High-profile trials dominated crime news in 2011, but some important appeals decisions also played a role, and Denton County lost its share of people to accidents and murder.
March 15 - The Tarrant County medical examiner changed his ruling on the cause of death on a year-old unsolved Denton case from homicide to suicide, but police are not yet ready to close their investigation into the death of James Randal Clark.
Clark, 53, was found dead March 29, 2010, in a warehouse where he ran a golf-related business off Interstate 35 just south of U.S. Highway 380.
According to an autopsy report, Clark suffered a 3-inch-deep stab wound in the abdomen, a 5-inch-deep stab wound in the thigh, a gunshot wound in the abdomen and a gunshot wound in the chest. The stab wounds came from two different knives.
Pathologists made the decision to change the ruling after studying tests made by a blood-spatter expert. Both stab wounds and one of the bullet wounds were survivable, it was possible for Clark to have inflicted all the wounds himself and the chest wound would have caused his death, according to the new ruling. Police said they would not close the case.
April 9 - Daniel Scott Gary, 33, was in Denton County Jail charged with shooting his father in the face, causing his death. Then he went to a friend's home in Lake Dallas and allegedly admitted to the shooting. The friend called 911 and Lake Dallas officers responded.
Gary told them he shot his father, William Carl Gary, 65, in his barn near Sanger, according to the court document. Sheriff's deputies responded to the home on FM2450 and found the elder man's body in the barn. Investigators found a shotgun in Daniel Gary's vehicle, according to the affidavit. A trial date has not yet been set.
April 15 - Duke Watrous was sentenced to a 12-year prison term in the drunken shooting death of his 10-year-old daughter on Christmas Eve 2009. He also was sentenced to five years on a charge of endangering his 9-year-old son and two years on a charge of concealing evidence. All the sentences are being served at the same time, but he must serve at least six years before being eligible for parole. He has appealed.
June 1 - Larry Renfro, 55, died at the scene of a one-vehicle accident in Argyle where he was ejected from the pickup he was driving. Renfro was driving east on FM407 at Harpole Road when he lost control of the pickup.
June 8 - A Ponder-area woman shot and killed her former husband, Wendell McDonald, 28, after he apparently lay in wait for her and forced her into the home where she was living with her parents and children just off Seaborn Road in unincorporated Denton County, according to sheriff's investigators.
The woman called for help about 10 a.m. June 8. She was attempting to perform CPR on the man, but arriving paramedics, who found him on the master bedroom floor, could not resuscitate him.
The woman told sheriff's investigators that he was hiding in the yard and accosted her as she exited her sport utility vehicle, investigators said.
She told investigators she shot him after he got her father's gun out of the closet and told her that she would either shoot him or he would shoot her. No charges were filed against her.
July 20 - Earnest Lynn Ross, 46, was sentenced to a total of 75 years after being convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Ross and two co-conspirators carried out numerous home-invasion robberies, carjackings, kidnappings and other serious crimes in 2008 and 2009 before their arrest during a Denton County sting operation, authorities said.
His criminal history began as a juvenile and was first recorded when he was 16, when he was arrested and charged with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl during a home-invasion robbery. He pleaded guilty to burglary because the girl was afraid to testify. He also was allowed a plea agreement after a conviction on a capital murder charge was overturned on a technical issue.
Aug. 9 - A jury sentenced Mariesha Ohlfs to 18 years in prison on an aggravated robbery charge for her part in the robbery and murder of Dallas-area cabdriver Hooshang Vatanpour. Her co-conspirators in the July 2009 crime, Billy Stephens and Noah Whitehead, were each sentenced to life for capital murder after their own trials.
The three plotted to lure the cabdriver to an isolated part of Denton County, where the two men stabbed and bludgeoned him to death. Then they set his body on fire.
Aug. 11 - The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth affirmed the criminal mischief conviction of Denton County Precinct 5 Constable Kenneth Jannereth.
Jannereth, 71, was convicted in February 2010 after officers of the Bar VK Air Ranch Estates neighborhood association complained to the Denton County Sheriff's Office that he twice tore down a barricade they put up to keep unauthorized visitors from driving large vehicles onto the private lake area on the property.
Jannereth's law enforcement license was at stake, but the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education has yet to revoke the license and he still draws his county salary.
Aug. 17 - Nathaniel Lee Williams was sentenced to 35 years in prison each for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping charges stemming from the Dec. 16, 2010, kidnapping of a Double Oak resident and driving with her in the trunk of her car to New Mexico.
She was released unharmed.
Matthew Casaus and Edward Muckelroy both face similar charges in the crime.
Aug. 22 - Officials with Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc. announced they would close the Nelson Children's Center in Denton because of state-imposed restrictions on bringing in more youngsters. The center housed troubled youths, most of whom were removed from their homes because of sexual or physical abuse.
Sept. 15 - A 29-year-old Justin man was shot to death by a Justin police officer after he fired a shotgun at his father, his grandfather and the officer.
The officer was responding to a call from family members that Brodie Stewart was threatening suicide. Then another call for help indicated that Stewart was shooting his relatives. Both of the older men recovered from their wounds.
Oct. 17 - Denton police obtained arrest warrants on charges of murder and aggravated assault for a suspect in connection with the Oct. 16 stabbing of two men, causing the death of one.
Police have not yet captured Daniel Roman Ramirez, 19, a Mexican national believed to have fled to Mexico.
Celfido Adonias Rivas, 22, of Denton was declared dead at the scene outside Bar Rios on Eagle Drive. His friend Refugio Esteban, 28, suffered a stab wound to the chest but survived.
Oct. 31 - Denton County sheriff's investigators arrested five people near Justin in connection with criminal activity involving the sale of narcotics and the theft of property from gas well sites. More than 30 people had been identified as participants in the scheme. The five who were found at the property on Mary Polk Road were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
Sheriff's investigators said people were stealing gas well equipment and trading it to the suspects who were arrested.
Investigators recovered $25,000 worth of stolen property.
Dec. 8 - A Denton County jury convicted Curtis Copeland of capital murder in the 2010 death of 3-year-old Jesse Fisher Jr., who died with bruises all over his body while he was in Copeland's care. Copeland received a life sentence.
Dec. 16 - Gwisung Lee, 28, was arrested in Gainesville after allegedly fleeing the scene of a fatality accident. Doreen Michelle Crawford, 41, was declared dead after being struck on the Interstate 35 service road.
Dec. 20 - A small single-engine plane crashed after an aborted landing at Denton Airport, killing a student pilot and injuring another student pilot and the instructor.
Xie Chengjie from Juneyao Airlines was declared dead at the scene. Zhao Shuran from Shenzhen Airlines received minor injuries and was treated at a local hospital and released. The instructor, Michael Lin, was seriously injured but survived the crash.
DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com.
