4th man arrested in Laytonville pot slaying

A fugitive in a Mendocino County pot farm slaying who said he was “tired of running” turned himself in to authorities at the Mexican border, a sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday.

Michael Andrew Kane, 26, of Pleasantville, New York, surrendered Monday in the Nov. 11 killing of Jeffrey Quinn Settler, 35, on remote property near Laytonville.

Kane, one of seven suspects in the beating and stabbing death, had been a fugitive in Mexico and reached out to family members for help giving himself up, said Sgt. Andrew Porter.

He was interviewed by Mendocino County detectives in San Diego before being taken to the North Coast for prosecution.

“He was at wit’s end for taking care of himself,” said Detective Matt Croskey, who interviewed Kane at San Ysidro before bringing him to Mendocino County.

Kane is the fourth of seven suspects to be arrested. Still at large are Frederick Gaestel, 27, of Clifton, New Jersey; Gary Blank III, 34, of Garberville and Jesse Wells, 33, of Laytonville.

All are suspected of being marijuana trimmers for Settler, a father of three, who family members said had been growing marijuana in Laytonville for about 10 years.

He hired the men to help prepare his crop at harvest, a time when so-called “trimmigrants” flood the Emerald Triangle pot-growing region in search of work. Detectives believe the men surprised Settler as he was asleep in a shed on the property. He fought back in the assault, which ended in him being hit with a blunt object and having his throat slashed.

Investigators said the suspects fled in two cars with about 100 pounds of weed.

Zachary Ryan Wuester, 24, of Haskell, New Jersey, and Gary “Giggles” Lynn Fitzgerald, 23, of Roanoke, Illinois, surrendered separately in Mendocino County in November. Abdirahman Mohamed, 28, of San Diego was arrested in December in his hometown.

All have been charged with murder.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@ppayne.