C A L I F O R N I A ’ S O L D E S T N E W S PA P E R – E S T. 18 51
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2020
VOLUME 169 • ISSUE 73 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Shooter of woman who raised him to be sentenced n Supporters, detractors expected to speak on proposed 25-year prison stint Pat Lakey Staff writer Quick to candidly say she has been an alcoholic likely since birth, 49-year-old Tammy Ussery had 13-anda-half years’ sobriety the day she found her mother
Ronnie Rawlin
lying down a slope outside her mom’s house in Shingle Springs, the 65-year-old woman killed by a bullet to the head. Ussery’s life plunged into despair as a result of finding Dianna Redmon’s body, she said, blaming the real-life nightmare for the breakup of her engagement to a man she loved and for leading her to a return to alcohol and drug abuse. But Ussery, who said she’s been sober more than a year now, plans to attend a sentencing hearing for Ronnie Rawlin set for Friday in Dept. 7 of Superior Court and she plans to make a
statement — in support of the young man who fired the killing shot that took her mom’s life in January 2017. Others who think the 25-year prison sentence is not enough time for the murderer also plan to make statements before the judge passes final sentence inside the Fair Lane courtroom. Ussery, in an interview last week, recalled deciding to look for her mother at that particular spot, a location that apparently had been overlooked by law enforcement officers who also were trying to find the missing Redmon. She said
she had a dreadful, nagging thought that her teenage cousin Ronnie might be involved in whatever had happened. “I was thinking that he probably had tied her up somewhere,” said Ussery, who added that she “had a feeling” about the brushy slope. She explained that the then-16year-old Ronnie, who had been raised since the age of 5 by Dianna and husband Grady Redmon, had used that spot just below the house before, to stash whatever he wanted to hide from the family. n
See SENTENCING, page A6
CALL OF
DUTY COVID-19 heroes head to the frontline Dawn Hodson Staff writer
The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a lot of everyone, and especially of a group of licensed nurses and certified nursing assistants from the Pines at Placerville Healthcare Center. An alert went out the week before Easter that a skilled nursing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area was in trouble, according to Ben Larkey, administrator at the Pines at Placerville. “A significant infection of COVID-19 threatened the lives of its residents,” Larkey said. “A significant number of the staff at the Bay Area facility had become infected, including the top leadership. Then panic took hold. Another, even larger portion of the staff failed to come to work ... The situation became desperate, dangerous and chaotic.” The Bay Area care facility needed help. Previously a group of licensed nurses and CNAs (the isolation team) at the Pines at Placerville had trained for just such a job so when asked if they were willing to deploy, the answer was “yes” as long as they had time to make appropriate arrangements. Larkey contacted the facility and made the offer. The answer was immediate: “We need your help. But we need it now. If we cannot get staff within 24 hours we will have to evacuate (the building).” Larkey asked members of the isolation team if they could deploy for a month or so. Four immediately stepped up to go to work the next day. In doing so, Larkey said they probably saved lives. Once the isolation team arrived at the facility they found conditions were chaotic as the leadership team that had been brought in was brand new. They set about to calming and
Democrat photo by Dawn Hodson
Nurses and nursing assistants from the Pines at Placerville stepped up to help residents at a nursing care facility in the Bay Area where a COVID-19 outbreak took place. Top row, left to right, nursing assistant Kyndall Sheehan, certified nursing assistant (CNA) Timothy Mejia and CNA Karina Gzell; bottom row, left to right, licensed vocational nurse Maggie Langdon, charge nurse Hannah Bryan and CNA Trista Wilson. organizing the situation. Frightened and confused residents were immediately comforted by the team. Rhythms and routines, such as getting residents up for showers and a clean shave, were restored. Two more staff from the Pines at Placerville joined the first four, followed by another six, totaling 12 staff deployed by April 16. Larkey said they all stayed for at least 30 days and some are still working down there more than 60 days later. The nurses and nursing assistants kept busy with each taking care of 20 to 26 patients divided among three units. One unit was for patients under investigation to determine if they were positive for COVID-19, one was an isolation unit for those
“The face of this new soldier is just as brave, just as faithful to the call of duty and just as deserving of our respect and honor as any generation of soldiers that have preceded them.” — Ben Larkey, administrator at the Pines at Placerville testing positive and the third was a clean unit. “At a certain point I wasn’t worried about my own health and instead it was about their safety,” said Pines at Placerville CNA Trista Wilson. n
See HEROES, page A2
A taste of the
FAIR
Democrat staff
Democrat photos by Kevin Christensen
Placerville resident Jeremy Leuos takes a bite out of a corn dog from one of the food vendors set up at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds over the weekend.
1 DENTIST!
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Three Years Straight!
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“Look For My Column On Page 3 Today!”
Ryan Emmerg with Active 20-30 Hangtown No. 43 cooks up beef for the club’s famed tacos that were dished out Friday and Saturday as part of the group’s annual fair time fundraiser that benefits children’s charities in El Dorado County.
Your home is where you make some of your best memories, and that’s worth protecting. I’m here to help. LET’S TALK TODAY.
While the El Dorado County Fair was canceled due to COVID-19, people could still get a taste of some of those familiar carnival treats over the weekend. June 18-21 otherwise would have seen much more than tasty treat vendors take over the fairgrounds but making do with complications of the coronavirus, Active 20-30 Hangtown chapters No. 43 and No. 1034 Friday and Saturday were still able to n
See FAIR, page A3
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