man gets 9 years in toddler’s death -...
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SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26 2015 $1.50 VOL. 127, NO. 168STAY CONNECTED MERCEDSUNSTAR.COM
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El Nido, which nests on the plainsof Merced County, has a rich his-tory that goes back to the landgrant days. From the 1930s to1950s, El Nido made local andnational news for being a poten-tial site for oil and gas. 5B
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MERCED
T ears rushed downSophoeun Alvarez’sface Friday morningas she described her
heartbreak over the death ofher 3-year-old son at thehands of a man she oncecalled a friend.“He destroyed what’s left
of me,” Alvarez said of de-fendant Jonathan K. Thao.Thao, 24, received a 9-year
prison sentence Friday afterpleading guilty to felonychild abuse in connectionwith the Nov. 3, 2014, in-cident that claimed the life of
Santos Alvarez, a child hewas baby-sitting. The sen-tence was handed down byJudge David W. Moranda inMerced Superior Court.The child was struck by a
vehicle Thao was driving.Blood found on the truck’s
tires belongedto the child,Merced policedetectivesconcluded.The circum-
stances aroundexactly howand where thechild was
killed remain a mystery.Thao appears intent on keep-ing the truth to himself, afact the child’s family saysonly compounds the tragedy.Thao has refused to discussthe case with police.“We still don’t know where
it happened,” Detective JoeDeliman said. “Maybe oneday he’ll feel bad enough tomaybe write the mother a
Man gets 9 yearsin toddler’s death
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Defendant pleaded guilty last month to child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3-year-old Santos Alvarez was killed in November 2014. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BY ROB [email protected]
SEE TODDLER, 8A
Jonathan K.Thao
THADDEUS MILLER [email protected]
Hundreds of Merced’s homeless got to use services Friday that they otherwise might have to do without. Dozens ofnonprofits, public agencies and homeless advocates gathered at the American Legion Hall in Merced for the annualHomeless Connect event. Above, 58-year-old Larry Smith of Merced coaches Mimi Backus, a hairstylist from This Is It 4 Hair &Nails in Atwater, on how he’d like his hair cut during the event. Read the story to find out more. 3A
EVENT HELPS HUNDREDS OF MERCED’S HOMELESS
Tenants who voiced theirconcerns chose not to be identi-fied in fear of repercussions,they said.One of the tenants, a 70-year-
old woman, said she has been
feeling anxious ever since shereceived notice of the new pol-icy. Like many of the tenants inthe complex, she lives alone.She doesn’t have family left,and besides her caregiver, noone visits her, she said. Televi-sion and cigarettes are her maininterest.She picked up smoking at the
age of 13. She said she has triedto quit several times, usingpatches, treatments and evenattempting to go cold turkey.But nothing has ever worked.After almost 60 years of smok-ing, she doesn’t believe any-thing will help her quit.The new smoke-free policy,
officials made clear, does notprohibit tenants from smokingoutside the property. Residentscan smoke on a sidewalk offpublic housing grounds, for
Health advocates are cheeringa new policy that will ban smok-ing in public housing in MercedCounty next year, but for long-time smokers who’ve madetheir homes in the subsidizedfacilities, the news is a night-mare.Earlier this year, the Merced
County Housing Authority de-cided to ban smoking indoorsand in outdoor common areason 421 of its housing units.Tenants began receiving noticesthis month about the changethat will take effect on Jan. 1,2016.This week, I sat down with a
few residents in the McDowellManor senior complex locatedon Park Avenue in Merced,operated by the Merced CountyHousing Authority. Many ofthese tenants have been smok-ers for decades, and some havebeen living in public housing for
several years.Smoking in their homes had
never been a problem, theysaid, and they didn’t understandwhy it needed to start being anissue now.
Distressfor publichousingsmokers
LET’S TALK HEALTHBY ANA B. IBARRA
SEE IBARRA , 8A
ANDREW KUHN [email protected]
A resident of the McDowell Manor senior complex on Park Avenue inMerced relaxes with a cigarette outside her apartment.
Grocery chain Haggen asked abankruptcy court for permissionto close 100 stores, including allstores in California, which couldresult in more than 5,000 jobslost in the Southwest alone. 3A
LOCAL
HAGGEN SEEKS OKTO CLOSE STORES