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• Thornton bullfight arrestees charged with misdemeanors

• Galt City Council will consider individual discretionary accounts

• Jack Sieglock to make another bid for 10th Assembly seat

• Trial begins in case of Lodi woman charged with murder

• Report says Lodi needs to relocate computer servers

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi departments outline cuts, expenses

• Lodi Unified School District adopts budget-cutting recommendations, music elimination

• Clarification

November 2nd, 2009

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

November 7th, 2009

• Lodi High graduate was at Fort Hood

• Lining up for flu shots in Lodi

• Tour packs buses as birdwatchers admire Sandhill cranes

• City of Lodi staff looking into possibility of limiting number of taco trucks

• Daytime thieves targeting Lodi homes

• Lodi High School rally featured on 'Good Day Sacramento'

• Out of control

• Homicide suspect Anthony Hubbard arraigned

• Regional Roundup

• New Lodi Memorial rule to combat spread of H1N1: Visitors must be older than 16

November 6th, 2009

• Short sales make up nearly half of Lodi market

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi man accused of smuggling drugs, weapons for inmates at state prison

• 'I-5 Strangler' sentenced to 6 terms of life

• Jury convicts Acampo man of torture, assault of his girlfriend

• Young girl is 200,000th person to assemble AIDS, HIV care kit

• Woman in wheelchair struck by car

November 5th, 2009

• A lower Lodi Lake

• Streetside scarecrows

• San Joaquin County considers moratorium on new Williamson Act contracts

• Speakers address Lodi Unified School District budget shortfalls, plea to keep programs

• Armed robbers still targeting Lodi shops

• Regional Roundup

• California voters have final say over $11 billion water bond

• Weekend bus service to continue until Lodi City Council makes decision

• Paul Tebbel shines spotlight on sandhill cranes

• Your complete guide to Sandhill Crane Festival

• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy

• Man wanted in Acampo homicide gives up to San Joaquin County Sheriff's detectives

November 4th, 2009

• Candle fire

• Rep. Jerry McNerney sets telephone town hall for Thursday

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi City Council weighs raising fares to restore some bus service

• Galt City Council argues over ordinance hiring residents

• San Joaquin County sues state over prison hospital planned for Stockton

• Big win for Allen Baroni in reclamation election

• California sends Democratic loyalist John Garamendi to Congress

• Bicycling father raising awareness of teen suicide

• Jason Behrmann is unanimously named Galt's city manager

November 3rd, 2009

• 500 attend service for Kyle Coumas

• Correction

• Galt considers ordinance that would require city contractors to hire locally

• Regional Roundup

• Have you seen a missing guide dog puppy in Lodi?

• Galt man dies after weekend Highway 12 crash

• Jason Behrmann is top candidate for Galt city manager

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

• Clarification

November 2nd, 2009

• Downtown Lodi trick or treat

• Public Meetings

• Correction

• Kyle Coumas funeral today

• Regional Roundup

• Sandhill Cranes Festival comes to Lodi next weekend

• Lamborghini lovers gather for show, fine wine, luncheon in Woodbridge

• Lodi's 'Biggest Loser' Christy Richesin runs 5K Halloween race

• 27-year-old man shot to death Saturday night in front of Acampo home

• Group investigates reports of haunting

October 31st, 2009

• Area schools have no plans of closing due to H1N1 virus

• Tokay High evacuation

• Gated communities in Lodi

• Finishing touches on Hill House replica

• Regional Roundup

• In remembrance of Kyle Coumas

• Lodi-area Halloween events

• City of Lodi settles case of mistaken identity

• Lodi a reflection of Halloween's retail emergence

• Izzy Laviola and Seth Siddle-Mitchell crowned Tokay homecoming queen and king

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

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Trial begins in case of Lodi woman charged with murder

She didn't pull trigger, but may face life in prison

Georgina Perez never knew what hit her. She was visiting her grandchildren in Lodi when two bullets tore through the duplex's window.

One bullet, believed to be fired from a 100-year-old gun, hit her in the back of the head, a prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of a murder trial for a woman accused of driving the get-away vehicle. The other bullet shattered another window and was never found.

Perez, a 49-year-old mother of eight, was dead within seconds of falling face-down on the floor. She was "the innocent victim of a gang-related war," San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Mark Ott told the jury.

The shooter, Ott said, was a 15-year-old boy who had been involved in a gang fight two weeks earlier in front of the Swain Drive house. He came back to settle the score, but he fired into the wrong half of the duplex, shooting through closed blinds and never seeing the targets.

Amera Addi

Now the girlfriend of his fellow gang member is on trial for murder. Amera Addi allegedly drove the car that Oct. 4, 2007, night. Then, Ott said, she buried the gun at Lodi Lake and lied repeatedly to police about her involvement.

"But for her involvement, Georgina Perez would be alive today," Ott told the jury during his opening statement. "She's just as guilty of murder."

Addi, who marked her 21st birthday in jail Monday, could spend the rest of her life in prison if convicted of murder. She has pleaded not guilty to the charge, as well as a count of accessory after the fact.

Her attorney, Doug Goss, declined to give his opening statement Tuesday, opting to wait until after the prosecutor has put on his case.

Goss declined to comment outside court, saying only that there are two sides to the story.

The suspected shooter has not been charged or arrested. Prosecutors say they have only Addi's word against him, and legally that is not enough for a conviction. By the time Addi led police to the buried Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, two months had passed and it was rusted to the point that fingerprints could not be retrieved. The gun was manufactured in the late 1800s, Ott said.

The day of the shooting, Perez had arrived from her home in Visalia about seven hours earlier. She and her daughter went to the Swain Drive home, where her daughter-in-law lived.

The three women were drinking coffee and chatting at the dining room, her daughter-in-law, Gloria Salinas, testified Tuesday. Salinas' three children were in the nearby living room, two of them asleep on a couch.

They heard nothing outside until 12:40 a.m., when two shots came through the window, she testified with the assistance of a Spanish-speaking interpreter. The first shot shattered a glass door behind the women.

The second shot struck Perez.

Everyone in the house dove for the floor when they heard shots, but then Perez did not get back up, Salinas said. She saw blood on Perez's head as someone dialed 9-1-1, then watched as the victim's hand went limp.

Salinas never went back to the home after that night, and said she has since moved from the neighborhood.

The trial, which continues today, centers around Norteno and Sureno gang warfare, Ott told the jury seated in Judge Bernard Garber's courtroom. Gang members focus on respect, and in this case Ott said the gunman was mad because the previous fight had been broken up by the other combatant's mother.

"You're going to learn about what respect means to these gangsters, what pay back means to these gangsters, about what having someone's back means to the gangsters," Ott told the jury of nine women and three men. "It's a world where disrespect must be met with retaliation."

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.