Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 11/21/05

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Donna Edwards - (707) 565-3099 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

GRAND JURY INDICTS THREE MEN IN THE DEATHS OF
SONOMA COUNTY FAMILY OF FOUR

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that on Friday, November 18, 2005, a Sonoma County Criminal Grand Jury returned indictments for three men in connection with the deaths of a Sonoma County couple and their two young children.

Matthew Spencer, Lauren Martinez, and their children, Kailee and Cameron, were killed shortly before midnight on January 24, 2005. Mr. Spencer was driving his family to Sebastopol when he had to swerve the vehicle they were traveling in to avoid several cars stopped in the westbound lane of Guerneville Road, near Willowside Road. The family’s 1996 Jeep Cherokee rolled over, killing all four family members.

The cars were stopped on Guerneville Road behind a Ford Thunderbird. The Thunderbird had been towed into the center of the westbound lane by the three men and abandoned in the roadway with its lights off.

Jerry Andrew Eichman, James Albert Eichman, and Douglas James Thompson each face four counts of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the incident. The Eichman brothers also face one count each of attempting to interfere with a witness to the crime. They are to appear for arraignment tomorrow morning before Superior Court Judge Elliot Lee Daum.