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• Murderer of Lodi girl could face March execution

• Lodi ponders policy to replace missing sections of sidewalk

• Winegrape Commission to honor two with awards

• Mentors sought for local high school senior projects

• Lodi panel hears input regarding EIR on housing developments

• Regional Roundup

• McNerney declares intent to unseat Pombo

• Get ready for flu season, health officials advise

• In-home workers seek deal, $1-an-hour raise

February 9th, 2010

• Middle College High School rated one of the best — and a bargain, to boot

• Lodi decathlon boasts top team in county

• Man who sparked counterfeit case pleads guilty

• Local businessman will visit Haiti to look for family

• Man who claimed to be Yosemite Sam pleads guilty to meth charge

• David Harmer seeks Republican congressional nod

• Lack of evidence in case against suspect in 'drug deal' stabbing

• Regional Roundup

February 8th, 2010

• Public Meetings

• Locals pick best, most memorable Super Bowl commercials

• Regional Roundup

February 6th, 2010

• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch

• Meet Larry, Curly and Moe

• Baboon business

• Regional Roundup

• Several Lodi venues let you watch the Super Bowl in style

• Lodi Library celebrates 100 years of serving the community

• Culinary craft

February 5th, 2010

• Kids, teachers help Haiti by collecting pennies for Learning Link

• Lodi, Galt students reach out to help Haiti earthquake survivors

• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam

• Hours of sweat and work go into putting on crab feeds

• Things looking up for state's real estate

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• Stray bullet strikes Lodi home; police suspect gang activity may be factor

February 4th, 2010

• Managers at Geweke Toyota answer questions about recall

• Lodi City Council votes to replace play structure at Century Park

• Lodi extends ban on pot shops for another year

• Mokelumne River triathlon set for June

• Family, friends to run half-marathon in memory of Galt family

February 3rd, 2010

• Correction

• Delta College trustees again collide over stipend committee

• Bad bugs, weeds are hot topics at Grape Day

• Lodi-area senators Dave Cox, Lois Wolk admit to gifts; Tom Berryhill case pending

• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts

• Galt City Council avoids budget cuts — for now

• New Lodi Memorial Hospital emergency room opens to the public without a hitch

• Regional Roundup

February 2nd, 2010

• Local business leaders say tourism, Costco, Home Depot may play roles in city's future

• Correction

• Former Lodian Erica Davis is first paraplegic woman to summit Kilimanjaro

• Regional Roundup

• No snow leopards, otters for Micke Grove

• McNerney leads in campaign cash

• Police: Train victim was a Lodi teen

• Big rig plows 7 cars

• Jumpers across California

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Will terrorists be given Miranda warnings? (75)
• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts (64)
• President Obama's first year (45)
• Many reject the politics of 'no' (45)
• Islamic symbol in mosaic — what is all the fuss? (44)
• Writer comments on Neely column (42)
• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch (41)
• Time to shed the convenient sham of 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy (34)
• We need to conduct respectful conversations (30)
• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam (25)

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Murderer of Lodi girl could face March execution

A quarter of a century after he was arrested and accused of murdering a Tokay High School senior, Michael Angelo Morales may face execution in March. For the family of Terri Lynn Winchell, the date couldn’t come soon enough.

“For people with no morals, no heart, that kind of guy should have been taken care of a long time ago,” her older brother, Bradley Winchell, said Wednesday.

Morales’ last appeal was rejected this week by the highest court in the country, so his best hope of avoiding death lies in the governor’s hands, said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for the California Attorney General’s office.

Morales, now 45, remains at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, north of San Francisco. He is one of 646 people on death row — a number that dropped by one over the weekend when a condemned inmate died of natural causes, California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

Morales was 21 when he and his cousin were arrested Jan. 10, 1981, after police were led to the body of Terri Lynn Winchell. The 17-year-old was in her last year at Tokay High when she disappeared one Thursday night.

Her body was found two days later in a vineyard north of Lodi, and police determined that she had been robbed, raped and stabbed. She had been hit in the head 23 times with a hammer, and she also had wounds indicating that she had tried to defend herself, according to court records.

Prosecutors theorized that Rick Ortega, then 19, had wanted to kill Winchell out of jealousy and embarrassment, because she was dating his male lover and had told her friends that Ortega was a homosexual. Ortega then allegedly talked his cousin, Morales, into helping kill Winchell.

Morales’ attorney did not return messages left last week and Wednesday.

Ultimately, Ortega was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Morales was sentenced to death in 1983.

The case stirred the community from the beginning. Three days after Winchell’s body was found, 1,000 people attended a memorial service at Cherokee Memorial Park. At the time, park officials told the News-Sentinel it was perhaps the largest crowd the cemetery had ever seen.

Due to the publicity and attention, the case was moved to Ventura County.

Local prosecutors will return to the Southern California courtroom later this year to ask that an execution date be set, Barankin said. Based on scheduling conferences with the Attorney General’s Office, prison officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office, prosecutors will request a specific execution date.

That date will probably come in March, Barankin said.

When prosecutors will return to Ventura County is not yet known, San Joaquin County District Attorney Jim Willett said Wednesday. Under state law, an execution must be scheduled no sooner than 30 days and no later than 60 days from that court hearing.

Then it will be up to Schwarzenegger to decide whether to intervene and commute the sentence to life in prison. If he does not, and no new legal questions are raised, Morales will die by lethal injection or gas.

“It’s been long overdue. My mom’s stressed out, the whole family is stressed out,” Bradley Winchell said, not referring to Morales by name. “The person got to live 24 years.”

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.