The Murder of Jessyca Arro

A preliminary hearing began Tuesday for a Stockton man accused of kidnapping and killing an 18-year-old woman a year and a half ago.
Richard Potts, 28, is charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Jessyca Arro, whose body was found June 17, 2006, floating in Windmill Cove west of Stockton. It was the day after her family and friends last saw the young mother alive. The charges make Potts eligible for the death penalty if he is found guilty on all counts. Prosecutors have not said yet if they will seek the death penalty. "I'm relieved to finally be going ahead with the prelim," San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Valli Israels said outside of court. "This is a steppingstone before the trial." Israels said the case has had to overcome repeated delays in order for the hearing to begin. Attorneys wrangled over evidence, it took time to get a courtroom, and inmates last month were quarantined due to illness at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution, where Potts is being held. The hearing is expected to end Thursday, and San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss will decide then if Potts will stand trial before a jury. Potts remains in custody at Deuel. Potts sat quietly during Tuesday's hearing, listening to the testimony of Arro's friends and Potts' former girlfriend. Israels said in court that semen tied Potts to the case, but witnesses she called Monday to testify against Potts told the story of Arro's last day alive. No testimony about DNA was given Tuesday. Samantha Altieri testified that Arro, a close friend, wanted to leave a small late-night party after feeling guilty for having sex with a man who was not her boyfriend. Nobody at the house could give her a ride home because they were drinking, Altieri said.
"She made it clear that she wanted to leave," said Altieri, who went to sleep. Arro was gone when Altieri woke the next morning. Arro apparently left on her own, Altieri said, adding that Arro never mentioned knowing any friends named Richard Potts. Bridget Witbeck, Potts' former girlfriend, testified that in June 2006, she guided Potts in his Toyota Camry to a levee road west of Stockton where the couple could spend some time together smoking marijuana and having sex. Arro's body was found in nearby Windmill Cove.

A jury found Richard Potts, 29, guilty of first-degree murder plus the special circumstances of kidnapping and rape in the death of Jessyca Arro, whose body was left on levee rocks in 2006 at Windmill Cove, west of Stockton.
DNA in semen recovered from her body and cell phone records linked Potts to the crime. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss, who oversaw the trial and sentenced Potts, described the murder as "cruel and sadistic." Dawn Arro, the victim's mother, read a statement in court, saying Jessyca Arro's young son, who was not in court, knows that Potts killed his mother. "Your honor, Kristofer Holste is only 5 years old, but he knows (Potts) should never get out of prison for what he did," Dawn Arro said. "She will forever be the queen of Kristofer's heart." For the killing, Potts received a prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole. He had served a previous prison sentence on a manslaughter conviction for killing another girl before Arro's death. On top of that, Van Oss sentenced Potts to 11 years, four months in prison for Potts' brazen escape May 27, 2008, from the Courthouse. He tried to carjack a woman, but civilians subdued him a couple of blocks away. "It seems like the defendant is preying on members of this community," San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Valli Israels said. Before the sentencing, Potts tried to persuade the judge to give him a new trial and a new attorney. Van Oss denied those motions.

Kenneth Felchle

Kenneth Felchle was last seen alive on April 4, 2008 around 10:30 p.m. on foot in the area of Cardinal and Elvin Avenue in Stockton. On April 11, 2008 his body was found in a cannel near Fremont and Cardinal Avenue. The police suspect foul play into his death. This case remains unsolved and the family needs answers.
If you have any information concerning this case please contact Detective Paul Mear of the San Joaquin Police Department at 209-468-4403

  

News article found on recordnet.com on May 4, 2013

When the body of 17-year-old Kenneth Felchle was pulled from the shallow, murky water of the Stockton Diverting Canal at Fremont Street, a keening sounded from friends and relatives gathered behind a chain-link fence on the west side of the canal. “It’s B.J.” someone said, calling Felchle by his nickname. Felchle, who was last seen by his family a week earlier, was reported missing to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday. His body was spotted by passers-by around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

He was found about 18 feet from the canal’s east bank, just north of the Fremont Street bridge, Deputy Dave Konecny, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said. The Sheriff’s Office was withholding Felchle’s name until his family had been notified. But several of Felchle’s relatives and friends at the scene, and Felchle’s mother, Tammy Morrow, confirmed his was the body recovered from the Delta. Reached at her home Friday evening, Morrow said she was overwhelmed with grief and gave the phone to a friend, who asked to remain unidentified but fielded questions on Morrow’s behalf. Felchle grew up in Stockton and briefly attended Franklin High School before moving to American Canyon, in southern Napa County.

He and his girlfriend, Brittany Smithson, 18, returned to Stockton a few months ago and moved in with Morrow in the neighborhood around Cardinal Avenue north of Main Street, Smithson said. An avid athlete, Felchle hoped to play varsity football in Stockton once he had enrolled in school here, Morrow’s friend said. He and Smithson had both been working hard and looking forward to starting a family together, she added. Smithson, leaning into the chain-link fence and staring into the water, said she recognized Felchle by his clothing – blue jeans and a brown shirt, the same clothing described in a flier his family had distributed days earlier. Terri Kyes, who had once been married to Felchle’s father, said the young man was dearly loved in her home.

She still considered herself Felchle’s stepmother, and he was like a little brother to her daughters. “He comes over all the time,” she said. Kyes, Smithson and others among Felchle’s friends and relatives are convinced his death was not an accident, but his mother, through her spokeswoman, said she didn’t want to speculate. As investigators surveyed the scene where Felchle was found, a shoving match broke out between two groups of young men nearby when one of them accused another of knowing something about Felchle’s death.

Deputies interrupted the dispute before punches were thrown, and the crowd dispersed. The Sheriff’s Office did not have any information to release Friday night about the cause or circumstances of Felchle’s death. It was still too early in the investigation, Konecny said. Felchle’s mother said she was grateful to those who helped in the search for her son and asked that her privacy be respected during her period of grief.

Reporter Christian Burkin at (209) 546-8279 or cburkin@recordnet.com.