status that opens the door for their termination.

Additionally, Chief of Inspectors Craig Chew and Assistant Chief of Inspectors Andrea Moreland were fired, according to multiple sources. Unlike prosecutors, inspectors are considered at-will employees and can be terminated without arbitration. The attorneys placed on leave could not be fired until after a two-pronged process, which ends with a ruling by either an administrative law judge or an arbitrator.

On Friday, the mood inside the DA’s office ranged from demoralization to panic. Multiple employees were asked to inform their colleagues, and in some cases their friends, that they were to be placed on administrative leave and other attorneys sat in their offices wondering if they would be next, according to the sources.

Matt Finnegan, an attorney with the local union representing Alameda County prosecutors, said his office is representing the attorneys and will continue to do so “as more slips come in.”

“The biggest downside is that they aren’t going to be able to handle any cases while they’re on administrative leave,” Finnegan said.

It is unclear exactly why the prosecutors were shown the door. A spokeswoman for the DA’s office declined to comment.

However, Price had criticized some of the prosecutors, including Ford, during her 2022 campaign.

Ford, a longtime prosecutor with more than 30 murder trials under his belt, prosecuted an Oakland man, Shawn Martin, who won an appeal of his murder conviction over Ford giving jurors a misleading instruction. Martin was found not guilty on retrial, and later became a volunteer for Price’s campaign.

Martin’s case became a sticking point because just before his second trial, his attorney filed a failed motion to recuse the entire Alameda County DA’s office for alleged rampant misconduct. Just days before Price’s victory in the Nov. 8 election, Martin was identified as a suspect in a nonfatal shooting outside an Oakland bar and remains at large.

The shakeup also comes just days after Price reduced charges against suspected serial killer David Misch, who was being prosecuted by McMahon. Already incarcerated at a state prison hospital for stabbing a woman to death, Misch is facing a new trial in the slayings of two Fremont women and the abduction and killing of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in Hayward, all cold cases from the 1980s.

Price dropped special circumstances charges against Misch, stirring controversy while making good on a campaign promise to review cases where individuals face life without the possibility of parole. It is the first of many such cases Price is expected to evaluate.

The official reason for sidelining Brouhard along with McMahon would be more of a mystery, if not for a common denominator among the two veteran prosecutors. While running for DA, Price held a press conference calling out McMahon, Brouhard and other prosecutors for using their government email accounts to campaign for Nancy O’Malley in 2018. O’Malley — who defeated Price and won re-election that year — announced her retirement in May 2021, opening up the seat for the first time in decades.

Price at the time said the prosecutors used county resources “to gain an unfair advantage” against her. Price and an attorney representing her campaign filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission alleging attorneys violated a state government code prohibiting an independent expenditure committee from coordinating with a candidate — in this case O’Malley.

The Fair Political Practices Commission investigation of the complaint filed by Price remains open, according to the FPPC. Like Ford, McMahon and Brouhard have handled numerous felony trials and are among the office’s most seasoned prosecutors.

Other high-ranking prosecutors who worked under O’Malley have left or are rumored to be eyeing the exit.

Veteran prosecutor Terry Wiley, the O’Malley-backed candidate who ran against Price in the November 2022 election, retired from the office after the election.

One early departure, according to sources, is Assistant District Attorney L.D. Louis, a 20-plus-year prosecutor. Louis is said to have joined the County Counsel’s Office, which oversees legal matters for the civilian side of the county. Louis was most recently the head of the DA’s mental health unit, specializing in policy as well as collaborative courts and alternatives to incarceration.

Top-floor prosecutors and inspectors, like Wiley and Chew, are at-will employees, meaning they could be dismissed without a reason. Virtually all prosecutors, except for assistant district attorneys, are represented by the Alameda County Prosecutors Association and cannot be terminated without cause. Prosecutors began organizing in 2018 and were formalized as a union two years later.

Any prosecutor placed on leave is entitled to a so-called Skelly hearing, which provides employees an opportunity to hear and defend themselves against the employer’s allegations.

In announcing her new leadership team last Friday, Price appointed retired Oakland police Capt. Eric Lewis as chief of inspectors and former Marin County Assistant District Attorney Otis Bruce Jr. and Royl L. Roberts, a Peralta Community College administrator who recently became the district’s general counsel after passing the state bar in July, as her two chief assistant district attorneys.

Robert Steven Jones was struck in the chest, back, and shoulder and died of those injuries a short time later, according to the pathologist who performed his autopsy. Police say the injuries to his back were a result of Jones twisting as bullets struck him.

The March 22, 2022 incident was recounted on Friday by five law enforcement officials — three who were present, and two who investigated the aftermath of the shooting.

Coroner’s inquests are held for every law enforcement-involved fatality in Contra Costa, and juries are asked to classify each death. Typically the votes are unanimous, but Friday was far from it; of the 15 jurors, eight voted to rule Jones’ death a homicide, and seven voted for suicide.

Despite the narrow margin, homicide will stand as the official manner of death. The decision carries no criminal nor civil liability.

Jones was fatally shot around 9 p.m. on the 8000 block of Westport Circle in Discovery Bay. Police had been called there for a report that he’d shoved his wife and was acting erratically. When two deputies entered the home, he allegedly brandished a knife and picked up an air rifle that shoots arrows, a weapon used for hunting or archery. The officers testified they believed it was either a hunting rifle or shotgun at the time.

The two deputies retreated and set up a perimeter around the house, calling additional units, a police dog, a drone and a hostage negotiation team as backup. They said they were anticipating a lengthy standoff, but that Jones emerged from the home with the arrow gun and began walking toward several of the officers.

Contra Costa sheriff’s Sgt. Amanda Sears testified Friday that she fired three shots at Jones after becoming convinced he was going to shoot her or her colleagues. She remembered thinking, “This man is going to shoot us. It’s not an if, it’s a when.”

“I remember begging him, ‘sir, please don’t make me shoot you. I don’t want to shoot you, put the gun down,’” Sears testified, pausing briefly to collect herself as she spoke.

Oakley police Sgt. Kevin Morris, the only other officer who fired to testify Friday, said he fired five to six shots at Jones after hearing a gunshot and assuming that Jones had fired at Sears and sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Duke.

Duke, Sears, and Deputy Antonia Powell have been identified as the sheriff’s employees who fired at Jones, while Morris and Oakley police Officer Tyler Radcliffe were identified as the Oakley officers who fired. All told, 17 police rounds were fired within a matter of seconds, according to Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector John Garcia.

Both Morris, Sears, and a third deputy who was present but didn’t shoot Jones testified that he pointed the arrow rifle at officers several times during the encounter. Melen testified that after the shooting, Jones’ wife posted to Facebook that Jones, “never wanted to hurt anyone. He just was done and wanted an end.”

Melen also said there was something about Jones’ residence that stood out from those of his neighbors.

It was adorned with a “Thin Blue Line” flag and blue Christmas lights, to signal support for law enforcement.

Kevin Jose Valasco pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Adriana “Drina” Roybal, his girlfriend. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31, where Judge Thomas Nixon will decide what sentence to impose. Valasco faces up to three years in state prison, but could be sentenced to no additional jail time.

Valasco, who is from Antioch, ran Roybal over at around 11:50 p.m. Feb. 1, 2017, outside a home on the 400 block of Ruth Court in San Leandro, according to police. He was arrested and spent several days in jail, but then posted $70,000 bail. The terms of the plea deal allow him to remain free until he is sentenced.

After the crash, Valasco — whose name is also spelled “Velasco” in court records — told police that he and Roybal had been in the middle of a lengthy argument and that he’d trashed their apartment after she broke his glasses, according to court records. He claimed she lay in the middle of the road to block his exit, according to the testimony of San Leandro police Detective Tom Rogers.

“What (Valasco) said was that he wanted to push the car forward so that she would move out of the way, because he felt that once she saw the car moving she would get out of the way of a moving car,” Rogers testified, adding that Valasco said she jumped on the hood of his red BMW as it moved forward, and he ended up pinning her underneath the car.

In the aftermath of the incident, a family member of Roybal started an online petition to “Demand Justice for Drina” and revoke Valasco’s bail.

“It’s not fair he gets to enjoy FREEDOM and return to his family, while he ended Drina’s and we get to live without her,” the petition says. “Just because she’s not famous or rich she gets treated like no one?”

Sheldon Silas, 34, Reginald Whitley, 41, and Lamar Michaels, 35, were convicted in 2017 of murdering Christopher Zinn, 24, and his girlfriend, Brieanna Dow, 21, whose bodies were found riddled with bullets alongside Buchanan Road in unincorporated Antioch in October 2012. But last year, a California appeals court overturned their convictions, writing that the prosecutor’s “inappropriate” questions of a potential juror were “plainly tied to race” and warranted overturning the verdicts.

In late December, Silas, Whitely and Michaels all pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and were resentenced. For Michaels, the new deal meant freedom; he was given credit for time he’s already served behind bars and released from jail the same day. Silas, meanwhile, received 26 years with credit for 10, and Whitley was given 24 years with five years’ credit.

It is a drastically different outcome from their January 2017 sentencing, when the three were given life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder and gang enhancement charges.

Aside from the defendants’ successful appeal, there were other challenges for prosecutors: The homicides are now 10 years old, it was unclear who of the three fired the fatal shots, and a new law restricting gang-related charges would have limited evidence of the defendants’ gang memberships from going before a jury.

At the 2017 trial, the main witness was brought to and from court by armed detectives acting as security, due to concerns over potential witness retaliation. A fourth defendant was convicted at trial of using a fake name to visit Whitley in jail, and taking a picture of “paperwork” showing the man was a police informant, to intimidate the witness.

The unanimous decision by the First District Appellate Court to reverse the convictions cited questioning by then-Deputy District Attorney Melissa Smith, who left the Contra Costa DA’s office in 2020. The justices rectified Smith’s reasoning that the woman had a “myriad of anti-prosecution issues,” and reverses trial Judge Clare Maier’s ruling against a defense motion that asked her to find Smith was being discriminatory. Presiding Justice Jim Humes noted in the decision that the office and “this prosecutor in particular, had in the past exercised peremptory (juror) challenges on the basis of race.”

The unsolicited personal checks signed by former Officers Patrick Berhan and Ernesto Mejia — both of whom are reportedly under criminal investigation — include near-identical notes in which both officers deny wrongdoing but offer the money back in order to avoid “the perception” that they did anything wrong.

The officers returned the money around the time of their resignations. Berhan wrote a $25,000 check dated Aug. 10, weeks after his departure in late June. Mejia sent $9,459 back on June 14 and four days later resigned, according to records and Pittsburg City Manager Garrett Evans. The city of Pittsburg accepted both checks and processed them as donations, the city’s director of human resources said.

The college-degree scam, as previously reported, kicked off what would become a more sweeping investigation into at least a dozen Antioch and Pittsburg police officers now suspected of a multitude of crimes.

Multiple law enforcement sources have said Berhan and Mejia are among Antioch and Pittsburg officers who are under a joint investigation by the FBI and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, which is expected to result in criminal charges against several officers. The investigation includes allegations ranging from illegal police violence to cocaine and steroid distribution but started after a whistleblower alerted authorities to the alleged degree scam last year.

Sources have said Berhan, Mejia and an unknown number of other officers are suspected of being involved in the alleged scheme and had a woman take and pass tests for them.

“It has come to my attention that the City of Pittsburg contends that I did not properly earn the educational incentive pay awarded to me. Although I worked hard to achieve my college degree, I do not wish my reputation to be tainted by the perception that I received money I did not earn,” Berhan and Mejia wrote in separate letters.

Mejia’s attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson, said the former officer “chose to reimburse the city because he did not want his reputation to be tainted by the perception that he received money he did not earn. He did this of his own accord and not at the request of the city.” It is not known who is representing Berhan.

This news organization obtained the documents through a public records request sent to Jennifer Brizel, director of human resources for the city of Pittsburg. Brizel said the city “has not received other ‘reimbursements’ from police officers” in 2022. She added that the city “processed the checks as donations.”

Berhan and Mejia each received a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from California Coast University in August 2019 and March 2021, respectively, according to city records. The Santa Ana-based university, a private for-profit online school, advertises in the Police Officers Research Association of California’s magazine, among other law enforcement publications.

Under the current Pittsburg police union contract, officers are eligible for 5 percent raises annually for earning bachelor’s degrees. Antioch officers get the same pay bump under their contract.

The city of Antioch’s Human Resources department has not responded to a request sent last month seeking information about whether any officers under investigation requested or received similar education pay bumps.

Berhan and Mejia are also linked by their involvement in the controversial 2017 restraint death of 32-year-old Humberto Martinez, which led to a federal lawsuit that resulted in a $7.3 million settlement. Martinez died after Mejia put him in a carotid hold, while another officer sat on him, during a struggle inside the kitchen of a Pittsburg home. Martinez had run inside after officers tried to pull him over for a minor traffic violation.

A coroner’s report showed he suffered 16 broken ribs and several bruises. A pathologist noted Martinez had methamphetamine in his system but ruled he died from having the bloodstream to his brain cut off. Berhan used a stun gun on Martinez during the struggle, according to testimony at a coroner’s inquest hearing.

A federal grand jury, convened last year, is expected to issue soon a decision on whether to charge the involved officers. Thus far, prosecutors in Contra Costa have filed felony charges against one former Pittsburg officer, Armando Montalvo, for allegedly possessing and selling two illegal assault rifles.

Federal and state prosecutors have also dropped dozens of criminal charges that hinged on the testimony of impugned officers.

Walter Dawydiak was charged in December with mail fraud, which carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence, and tax evasion, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. An early court appearance has been set for Jan. 27. The mail fraud charge alleges Dawydiak bilked consignment sellers from January 2014 to September 2019, court records show.

Dawydiak’s attorney, Ed Swanson, said in an email to this newspaper that he expects Dawydiak to plead guilty, and that he “promptly and completely accepted responsibility for his actions.”

“(Dawydiak) also implemented new processes at the company in September 2019 to ensure clients always receive a detailed breakdown on expenses and what they are owed on a sale,” Swanson said. “He is extremely remorseful, and has been working closely with the prosecutors and agents to repay clients who lost money because of his conduct as well as to make full payment to IRS for underreporting overtime payroll tax.”

Dawydiak owns Dawydiak Cars, a Corte Madera luxury car dealership that “operated primarily as a high-end luxury automobile dealership in San Francisco,” according to the charging documents. The dealership largely relied on consignment sales for car owners looking to sell, and that the prices would be pre-negotiated. As part of the alleged scheme, prosecutors say Dawydiak would lie to the sellers about how much the cars sold for and pocket the difference.

It is also alleged that Dawydiak tried to illegally reduce his payroll taxes by “willfully concealing the overtime payment of wages, including by making the payments in cash, keeping a separate set of records for these wages,” and falsifying tax records, the charging document says.

The business’ website boasts that clients who sell their cars through Dawydiak Cars “will get much more” compared to selling on their own.

“We discuss pricing and you set the starting price and have complete control over the price you accept,” the website says.