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SANJOSE MERCURY NEWS DAILY
A NEWSPAPER
WEATHER PAGE B10
Partly cloudy
H: 67-72 L: 50-54
INDEX
Business ....... B5
Classified B7, C2
Comics ......... B8
Lottery .......... A2
Movies .......... B4
Obituaries .... A9
Opinion ........ A11
People .......... A2
Puzzles ...B4, C6
Roadshow .... A2
Television ..... B8
By Robert Salonga, Julia Prodis Sulek
and Mark Emmons
Staff writers
SAN JOSE Two years after 15-year-old Si-
erra LaMar disappeared on her way to her school
bus stop, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced
Monday he is seeking the death
penalty against the man charged
with kidnapping and killing her.
Despite ongoing volunteer
searches through the creeks and
elds of Morgan Hill, her body has
never been found a fact that
experts say could make a death
penalty verdict difcult to obtain.
At the same time, some are hop-
ing that the specter of execution
could persuade the 22-year-old
suspect handyman and one-
time grocery store clerk Antolin
Garcia-Torres to nally lead
investigators to her body.
This will be the rst death pen-
alty case since Rosen took ofce
in 2011.
Given the facts of this case and after a com-
prehensive review by a committee of senior pros-
ecutors, I have concluded that this defendant
KIDNAPPING AND KILLING
Sierra
suspect
facing
death
DAto seek ultimate penalty
against 22-year-old man
despite absence of teens body
By Eric Tucker
Associated Press
WASHINGTONAccusing China of
vast business spying, the United States
charged ve military ofcials on Mon-
day with hacking into U.S. companies to
steal vital trade secrets in a case inten-
sifying already-rising tensions between
the international economic giants.
The Chinese targeted big-name
American makers of nuclear and solar
technology, stealing condential busi-
ness information, sensitive trade secrets
U.S. charges Chinese officials
with stealing vital trade secrets
CYBERSPYING CASE
(A companys
success should
not be based)
on a sponsor
governments
ability to spy
and steal
business
secrets.
Attorney General
Eric Holder, left
Sierra
Garcia-
Torres
See SIERRA, Page 8
See CHINA, Page 7
One million gallons
lls approximately
1
1
/3 pools.
2.1 million
gallons
Tee boxes
19 million
gallons
Fairways
20.9 million
gallons
Roughs
2.3 million
gallons
Greens
Because of Californias severe drought, golf courses across the state are being forced to cut water use by as much as 50 percent.
So golf course operators are now performingtriage saving the greens but letting the roughs, tee boxes and even some
fairways go brown. Here is the amount of water used per year on an average 18-hole golf course.
Fewer drinks for the links
1. Greens
2. Fairways
3. Tee boxes
4. Roughs
Source: Golf Course Superintendents Association of America BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Priority
Figures do not include practice areas and
clubhouse grounds, which on average are irrigated
with 3.5 million gallons and 2.2 million gallons, respectively.
All gures are for the Northern California coastal region.
Astandard Olympic swimming pool
contains about 660,000 gallons.
Howmuch water is 1 million gallons?
Olympic
pool
Howare courses
watered during
a drought?
DROUGHT LANDS GOLF COURSES INWATERTRAP
By Nicholas St. Fleur
nsteur1@mercurynews.com
Gripping a hose, Robert Hirsch, a
maintenance worker at DeLaveaga
Golf Course in Santa Cruz, sprays a
dry patch of grass, several feet away
from a lush green where a group of
golfers practice chipping with their
9-irons .
In another month, all of this
will be brown, Hirsch says as he
splashes another withered spot.
Were going to sacrice some fair-
ways.
DeLaveaga is just one of hun-
dreds of golf courses across the
state girding for an especially long,
dry summer in the third year of Cal-
ifornias historic drought. In an ef-
fort to save water, Hirsch and other
workers are watering more by hand
and cutting back on indiscriminate
sprinkling. For many courses, con-
serving means using more recycled
water and modernizing irrigation
systems and all the while try-
ing to convince golfers that when
BROWNIS THE
NEWGREEN
Handicap: As water districts order course
operators to cut water use up to 50 percent,
many nd themselves sacricing fairways
PATRICKTEHAN/STAFF
Steve Naas hand waters a green at DeLaveaga Golf Course in Santa
Cruz, a practice many courses are implementing to save water. See WATER, Page 8
By Troy Wolverton
twolverton@mercurynews.com
With two planned megamergers threatening
to further reduce competition in the pay-TV in-
dustry, consumer advocates have been looking
for a way to shoot down the deals. A new report
on industry pricing may have
given them some needed am-
munition.
The Federal Communica-
tions Commission late last
week quietly released a re-
port documenting that yet
again the average pay-TV
bill grew faster than ination in 2012. In addition,
the FCC report noted that cable-related equip-
ment prices, such as monthly fees for DVRs, also
outpaced ination.
Consumers continue to see price hikes and
lousy service, said Delara Derakhshani, policy
counsel at Consumers Union, the public advocacy
group that publishes Consumer Reports.
MEGAMERGERS UNDER FIRE
FCC spells out
relentless rise
in pay-TV fees
Cost of service has outpaced ination
for nearly 20 years, regulator reports
IN BUSINESS
Congressional
committee sets
hearings to exam-
ine AT&T-DirecTV
merger. PAGE B5
See CABLE, Page 8
ALLYOU NEED
is KevinLove, the star the Warriors need to pursue SPORTS
Study: BayAreamorelikely to see cluster of mid-sized quakes than another BigOne LOCAL
A8 BAYAREANEWS GROUP 111 TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014
should face the ultimate
penalty, Rosen said in a
brief statement Monday.
Garcia-Torres alleged
history of attacking other
women contributed to
Rosens decision, he said.
After Garcia-Torres was
charged in Sierras disap-
pearance, he was charged
with attempting to kidnap
and carjack three other
women in separate in-
stances four years earlier,
when he worked at the
Morgan Hill Safeway and
allegedly preyed on the
women in the parking lot.
After being indicted by
a grand jury in February,
Garcia-Torres pleaded not
guilty to all the charges,
including kidnapping and
murdering Sierra. The Al-
ternate Defenders Ofce,
which is representing him,
expressed disappointment
in Rosens decision, saying
it is a missing person case,
not a homicide. The case
does not appear to meet
any objective criteria for
seeking death nor do they
appear to match in any
manner the facts and cir-
cumstances of other cases
in this county where the
district attorneyhas sought
death, the ofce said in a
statement.
The LaMar family, how-
ever, supports Rosens
decision, Sierras father,
Steve LaMar, and cousin,
Keith LaMar, said Monday.
Were glad the DA
has chosen to do the right
thing, Keith LaMar said.
I dont personally feel so-
ciety would be safe with
someone like that back in
it.
Several members of the
LaMar family either met
with one of Rosens depu-
ties or joined a conference
call about two or three
weeks ago to discuss the
death penalty possibility.
All but one cousin, who was
torn, supported the deci-
sion, Rosen said.
Keith LaMar also said
Rosen made it clear that
pursuing the death penalty
is not intended to be a bar-
gaining chip to persuade
Garcia-Torres to lead au-
thorities to her body.
Someone in the fam-
ily asked, would the DA
use that is that one of
the factors? Keith LaMar
said. Rosen responded,
Absolutely not.
But Marc Klaas, founder
of the KlaasKids Founda-
tion and who has helped
extensively with the ongo-
ing search effort for Sierra,
said Rosens decision could
put needed pressure on
Garcia-Torres.
Its obviously going to
be a long, hard slog trying
to get a jury to recommend
execution when you dont
have a body, said Klaas,
whose daughter, Polly,
was kidnapped and killed
in Petaluma in 1993. But
perhaps this individual un-
derstands now how serious
the DAis and would be will-
ing to make a deal to bring
Sierra home.
Obtaining the death
penalty without a victims
body is rare but not with-
out precedent in Santa
Clara County: Mark Chris-
topher Crew is on death
row for killing wife Nancy
Jo Crew in 1982, where
Crew and an accomplice
chopped off his wifes head
and stuffed her body into a
55-gallon drum lled with
cement, but the remains
were never found.
Sierra vanished March
16, 2012, as she was walk-
ing to the bus stop near
her home in an unincorpo-
rated, rural area just north
of Morgan Hill. Garcia-Tor-
res DNA was found on ar-
ticles of Sierras clothing
found two days after she
disappeared, folded in her
Juicy-brand bag and tossed
into a eld near her home.
Sierras DNA was also
found in the suspects red
Volkswagen Jetta.
Rosens decision to
pursue the death penalty
against Garcia-Torres
comes after declining to do
so in six previous eligible
cases.
But the lack of a body
will present signicant
challenges, said Steven
Clark, a criminal-defense
attorney and former Santa
Clara County prosecutor.
Theres a certain level
of depravity that goes with
a successful death penalty
case, where you can de-
tail what the victim went
through, Clark said. The
jurors are appalled by and
decide that person should
no longer be in society.
Even now, between 20
and 30 volunteer searchers
continue to scour creeks,
woods and elds through-
out the South County ev-
ery Saturday, looking for
Sierra.
As a family member
whos lost someone, its
hard to describe, Steve
LaMar said. Holding out
that hope is just something
that you do.
Staff writer Mark Gomez
contributed to this report.
Contact Robert Salonga at
rsalonga@mercurynews.
com. Contact Julia
Prodis Sulek at jsulek@
mercurynews.com.
Sierra
Continued fromPage 1
Mother Nature turns off the
water spigot, brown is the
newgreen.
Northern California golf
courses like DeLaveaga use
about 140,000 gallons of
water per day, according to
the Golf Course Superinten-
dents Association of Amer-
ica. Thats roughly the same
amount of water a family of
four uses in a year.
But now golf courses
across the state are being
forced by water districts to
cut water use by as much as
50 percent. So golf course
operators are perform-
ing triage and setting
strict priorities saving
the greens and letting the
roughs and even some fair-
ways go dry.
Thats only right, said
Jennifer Clary, a policy ana-
lyst in the Oakland ofce of
Clean Water Action, a na-
tional water conservation
group.
You walk past a green
lawn during a drought and
you wonder, Why is that
person wasting water? A
golf course is just one big
green lawn, she said. We
live in a desert and golf
courses that look like they
belong in Scotland are not
what you should have in a
dry climate like this.
Golf course ofcials are
the rst to acknowledge the
image problem.
A lot of people see us
as a big water user, said
Jeff Jensen, the Southwest
regional eld representa-
tive with the superinten-
dents association. But
while were in the business
of growing grass for recre-
ational purposes, we want
to be a leader in water con-
servation efforts.
Golf courses account for
less than 1 percent of the
freshwater useinCalifornia,
whilehomes, businesses and
industry use roughly 20 per-
cent, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. Farmers
use almost 80 percent.
Like the overwhelming
majority of Californias
1,100 courses, DeLaveaga
does not use recycled wa-
ter. As of 2009, only 14
percent of the total water
used on golf courses had
been reclaimed, according
to the California Alliance
for Golf.
But Jensen said his or-
ganization is hoping that
number will soon blossom.
The group now has several
task forces aimed at iden-
tifying which golf courses
could switch to recycled
water. Water providers in
Coachella Valley in South-
ern California, for instance,
recently gave a $5.2 million
grant to six golf courses to
get them hooked up to re-
claimed water by the end of
summer.
Recycled water is waste-
water that is not treated to
meet drinking standards
but is suitable for landscap-
ing and agricultural irriga-
tion.
Jensen said golf course
ofcials are also looking
at creating more efcient
sprinkler systems and turf
reduction programs tak-
ing out the nonessential ir-
rigated acres.
Poppy Hills in Pebble
Beach, which uses only re-
cycled water for irrigation,
also just spent $3 million to
improve its sprinklers.
I think all golf course
owners are committed to
using recycled water, said
Brad Shupe, Poppy Hills
general manager. But its
not as simple as Yes, well
irrigate with reclaimed wa-
ter.
Converting from using
potable water to treated
wastewater is a slow, ex-
pensive process. The piping
alone can cost as much as $1
million per mile and of-
ten also involves hundreds
of millions of dollars of new
infrastructure, Shupe said.
He said in many areas there
simply is no reclaimed wa-
ter available.
The less potable water
we use, the better. Thats
a no-brainer, said Gary
Ingram, superintendent at
Metropolitan Golf Links
in Oakland. But theres
just not enough piping out
there.
So if the new normal
means browner golf courses,
golfers have varying views
on the future of the game in
California.
At DeLaveaga, David Sa-
lac, a golfer of 30 years from
San Jose, said he would
prefer not seeing too much
brown which he fears will
change the feel of the game.
Part of golf is the beauty
of the scenery, he said. If
you got dead grass, its just
not pretty.
But Salac may be in the
minority of golfers. In one
survey by Golf Digest, 74
percent of golfers said they
should be willing to play on
brown grass during times of
lowrainfall.
A bit of brown doesnt
bother Jack Sanchez, 64,
of Santa Cruz, who has
been golng with his work-
mates at DeLaveaga every
Wednesday afternoon for
the last 20 years.
As long as youve got
18 holes, he said, thats all
that matters to me.
Contact Nicholas St. Fleur
at 408-920-5064.
ONLINE EXTRA
Scan this code
to viewa photo
gallery or see it
at http://photos.
mercurynews.com.
Read more drought cover-
age at www.mercurynews.
com/drought.
PATRICKTEHAN/STAFF
Terry Crabtree, left, and David Salac play at DeLaveaga in Santa Cruz. Salac worries water conservation will change the feel of the game.
Part of golf is the beauty of the scenery. If you got dead grass, its just not pretty.
Water
Continued fromPage 1
But pay-TV operators
have argued that rising con-
tent costs the amounts
they pay companies such
as Disney to carry chan-
nels largely explain the
rate hikes. And as noted in
the FCC report, the pay-TV
operators have consistently
added channels to their of-
ferings at a faster pace than
their prices have risen. For
example, expanded basic
customers had access to
about 160 channels last
year, up from about 150 the
year before, according to
the report.
The FCC report on pay-
TV bills, which the agency
is required to issue annually
under the 1992 Cable Act,
comes as federal regula-
tors are about to weigh the
merits of two mergers that
would reshape the pay-TV
industry. Over the week-
end, AT&T announced
plans to buy DirecTV, the
largest satellite television
company, in a $67 billion
deal that would make the
combined entity the nations
largest pay-TV company.
Earlier this year, Comcast,
the largest cable company,
announced plans to acquire
Time Warner Cable, the No.
2 player, for $45 billion.
Both deals would require
FCC approval. In reviewing
such mergers, the commis-
sion is charged with deter-
mining whether they would
serve the public interest.
That makes the latest fee
report important, because
it gives consumer advocates
evidence to bolster their ar-
gument that the last thing
the industry needs is less
competition.
The report comes from
a survey of pay-TV opera-
tors, including traditional
cable companies, satellite
TV operators, telephone
companies such as AT&T
that offer pay-TV services
and companies such as RCN
that offer competing cable
services in some markets.
According to the survey,
the average monthly cost of
basic cable, the most popu-
lar service level, jumped 6.5
percent in 2012 to $22.63.
The cost of expanded ba-
sic service, which typically
includes many of the most
popular cable networks,
rose 5.1 percent to $64.41 a
month.
Meanwhile, basic cable
consumers paid an average
of $7.55 a month for equip-
ment such as set-top boxes
andDVRs in2012, up4.4 per-
cent fromthe previous year.
Expanded basic customers
saw their equipment charge
rise 4.2 percent to $7.70.
By contrast, ination in
2012, which is the most re-
cent for which the FCC has
compiled data, was just 1.6
percent.
On its face, competition
didnt appear to help keep
prices in check. In 2012, cus-
tomers of cable companies
in markets the FCC dubbed
competitive paid $65.64 a
month for expanded basic
cable service, up 6 percent
from 2011. Expanded basic
subscribers whose only real
choice was the local cable
company paid $63.03 a
month, up 4.6 percent from
the year before.
Consumer advocates
say thats an argument for
greater competition or
more regulatory scrutiny.
Part of the reason cable
rates rose faster in compet-
itive markets is that cable
companies in those markets
arent subject to price caps
and can charge what they
think the market will bear.
Pay-TV service prices
have consistently grown
faster than ination since
the FCCbegan issuing these
reports nearly 20 years ago.
Costs of basic, expanded ba-
sic and the next-most-popu-
lar tier of service have risen
at average annual clips of
4.3 percent, 6.1 percent and
5.1 percent, respectively. In-
ation has grown at an av-
erage annual pace of just 2.4
percent over that period.
Representatives for
Comcast were not avail-
able for comment. Repre-
sentatives of AT&T, Dish
Network and DirecTV did
not respond to requests for
comment.
However, their previous
explanations for the price
hikes and moves havent
mollied many custom-
ers. Pay-TV operators as
a whole lost about 105,000
subscribers last year.
Robin Wolaner, a 60-
year-old San Francisco resi-
dent, hasnt cut the cord, but
said she feels foolish paying
around $200 each month to
Comcast.
I feel bad about it every
time I write a check, said
Wolaner, CEO of Vittana, a
nonprot that provides stu-
dent loans in the developing
world. I never have time to
watch half of what I record.
Cable
Continued fromPage 1
While were in the business of growing
grass for recreational purposes,
we want to be a leader in water
conservation efforts.
Jeff Jensen,
Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
GARYREYES/STAFFARCHIVES
Antolin Garcia-Torres, 22, during his arraignment on
charges in the death of Sierra LaMar at Santa Clara
County Superior Court in San Jose on Feb. 13 .
By Jeff Amy
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss.
A Mississippi man who
pleaded guilty to sending
letters dusted with the
poison ricin to President
Barack Obama and other
ofcials was sentenced
Monday to 25 years in
prison.
JamesEverettDutschke
was sentenced by U.S.
District Judge Sharion
Aycock in Aberdeen after
telling the judge May 13
that he had changed his
mind about wanting to
withdraw his guilty plea in
the case.
He also was sentenced
to ve years of supervised
release and remains in fed-
eral custody.
Dutschke, who waived
his right to appeal, wasnt
ned or ordered to pay res-
titution because he doesnt
have enough money, fed-
eral prosecutor Chad La-
mar said.
Unlike last week,
Dutschke said little and al-
lowed his lawyer to do the
talking, Lamar said.
The 42-year-old Tupelo
resident sent the letters to
Obama, Republican U.S.
Sen. Roger Wicker and
Mississippi Judge Sadie
Holland in what prosecu-
tors have said was an elab-
orate plot to frame a rival,
Paul Kevin Curtis. Poi-
soned letters addressed to
Obama and Wicker were
intercepted before deliv-
ery, but one letter reached
Holland. She was not
harmed.
The sentencing remains
set for May 27.
Man gets 25 years for mailing ricin to Obama