Topaz Ranch Estates man denies assault

Staff Reports

A Topaz Ranch Estates man denied in court on Wednesday that he tried to kill his live-in girlfriend.

Terrence Joseph Howell, 51, is being held on $50,000 cash bail on charges of attempted murder and two other felonies after he was arrested by Douglas County's Special Weapons and Tactics team on Dec. 21.

Howell asked Justice of the Peace Jim EnEarl to release him on his own recognizance.

"This whole thing is a fiasco," he said. "I didn't try to kill anyone."

Howell said he was trying to hire an attorney to defend him, but he was out of town for the holidays. Howell waived his right to a preliminary hearing within 15 days after EnEarl promised he would set the hearing date for the earliest time possible. EnEarl ordered bail remain the same.

The victim told deputies Howell tried to kill her by forcing her to take Vicodin at knifepoint.

n A California man was allowed to post bail on Wednesday after he spent Christmas in jail for possession of a stolen vehicle.

James Christopher Headrick, 47, of Salida, Calif., was arrested at 2:25 p.m. Dec. 23, in Minden, after the owners of a Penske flatbed truck he was renting reported it stolen.

According to the Sheriff's report, Headrick leased the truck for his firewood business, but failed to make the payments. Employees of the Sparks firm who leased him the truck learned that he would be at his place of business at Highway 88 and Centerville Lane on Dec. 23 and decided to see if he had the truck. When they spotted it, they contacted deputies.

Headrick was taken into custody for possession of the stolen vehicle, paraphernalia found inside the truck and a warrant from Sparks.

When he appeared in East Fork Justice Court on Wednesday, Headrick said the brass fitting with marijuana residue must have belonged to one of his employees. He said his bank switched his credit card and that was why he missed the truck payment.

Headrick was arrested with $2,291 in cash. EnEarl reduced bail to $1,500 cash. The judge also ordered some of the cash used to settle Headrick's warrant.

n A trap set for an automatic teller machine mechanic may have been thwarted early Wednesday morning.

Authorities were contacted at about 12:20 a.m. by a security officer dispatched to the Indian Hills Bank of America to provide protection to the ATM mechanic.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, one of the ATMs at the bank had been jammed by an old receipt. The security officer, who arrived before the technician, reported seeing a white male adult in a red and silver extended cab pickup loitering near the bank for 20 minutes.

The license plate on the pickup did not match any in Nevada's database.

According to the report, a similar incident occurred in Las Vegas where the bandit successfully ambushed the mechanic who came to fix the machine.