2 DIE IN ON HIGHWAY 4 WHEN SUV FLIPS OVER: DISCOVERY BAY (AP) — Authorities say a man and a woman died after the SUV they were traveling in flipped into an irrigation ditch near far eastern Contra Costa County.
California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Shelton says the 68-year-old man and 56-year-old woman were heading east on Highway 4 near Victoria Island just before 10 a.m. Monday when their Toyota 4Runner tumbled down an embankment. Victoria Island is in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a driver behind the SUV called police after seeing it land upside down in the flowing water.
Shelton says rescuers could not free the occupants for more than an hour, and both victims died at the scene.
It was not immediately clear which victim was driving. Neither person's name has been released.
PRIEST WHO WORKED IN STOCKTON FREED FROM IRISH JAIL: STOCKTON (AP) — A former Catholic priest who spent five years working in Northern California has been released from jail in his native Ireland after pleading guilty to several child-abuse charges there.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Margaret Heneghan gave 77-year-old Patrick Joseph McCabe his freedom over the weekend based on his age, statements of contrition and the fact that he had served 21 months of a maximum 2-year sentence.
McCabe was extradited to Ireland in June 2011 to face charges that he had sexually abused young boys there in the early 1970s and 1980s.
He was sent to the United States to work after abuse complaints surfaced, and worked in Eureka, Guerneville, Sacramento, Eureka and Stockton before leaving the priesthood in 1988.
At least four former California parishioners have sued church officials in the U.S. and Ireland alleging McCabe abused them as boys.
INMATE STABBED AT MERCED COUNTY JAIL: MERCED (AP) — A Merced County jail inmate is expected to survive after he was stabbed in his cell.
Sheriff's spokesman Delray Shelton says 22-year-old Miguel Elizarraraz of Atwater was stabbed multiple times on Sunday afternoon at the Merced County Main Jail. A possible motive remains under investigation.
Officials say Elizarraraz was a documented gang member and shared his cell with other gang members.
The Merced Sun-Star reports (http://bit.ly/102hfiF) that he was flown to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, where he was in stable condition
Elizarraraz and two other people were arrested in October 2010 in the shooting death of a 26-year-old man.
UIN COUNTY, Calif. - Two people were killed when their SUV overturned into a drainage canal off Highway 4 in San Joaquin County Monday morning.
Officer Shelton with the California Highway Patrol said the 68-year-old man and 56-year-old woman from Somerset were heading eastbound on the highway between Victoria Island Farms and Old River. According to Shelton, the SUV was traveling at 55 to 65 mph when it drifted off to the right shoulder and overturned into three feet of water in the drainage canal.
Emergency responders pulled the man and woman out and attempted life-saving measures but could not revive either.
