{"id":120958,"date":"2021-05-21T10:21:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=120958"},"modified":"2021-05-21T10:21:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:21:48","slug":"murder-charges-dropped-against-volcano-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=120958","title":{"rendered":"Murder Charges Dropped Against Volcano Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jackson, CA&#8230;The Amador County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced yesterday that murder and attempted murder charges against Volcano resident, Jeffrey Johnston, 66, have been dropped at this time due to insufficient evidence. Johnston was charged with the murder of Volcano resident Vanessa Plew, 39, and the attempted murder of Jared Wilkinson, 44.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"361\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-120959\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o.jpg 640w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o-123x70.jpg 123w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o-570x322.jpg 570w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>District Attorney Todd Riebe said that ever since Johnston was arrested and charged with murder, the investigation had been ongoing. \u201cWe have received evidence on a continuance basis from the Amador County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the Public Defender, District Attorney Investigators, and the California Department of Justice (DOJ),\u201d Riebe said. It was the recent examination and analysis of physical evidence by DOJ that convinced prosecutors that the tide and weight of the evidence had changed such that it was no longer possible to prove Johnston guilty of murder to a unanimous jury beyond a reasonable doubt. \u201cWhenever you no longer believe that you can prove your case to the jury, you are ethically and professionally obligated to dismiss, no matter how serious the charges may be,\u201d Riebe stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to assure Vanessa\u2019s family and friends that the investigation into her murder will continue. We will find justice for Vanessa and hold whomever is responsible for her death accountable,\u201d Riebe added. Anyone with evidence relevant to the murder of Vanessa Plew is encouraged to contact the Amador County District Attorney\u2019s Office at (209) 223-6444.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jackson, CA&#8230;The Amador County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced yesterday that murder and attempted murder charges against Volcano resident, Jeffrey Johnston, 66, have been dropped at this time due to insufficient evidence. Johnston was charged with the murder of Volcano resident Vanessa Plew, 39, and the attempted murder of Jared Wilkinson, 44. District Attorney Todd Riebe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,20,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amador-county","category-featured","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/15994336_1327181127334646_5028084259572140518_o.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}