Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 10/12/06

Contact person(s):

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

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

PROSECUTORS FILE ADDITIONAL FELONY CHARGES IN
DEATHS OF FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that his prosecutors have filed additional felony charges against brothers James and Jerry Eichman in relation to the deaths of a young family of four.

Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong today granted Deputy District Attorney Anne Masterson’s motion to dismiss the original charges of voluntary manslaughter, which allowed the additional crimes of felony involuntary manslaughter and felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence to be filed against the Eichmans.

District Attorney Passalacqua stated, "Under the law, it was necessary to dismiss the original charges before we could file the additional counts. This will allow the jury a number of alternatives when considering the evidence in this case."

In addition to four counts each of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter, the brothers also face one count of interfering with and intimidating a witness.

Matthew Spencer, Lauren Martinez, and their children, Kailee and Cameron, were killed in 2005. Mr. Spencer was driving his family to Sebastopol during the night when he had to swerve the vehicle they were traveling in to avoid several cars stopped in the roadway due to an abandoned vehicle in the middle of the road. Witnesses told investigators that the Eichman brothers knowingly left an inoperable vehicle, with no lights, in the road after an aborted attempt to tow it away.