The Californian from Salinas, California • 5

GMfornlan OBITUARIESCALIFORNIA Friday, May 2, 2008 SALINAS Hilda Velez Hilda Velez 82, of Salinas, passed away Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at Salinas Fugitive wants mercy a 1 1 Memorial Hospital She was born Sprit VVW'-I Managua, .1 Nicaragua. Memberships: Hilda was a member and eucharistic minister at St Mary of the Nativity Church in Salinas and a member of St. Mary's Cur-sillo. Survivors: Husband of S3 years, Benjamin Velez of the family home, daughters, Justina (Fidel) Ojeda, of Union City, Antonia (Ray) Davis, of Salinas, Elizabeth Velez, of Salinas, son, Jose Benjamin (Eva) Velez, of Brawlev. sisters.

After 32 years on run, convict seeks a pardon By ALLISON HOFFMAN The Associated Press, SANTEE An attorney for Susan LeFevre, a housewife arrested in California 32 years after escaping a Detroit prison, said Thursday he plans to petition Michigan's Democratic governor to commute the nine years remaining on her sentence. LeFevre, who married and raised three grown children in a posh San Diego suburb as Marie Walsh, has agreed to be extradited back to Michigan to face the consequences of her 1975 guilty plea to drug-trafficking charges. She served one year of her 10-to-20 year sentence before climbing over a fence to meet her waiting grandfather in February 1976. Now 53, she was arrested April 24 outside her home and is being held at a women's jail in San Diego County, where she is bound by handcuffs and a plastic bracelet bearing the identity she never revealed to her husband of 23 years. "Nobody is suggesting that she ought to just be able to walk away from this and have everybody forget, but we now have the benefit of perspective," said Paul Denenfeld, LeFevre's lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich.

"By all indications she's been a good wife and mother and a good community person, so we think that presents extraordinary circumstances and we think that calls for governors to respond in kind." Back to Michigan Michigan state corrections officials said LeFevre would return to Michigan within a few weeks and would be responsible for serving out her sentence. Under laws she was sentenced under in the 1970s, she likely would have to serve at least 5 12 years before being eligible for parole in 2013, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marian. "She's not going to do 10 years," Marian said. State officials do not plan to ask prosecutors in Wayne County, where LeFevre fled the Detroit House of Corrections, to pursue escape charges against her, Marian said. AT A GLAHCE Fugitive Susan LeFevre said she hid her status from her husband and children until agents began actively looking for her late last year.

Federal officials said an anonymous call tipped them to her name and location in March. LeFevre may forfeit good-time credits she earned during her year in prison because she escaped. LeFevre, who trained as a hospice worker and volunteered for political causes in California, said she had tried to live a model life to atone for her past mistakes. "I've tried to be exceptionally good," she told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee. "I wanted to make a life, as Marie, to make a point of being as disciplined as possible." Behavior 'inexcusable' She said her behavior as a teenager, despondent over the death of her high school sweetheart in the Vietnam War, was "inexcusable." The second of five children, she was just 19 when she was arrested with a friend during an undercover drug opera- Delia Gonzalez of San Pedro, Yolanda Alegria, of Tampa, brothers.

Con stantino Solorzano, of Sarasota, Reynaldo THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Susan Marie Lefevre, now known as Marie Walsh, talks about her 32 years as a fugitive during an interview at the Las Colinas Detention Facility Wednesday in Santee. boiorzano, ot Tampa, 15 grandchildren and one great granddaughter. Visitation: From 1 to 5 p.ra, Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4, 2008, at Healey Mortuary. Rosary: 4 p.m., Sunday, May 4, 2008 at Healey Mortuary. Funeral Mass 10 Monday, May 5, 2008, at St Mary of the Nativity Catholic Church, 424 Towt St, Salinas.

Burial: To follow at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Salinas. Arrangements: Healey Mortuary Crematory, www.healeymortuary.com. tion at a pizza parlor outside Sagmaw, in 1974. Michigan corrections officials said investigators at the time believed she was making several thousand dollars a week selling heroin and knew top drug dealers in the area. LeFevre said she supported herself working full-time at a Kmart after moving out of her parents' house.

She said she agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and violation of drug laws to spare her family the embarrassment of a trial and expected to be put on probation. Instead, she was given the maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years. Low Sierra snowpack bad news for California Water shortages possible this summer ger said in a statement "I know that legislative leaders share my goal of comprehensive water reform, but time is running out. The longer we wait, the worse our situation becomes." The Democratic-controlled Legislature has blocked Republican proposals to build dams, favoring increased water conservation measures and water recycling as way to meet the needs of California's population, now at 37.7 million. hydrologic conditions don't yet merit a drought declaration, said Elissa Lynn, chief meteorologist at the Department of Water Resources.

'Although the state's rivers are still low, projections show the average flow from this dry spell will be 15 percent to 20 percent higher than it was between 1987-1992, California's last drought Conservation, dams Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the most recent snow survey underscores his argument that California should conserve more water and build more dams. "These actions are vital to protect our environment, economy and quality of life," Schwarzeneg Officials in Roseville, about 20 miles north of the state capital, issued a drought alert Wednesday because the city is not getting its full allotment of water from Folsom Lake. Officials at the East Bay Municipal Utility District have said water levels are so low that its Board of Directors may have to vote for mandatory water rationing when it meets later this month. Chrisman said it was too early to say whether the state would ask cities and farmers to issue mandatory rationing, but he suggested Californians voluntarily water their lawns less frequently, buy energy-efficient washing machines and low-flush toilets.

Last May, the Sierra snowpack was just 29 percent of normal, the lowest since 1988. Although this year's with a federal judge's order that limits pumping from the delta by as much as 30 percent to protect the delta smelt, a threatened fish species. About 600,000 acre feet of water enough water to supply 4.8 million people for a year has not been pumped as a result of the restrictions, said Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman. The pumping restrictions, last year's drought and this year's dry conditions have left the state's reservoirs lower than normal. Lake Oroville, the state's principal storage reservoir, is less than half fulL 'A rough decade' "It's going to be a rough decade," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.

"You will see mandatory rationing, I believe." Mortgage Problems? SALINAS Stephanie D. Barnett-McDuffy Stephanie D. Barnett-McDuffy, 49, Saturday, April 26, 2008, at Nativi-dad Medical Center. She was born May 26, 1958, in San Francisco. Services: Family services will be held at a later date.

Cremation: To take place. Arrangements: Healey Mortuary Crematory, www.healeymortuary.com. SALINAS Use E. Ray Ilse Ray, 78, of Salinas, passed away Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at Windsor Garden in Salinas. She was born on Jan 22, 1930, in Stuttgart, Germany.

At her request, Isle's ashes will join her beloved husband's, Ravis S. Ray, at the San Francisco National Cemetery, Presidio of San Francisco. No services will be held. Memorials: to donor's favorite charity. Arrangements: Struve and Laporte Chapel Online condolences: www.struveandlaporte.com.

WE REMEMBER Dolores M. Perez, Dec.7, 1938 to April 30, 2005. Wela, we all still yearn for your love so very much. Yet our lives will not be the same. We laugh and joke but it doesn't ease the pain.

There's so much I want to share with you. Jesselle has a daughter. I wanted you to be able to see mine and Alfa's babies. Dad's doing a bit better. Most of all, believe it or not, I miss all the yelling and nagging you do.

Now I find that's what you left here for me, to reasure me iioxx never left me, we all ove you Wela. Luciano 'Chano' Sanchez, May 2, 1988 to Feb. 18, 2006. Chano, I want to wish you a Happy Birthday little Bro. FLOOR COVERING SERVICE I water picture is bleak, ii I By SAMANTHA YOUNG The Associated Press SACRAMENTO The Sierra Nevada snowpack, a key source of California's water supply, has fallen well below normal levels, state officials said Thursday, increasing the likelihood of water shortages this summer.

Department of Water Resources scientists found snowpack water content averaging only 67 percent of normal throughout the 400-mile-long mountain range after the state experienced its driest two-month period on record. Levels were 88 percent of normal in the northern Sierra and about 60 percent of normal in the central and southern regions. Frank Gehrke, the snow survey chief at California's Department of Water Resources, said dry, sunny conditions in March and April melted what was an average snowpack earlier this year. In addition, soils parched from last year's drought are soaking much of the early snowmelt. 'Knock-out punch' "It's a knock-out punch to have that combination," Gehrke told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Echo Summit At the summit just south of Lake Tahoe, scientists measured 3.3 inches of snow in a meadow on Thursday.

That's only 11 percent of what is expected there at this time of FAST, FRIENDLY, RELIABLE tit QUALITY, GUARANTEED WORK LOW COST FREE ESTIMATES yjJSMiMMi) JJUilLUMV Lil-JJ-OiMUiJUllEJ u4 Mommy Makeover Breast Enhancement Tummy Tuck i "1 14 IV I 4 XV year. C1 1 a JT i The amount of water Wish you were here with us. Today you're a running into streams and reservoirs is only 55 percent to 65 percent of normal according to the fig Model i 4. turning iNr i years old. I I want let I 1 vou know ures collected by the After having children, breast enhancement and a tummy ruck can return your shape and improve your figure.

YOU DESERVE TO LOOK AS GOOD AS YOU FEEL! i Department of Water Resources. That's one of the reasons federal and state water Thomas E. Zewert M.D., Ph. D. Board Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery Harvard Trained Luciano 'Chano' that we love Sanchez you and we miss you very much.

Love you and miss you always, your big Sister and your Nephews, Marl, Ivan, Omar, Christian and Mike THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Television cameras record Frank Gehrk, chief of snow survey's for the California Department of Water Resources, right, as he sinks a snow depth measuring pole into a small patch of snow during the the snow survey near Echo Summit on Thursday. The survey revealed that after experiencing it's driest two-month period on record, California's water supply has fallen well below normal levels. Figures at Echo Summit measured 3.3 inches of snow, with a water content of only 1.7 inches, just 11 percent of normal at this location for this time of the year. managers have reduced water exports this year from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California and the Central Valley. o.

Monterey 337 El Dorado St. Ste A-l 644-9800 Salinas Office 424-7800 www.zewertmd.com Water deliveries also have been cut to comply.