Jerome tops Filer
The cutest Whos in Declo
Comes back in second half to win SPORTS, PAGE B6
Kids learn the meaning of Christmas from Dr. Seuss’s Grinch NEWS, PAGE A3 SUNNY 27 • 12 FORECAST, B8
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016
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magicvalley.com
POLICE: SLAYING SOLVED
Idaho AG mum on Dietrich case Outrage builds over prosecution of locker room incident NATHAN BROWN
nbrown@magicvalley.com
tor Grant Loebs told the TimesNews. They’ll also be charged with intimidating a witness. Chavez, who was a suspect since the first days of the investigation, was arrested after an hour-long stand-off with a police SWAT team at a home on Locust Street North in Twin Falls. The SWAT team surround the home about 3 p.m. and blocked Locust Street at Filer Avenue and Heyburn Avenue.
DIETRICH — The Idaho Attorney General’s Office is declining to comment as outrage builds over the agency’s prosecution of a former football player who attacked a black, mentally disabled teammate in a locker room. The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence issued a statement on Facebook over the weekend calling on Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to “make a public statement and take immediate action against Idaho Deputy Attorney General Casey Hemmer’s outrageous and unacceptable behavior and statements.” Hemmer and the AG’s office prosecuted the case due to a conflict of interest with the Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The coalition’s statement refers to remarks Hemmer made in court Friday, when former Dietrich High School football player John R.K Howard, now 19, of Keller, Tex., pleaded guilty to a felony count of injuring a child, a lesser charge than he originally faced. Attorney general’s spokesman Scott Graf declined to answer questions Tuesday, pointing to District Judge Randy Stoker’s gag order barring the lawyers involved from speaking to the media at least until sentencing is imposed. Shaun King, a civil rights activist who writes for the New York Daily News, wrote a
Please see ARRESTS, Page A6
Please see DIETRICH, Page A3
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Law enforcement conduct an operation at a home in the 300 block of Locust Street North Tuesday at Twin Falls.
Police make arrests in drive-by shooting murder of 15-year-old that shocked city ALEX RIGGINS
ariggins@magicvalley.com
TWIN FALLS — Police arrested two suspects Tuesday in the drive-by murder of Vason Widaman, a 15-year-old shot dead while riding his bicycle May 7 near Canyon Ridge High School. The arrests mark a significant victory for the Twin Falls Police Department, particularly because one of the men arrested Tuesday was identified as a suspect just days after the slaying and has
Alvarez
Chavez
been in and out of police custody in the seven months since Widaman was gunned down. It remains unclear what new evidence finally led police to be-
lieve they had enough to formally connect the men to the killing, a brazen daylight drive-by that rocked the city. The men arrested were Jose G. Alvarez, 20, and Gerardo Raul Chavez, 19, both of Buhl. Nobond arrest warrants were issued for the duo Monday afternoon. Both will be formally charged Wednesday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on felony counts of first-degree murder or aiding and abetting first-degree murder, County Prosecu-
Making elk good neighbors F&G tackles crop depredation by fencing stack yards
For the Times-News
mmatthews@magicvalley.com
PICABO — Elk grazing in a mountain meadow is one thing, but hundreds of elk looting and plundering stack yards full of hay meant for ranch cattle is quite another. Driven by the continuing spread of urban development and heavy mountain snowfall PHOTO COURTESY OF IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME last winter, a massive herd of elk has pushed onto Blaine County Idaho Fish and Game’s landowner-sportsman coordinator John Guthrie inspects fencing that will protect haystacks from marauding elk this Please see ELK, Page A2 winter at Loving Springs Ranch near Gannett.
If you do one thing: “Swinging Through the Holidays” performance will feature students
from Sun Valley Summer Symphony School of Music and the Wood River High School Choral Department at 4 p.m. at River Run Day Lodge in Sun Valley. Free. •
Volume 112, Issue 55
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Interlink Volunteer Caregivers KAREN BOSSICK
MYCHEL MATTHEWS
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE
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MARKETS OPINION OBITUARIES
What do they do? IVC is a fill-in-the-gap organization that steps in when there are no other resources available to a person. It provides volunteer assistance to the elderly, chronically ill and disabled to enable them to live independently in their own homes, giving them “the gift of home” as long as possible. It also provides respite care for their home-bound caregivers. It often provides a safety net for those who do not meet the criteria for other community agencies. What’s changing? IVC has witnessed an increasing number of vulnerable people requiring its services this past year. In
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About this series Today we present part 3 in our series about nonprofits making a difference in the Magic Valley. Check out previous installments at Magicvalley.com. the past, the organization would have a slow period around the holidays when family members were in town visiting and could help their elderly or disabled loved ones. But that is not the case, anymore. With baby boomers retiring at an alarming rate and many moving into the Magic Valley due to Please see INTERLINK, Page A8
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NEWS
A6 | Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Arrests From A1
As rain turned to hail and then to snow, the heavily-armed officers repeatedly called for Chavez to exit the home with his hands up. Finally, just before 4 p.m., Chavez came out and “gave himself up peacefully,” Twin Falls Police Lt. Terry Thueson said. Alvarez was arrested about two hours before Chavez while driving near U.S. 30 and Pole Line Road just east of Buhl. “We had surveillance taking place, verifying it was Mr. Alvarez,” Thueson said. “It was 2:01 p.m. when the (county sheriff’s office SWAT team) took him into custody. They were engaged in surveillance until they saw him moving and were able to conduct a traffic stop.” The arrests came 228 days after Widaman’s death. As they days stretched on, the police department continued to reassure the community that it was pursuing the case, even after it appeared to have gone cold in the months following the shooting. “We knew going into this investigation that to solve this particular crime, it would take perseverance, much like running a marathon,” Police Chief Craig Kingsbury said. “I am proud of the men and women of the Twin Falls Police Department who have worked to keep this investigation in the forefront. I realize these arrests are just the first step in seeking justice for the Widaman family and this community.” Widaman was shot on a Saturday afternoon in a newer subdivision of upper-middle class homes just blocks from his high school. Hundreds of people were at the school that day attending an event. But despite so many people in the area, there were few direct witnesses. The Monday after the shooting, police asked for the public’s help finding a dark sedan, but they released few other details about the investigation or any potential suspects. Early in the investigation, Kingsbury said the shooting “appeared to have been a disagreement between the victim and the assailants.” A police statement released the day after Widaman’s death also said several leads “indicate that the shooting was an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public.” “But I also would be irresponsible to say that it doesn’t concern me that we have a murderer out there — that we don’t know who he is, or she,” the chief said at the time. “We don’t know. So we are working very hard to bring closure both for the Widaman family as well as this community and to bring whoever is responsible to justice.”
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Law enforcement conduct an operation at a home in the 300 block of Locust Street North Tuesday at Twin Falls.
Chavez arrested days after killing The prosecutor declined to release details about what new evidence finally broke open the case, but court records and continued reporting by the Times-News over the past seven months show Chavez was on the radar as a suspect very early in the investigation. The net started to tighten around Chavez May 9, just two days after Widaman’s death. That’s when police wrote a warrant for his arrest for violating his probation on a drunken driving charge. Police could have written the warrant as early as March 10, the first day he skipped a drug and alcohol test shortly after he was sentenced to supervised probation. Instead, they wrote the warrant two days after the drive-by killing at a time they promised the public they were “using every available officer and resource to apprehend the suspect or suspects involved in the homicide.” Asked about the possible connection in May, city spokesman Joshua Palmer wouldn’t confirm a connection, saying only that police “are looking into numerous leads.” Loebs wouldn’t confirm the connection at the time, either, saying police “talk to a lot of people … (and) it’s important not to assume everyone being talked to is a suspect.” But Chavez’s arrest warrant for a misdemeanor probation violation was highly unusual. Not only did it come just two days after Widaman’s killing, but it was served it at 12:30 a.m., and prosecutors sought a huge $25,000 bond. Chavez was arraigned May 10 on the probation violation, and before the hearing, a deputy prosecutor inadvertently dropped another clue, asking a probation officer within earshot of a reporter if the officer “knows why we’re so worried about (Chavez).” At that arraignment, a
judge set bond at $10,000, and Chavez, 18 at the time, posted bond and was released that same day. He made several court appearances over the following months for probation violations in the drunken driving case, at one point even agreeing to wear an ankle monitor, which allowed police for a time to track his every movement. Court documents show that while on probation, Chavez used alcohol, marijuana, opiates, cocaine and ecstasy. During one court appearance, Magistrate Judge Roger Harris ordered Chavez to go straight to the courthouse restroom with a probation officer to take a drug test, which he failed. It’s unknown when Chavez stopped using the ankle monitor, but his last known contact with police before Tuesday’s arrest came Nov. 6 when he was arrested once again on a probation violation in the drunken driving case; prosecutors charged him the next day with additional misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and providing false information to an officer. But Chavez was able to again post bond in both cases and get out of jail.
It’s unknown how police started looking at Chavez as a suspect so soon after the murder, but it’s likely they made the connection the same way the Times-News first discovered the connection — the name “Gerardo” was mentioned by a Widaman acquaintance as someone who might have been feuding with Widaman. Court records show police also had contact with Alvarez since Widaman’s killing. On June 27, he was arrested on drug possession charges while sitting in his car in the parking lot that serves the Twin Falls County jail, courthouse, sheriff’s office and prosecutor’s office. Police officers walking through the parking lot spotted Alvarez and arrested him on a warrant seeking a DNA sample — a clue that police might have also suspected Alvarez in the killing several months ago. The officers also reported finding drugs and drug paraphernalia in his car, including marijuana butter, LSD and a digital scale containing marijuana residue, though the drug charges have since been dismissed.
Times-News
Another clue of how police might have zeroed in on Chavez and Alvarez is the grainy surveillance photos police released two days after the shooting. The photos, which police said showed a car wanted in the shooting, appeared to show a dark sedan, likely a Dodge from its shape. According to police doc-
uments, both Chavez and Alvarez drive late-model Dodge sedans — Chavez a 2013 Dodge Avenger and Alvarez a 2014 Dodge Charger. Chavez and Alvarez will both be arraigned Wednesday, and prosecutors will ask that they be held without bond, typical in first-degree murder cases.
Moving Sale
BOGO Free on women’s clothing Suits starting at $99 Anything not on sale is 20% off 1159 Addison Avenue East Twin Falls, ID 83301 www.petersensclothing.com
Having a hip, knee, or shoulder surgery? Please join us every month for a community education on pre and post care regarding your procedure. Classes are taught at 6:30 pm by Ammon Birk, Doctor of Physical Therapy, at Bridgeview Estates. Bridgeview Estates Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation is pleased to be the only skilled nursing facility in the Twin Falls area offering an On-site Physician, Dr. Cheri Wiggins. For more information and to register for a class, please contact our Admissions Office at
(208) 280-0047.
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