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CANBY, Ore. (AP) — His grandfather sits on Cal- ifornia's death row, and his father avoided a death sen- tence by pleading guilty to killing two Oregon girls. Now Francis Weaver, 31, is one of three men charged with murder in what Canby, Ore., police describe as a drug deal gone bad. Police allege Weaver and co-conspirators sought to steal drugs last weekend from a Grants Pass man whose car contained 15 pounds of marijuana. The victim, 43-year-old Edward Spangler, was shot in the face and shoulder. Weaver and the other men, 27-year-old Michael A. Orren and 32-year-old Shannon Bettencourt, were arraigned Tuesday in an Oregon City court. A court clerk said they did not enter pleas and have yet to be assigned attorneys. A pre- liminary hearing is sched- uled for next week. Weaver's father, Ward Weaver III, was convicted of aggravated murder in 2004, two years after the bodies of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis were found in his backyard. Before the discovery, the search for the 12-year-old Pond and 13-year-old Gad- dis riveted Oregon for months and put the missing girls on the cover of People magazine. It was Francis Weaver, then 19, who finally ended the mystery by calling emergency dispatchers to report that his girlfriend accused Ward Weaver of raping her, and his father had privately admitted to killing the girls. In the early 1980s, Fran- cis Weaver's grandfather, Ward Weaver Jr., was con- victed of killing a man whose car had broken down and of kidnapping, raping and murdering the man's girlfriend, 23-year- old Barbara Levoy. Her body was found buried beneath a deck at his home in Oroville, Calif. Francis Weaver's moth- er, Maria Shaw, said Wednesday her son is not the biological son of Ward Weaver III. Asked who is the father, she said it was either a now-deceased Marine named Richard or a man who was in the Navy named Christopher. ''I don't know which one of those two is the real dad,'' she said. ''At the time, I was raped by Ward and I wanted revenge. I didn't want to be with Ward. I just wanted to get away from him.'' Shaw, who eventually divorced Weaver in the 1990s, said her son had nothing to do with Span- gler's death. ''He's not guilty,'' she said. ''They want (to arrest) him so bad because they think he's Ward Weaver's son.'' The Oregonian reported that exhaustive DNA inves- tigations during case in which Ward Weaver III was convicted brought to light Francis Weaver is not his biological son, though both men had previously believed he was. Regard- less, Francis Weaver was raised by Ward Weaver and grew up calling him ''Dad.'' 9A Saturday, February 22, 2014 – Daily News Death Notices Death notices must be provided by mortuaries to the news department, are published at no charge, and feature only specific basic information about the deceased. Paid obituaries are placed through the Classified advertising department. Paid obituaries may be placed by mortuaries or by families of the deceased and include online publication linked to the news- paper's website. Paid obituaries may be of any length, may run multiple days and offer wide latitude of content, including photos. Setting it straight –––––––– It is the policy of the Daily News to correct as quickly as possible all errors in fact that have been published in the newspaper. If you feel a factual error has been made in a news story, call the news department at 527-2153. William Denney William Denney, of Cottonwood, died Friday, Feb. 21 at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. He was 71. Arrangements are under the direction of Blair's Cre- mation & Burial. Published Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Patricia Bernice Robertson Patricia Bernice Robertson, of Corning, died Thurs- day, Feb. 20 at Red Bluff Health Care. She was 90. Arrangements are under the direction of Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers. Published Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. for up to 500 people, and standing room for hun- dreds more. A state-of- the-art sound system in the announcer stand ensures participants can hear every detail of the program. There is an onsite RV parking area for dry camp- ing only. The park includes a lawn area and fire pits. According to Chief Financial Officer Jeff Realander, the response to the equestrian center has been very positive. Realander believes the Equestrian Center's prox- imity to the Rolling Hills Resort will be an asset to the facility and help drive its success, as a variety of services and activities are available on site. The Equestrian Center is near Rolling Hills Casi- no on Everett Freeman Way off the Liberal Avenue Exit on I-5 south of Corning. The center will host the Gold Country Cutting Spring Spectacular Feb. 28 through March 2 and the Run 2 Win Barrel Race March 29-30. Upcoming events for the facility are listed on www.rollinghillscasino.co m. Those wanting to schedule an event at the Equestrian Center can c o n t a c t mstaley@rollinghillse- quinecenter.com. Continued from page 1A ARENA Project received only 20 percent of their normal water allotment last year and were expecting this year's bad news. Some communities and endangered wildlife that rely on the federal water source will also suffer deep cuts. The state's snowpack is at 29 per- cent of average for this time of year, which means that for farmers it's going to be a hard year. ''My gross sales are probably going to be cut in half,'' said Bill Diedrich, who farms 1,500 acres of almonds, tomatoes and other crops in the parched Central Valley com- munity of Firebaugh. ''Some farm- ers out here are going to lose every- thing they've got.'' Gov. Jerry Brown last month declared California's drought emer- gency, and both state and federal officials have pledged millions of dollars to help with water conserva- tion and food banks for those put out of work by the drought. California officials who manage the State Water Project, the state's other major water system, have already said they won't be releasing any water for farmers, marking a first in its 54-year history. In 2009, the dry weather caused federal authorities to announce many Central Valley farmers would receive no water, but the wet weath- er that followed moved that up to 10 percent. Ryan Jacobsen of the Fres- no County Farm Bureau said no Fresno County farmers were spared of bad news this time, marking a sad historical first. Fresno County leads the nation in agriculture production with $6.6 billion in annual econom- ic activity. There's still time for the situation to improve. By late Wednesday, the National Weather Service expects a storm to sweep through the region bringing significant showers. The weather is expected to break Thurs- day with rain continuing Friday and Saturday. The state needs a succes- sion of storms dumping mountain snow, said Pete Lucero of the Bureau of Reclamation. ''Rain is nice, but snow is where the money is,'' he said. Gayle Holman of the Fresno- based Westlands Water District, the nation's largest supplier of water for agricultural use, said she fears farm- ers will be stuck with no increases to the federal water distribution. The district had been preparing farmers for Friday's announcement. ''They're all on pins and needles trying to figure out how they're going to get through this,'' Holman said, adding that Westland's 700 farmers will choose to leave fields unplanted, draw water from wells or pay top dollar for water that's on the market. ''We would need those buckets of rain now.'' Farmers are hit hardest, but they're not alone. Contractors that provide cities with water can expect to receive half of their usual amount, the Bureau said, and wildlife refuges that need water flows in rivers to protect endangered fish will receive 40 percent of their con- tracted supply. Contractors that provide farmers with water and hold historic agree- ments giving them senior rights will receive 40 percent of their normal supplies. Some contracts date back over a century and guarantee that farmers will receive at least 75 per- cent of their water. One of those is the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority in Los Banos that pro- vides irrigation for 240,000 acres of farmland. The Water Authority's executive director Steve Chedester said farm- ers he serves understand that the reality of California's drought means it's going to be tough to find enough water for them. ''They're taking a very practical approach,'' he said. ''If it's not there, it's just not there.'' Continued from page 1A WATER Schmid asked for WiFi service to be included in a recently approved Internet technology bid proposal the city is seeking for ser- vices. He said the cost of WiFi may be saved just through the reduction of printing costs. Council agendas and related documents are already available paper- less through the city's website. Although paper packets are provided to coun- cilmembers, city staff and the media. Tehama County's wire- less transition included a contract with IQM2 for meeting management soft- ware that included offsite storage of documentation and the ability for depart- ment heads to file their reports electronically. The county signed a 5- year contract with the company for $86,300 in November 2012. The contract also included audio streaming of board meetings on the Internet, which began in February 2013. The supervisors have had varying degrees of interest switching to the paperless system, but the board has frequently trum- peted its success — pro- vided a steady connection to the Internet is available. Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109 or rgreene@redbluffdailyne ws.com. Continued from page 1A CITY ical and cultural weed control research in planted crops, according to a posting on the school's website. Slide after slide, Hanson's pre- sentation, which Buchner said would be available online by Mon- day at cetehama.ucanr.edu, explained the causes of damage to plants, and closed with trou- bleshooting tips to diagnose herbi- cide injury. "The detailed research is designed to get cutting-edge infor- mation into the hands of prune farm- ers so they can do a much better job with economic and environmental sustainability," said Buchner, who gave a presentation titled, "Canker Diseases of Prune." Presenters also included Franz Niederholzer, a UCCE farm adviser for Sutter, Yuba and Colusa coun- ties, Tom Vogel, of DFA of Califor- nia, Doug Compton, Tehama Coun- ty's assistant agriculture commis- sioner, and Sarah Castro, from UC Davis. "This went real well," Buchner said. "We had a great group. We had good questions, good topics and a lot of grower interest." Continued from page 1A PRUNE Rhoades, and she dropped him off at a cousin's home before going to tribal headquarters. He later heard about the shooting. ''All I heard was there was some shooting, and my sister and brother were dead,'' he said with a shrug. His sister was Penn, and his brother Calonicco. ''I've gotten over worse.'' The fourth victim, Russo, 47, was a tribal administrator who man- aged evictions and had two teenagers, said her mother, Linda Stubble- field of Taft. Davis's two daughters were wounded, police said. One was alert and talk- ing. The other remained in critical condition, Barnes said. Barnes said young chil- dren were inside the build- ing and on the property, and a judge from another tribe was listening to the eviction proceedings over the phone when the shoot- ing began. After running out of bullets, Rhoades grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed a woman, police said. She chased one of Davis' daughters out of the building and into the parking lot while bran- dishing the knife, Barnes said. Authorities were alert- ed to the attack when a woman covered in blood ran to nearby City Hall and rang a bell to get into a side door, City Clerk Cary Baker said. ''She was saying, 'Help me, help me, people have been shot,''' Baker said. The woman was not injured, Baker said. Officers arriving after the attack found Rhoades outside the building, run- ning and clutching a knife, Barnes said. A tribal employee helped tackle her, and she was quickly subdued and arrested. Rhoades was booked on suspicion of homicide, attempted murder, child endangerment and bran- dishing a weapon. Russo's husband works at the jail, so Rhoades was trans- ferred to an undisclosed location, authorities said. The tribe's headquar- ters — a ranch-style build- ing with a pitched brown metal roof — is in a resi- dential area about a block from the police station. The area was cordoned off with yellow police tape Friday. In addition to a kitchen knife, investigators found two semi-automatic pis- tols at the scene. Alturas, the seat of Modoc County, is about 55 miles south of the Ore- gon border and 35 miles west of the Nevada line. The motto of the commu- nity of 2,800 people — ''Where the West Still Lives'' — reflects the area's wilderness and nat- ural beauty. The Cedarville Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe. The Rancheria owns 26 acres in Cedarville, where most members reside in nine small, one-story houses on lots on the outskirts of town. The tribal houses are clustered around a small playground. An audit of the tribe's books by a private firm showed the tribe received $1.1 million in federal money in 2012. About half went toward tribal roads, with the balance directed to governmental and general assistance, and housing. The audit, which was filed with the federal gov- ernment in late November, raised questions about how the government and roads funds were spent. It found that both the book- keeping and management of tribal programs had ''material weakness'' that created an opportunity for abuses. A summary of the audit, posted on a federal website, did not detail specifics about the weak- nesses nor the exact costs that the auditor ques- tioned. The decision to evict a tribal member is a ''very big statement,'' particular- ly in a rural area where other housing might be hard to find, said Dennis Chappabitty, a California attorney with extensive experience working with tribal governments. While Chappabitty has visited the Cedarville Rancheria, he said he did not know tribe's eviction rules. Generally, a tribe has wide latitude to evict a member, whether for fail- ure to pay rent or ''just bad behavior.'' Problems can arise in small tribes, he said, because a member up for eviction might feel target- ed for personal reasons. Stubblefield said Russo had mentioned several times that she was worried about violence associated with evictions. ''Anytime you evict someone from their home, you're going to worry about this,'' Stubblefield said. ''And you're taking their Indian rights from them.'' Struggling to find words, Stubblefield said her son-in-law had called her to break the news about the attack. ''This is not supposed to happen,'' Stubblefield said. Continued from page 1A PROBE At redbluffdailynews.com, scroll to the end of any story, click the link and type away. CARE TO COMMENT? Senate leader says indicted lawmaker should resign Son of notorious child killer charged in homicide SACRAMENTO (AP) — The leader of the state Senate said Friday that a fellow Democratic lawmaker should resign or face suspension after he was indicted on multiple federal corruption charges. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he has the support of the Senate's Democratic caucus in calling for Sen. Ron Calderon to resign or take a leave of absence after he was indict- ed on bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges. Calderon, D-Montebello, is charged with using his office to extract bribes from a hospital executive and undercover FBI agents who pretended to be involved in the film industry. Federal prosecutors said the amount was $100,000 in cash. ''Given the seriousness of charges that strike at the very heart of what it means to be a public official, Senator Calderon's continued service is a cloud over all the important work that we must get done this year,'' Stein- berg, D-Sacramento, said.