Five Significant Cases I have Prosecuted as Butte County District Attorney

By Michael L. Ramsey

People v. Lee Max Barnett, People v. Donnie and Delores Beacham, People v. Dennis Oates, People v Kenny Warren, People v. Stevin Faith

People v. Lee Max Barnett: A robbery kidnap torture murder case in which the defendant captured and robbed a group of gold miners in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Butte County. One of the victims was his former mining partner who he separated from the group and stripped naked, tied to a tree and slowly slashed and stabbed the man to death. The defendant was a career criminal with some forty different crimes of robbery, assault, rape, theft, etc. from across the United States. He was convicted of all counts along with special circumstances of torture, robbery and kidnapping and was sentenced to death. He remains on death row with innumerable (unsuccessful) appeals continuing.

People v. Donnie and Delores Beacham: Three-year-old Monique Beacham had begun wetting her bed. This upset her parents Donnie and Delores who then began restricting her water intake. The child became so desperately thirsty that she began drinking out of the toilet. This enraged her mother Delores who told the child that her father would "spank" her when he got home. Donnie got home, was informed of the child's "misbehavior" and then proceeded to lash her back and legs with a two-foot long, three-inch wide strip of conveyor belt that was used for discipline of the children in the household. The beating lasted over an hour with the help of the mother. The autopsy surgeon testified that she stopped counting the lash marks on the child's body after 300. Donnie was convicted of 1st degree torture murder. Delores was convicted of 2nd degree murder. Donnie remains in prison where he has been denied parole twice thus far. Delores' conviction was reversed and reduced to a manslaughter on a convoluted interpretation of child abuse law by an appellate court, a decision that has since been reversed by the Supreme Court. Delores died in the meantime.

People v. Dennis Oates: Tom Trotter was a neighbor of the defendant and took in the defendant's wife when she ran from the domestic violence of the defendant. Trotter called the police and earned the enduring hatred of the defendant. Trotter moved away, but was discovered missing from his new home. A small piece of scalp and hair was discovered in a corner of Trotter's home. DNA connected it back to Trotter. At the same time the defendant moved to Georgia and spoke to a new girlfriend about "killing his ex-wife's boyfriend." The defendant was arrested and through a complex but tight web of forensic and circumstantial evidence, he was convicted of 1st degree murder. Tom Trotter's body has yet to be found. This was the county's only and one of the few statewide "no body" murder case convictions.

People v Kenn Warren: Chico Police Officers were called to a domestic disturbance at defendant's home. Officers arrived and spoke to defendant's estranged wife outside the home who said defendant had broken into her home and she escaped with her son. Officers saw the defendant in the home and asked him to come out. The defendant ran into a bedroom with officers in pursuit. He then pulled a gun and began firing on officers who were separately pinned down in a kitchen and a bathroom. A gun battle ensued with some 27 shots exchanged inside the home and the defendant was wounded. Luckily no officer was wounded. Defendant was captured and claimed officers attacked him in his own home for no good reason. After a trial involving some rather complex ballistic evidence, the defendant was convicted of multiple counts of assault on peace officers, illegal use of a firearm, possession of narcotics, false imprisonment and child endangerment. He was sentenced to 44 years 8 months in prison.

People v. Stevin Faith: Defendant was convicted of the strangulation murder of Deborah Cox in the small community of Gridley back in 1980. He had pursued his appeals through the California courts and been denied. He got lucky in the federal court and his conviction was overturned in 2006. Much of the evidence had been destroyed and many witnesses had since died. Regardless, we put back together the evidence and witnesses and reconvicted the defendant of murder despite his new federal attorney and his expensive "expert' witness. The retrial was the oldest on record in the county. The now grown daughters of Ms. Cox travel with me to prison to oppose the defendant's parole bids before the parole board.