Clearlake police blame pot for city’s record 2015 homicide rate

Homicides in Clearlake reached a record in 2015, a number law enforcement officials blame largely on the area’s rampant, illegal marijuana production.

The killings pushed Lake County’s overall homicide numbers to the highest in at least a decade.

Six of the county’s eight homicides last year occurred in Clearlake, the county’s largest and poorest city. Marijuana cultivation was in some way associated with five of those deaths, police said. There were six Lake County homicides in 2014.

While the number of Lake County homicides last year is still relatively low, Sonoma County, which has more than seven times as many residents, had nine. The number of 2015 homicides in Mendocino County - six - was the same as in 2014.

Statewide, there were 1,861 homicides reported in 2015, an increase of 9.7 percent, according to a recent report on homicides by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Clearlake is a 10.6-square-mile city with some 15,000 residents, an estimated 35 percent of whom live below the poverty level, according to U.S. Census data.

The 2015 Clearlake homicides include one at a house where 50 marijuana plants were being grown, and a double homicide at a second house, after which police found 2 pounds of marijuana in the car of a man fleeing the scene. In the latter case, Clearlake police said the shooting deaths were triggered by a dispute over a marijuana transaction and a debt.

“There’s a plethora of criminal activity associated with the commercial growing of marijuana,” said acting police Chief Tim Celli, including armed robberies, home invasions and kidnappings.

In addition, a Clearlake man held two women at gunpoint over a marijuana disagreement in October, police said. The suspect was wounded by police gunfire during the incident.

Marijuana also has been associated with a slew of citizen complaints about smell, traffic and people abandoning trailers and dogs after the growing season is over, Celli said.

Lake County for years has been a hot spot for illegal marijuana production, based on the number of plants eradicated annually by the state’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, which focuses on large pot operations, many of them on public lands. In 2014, Lake County ranked second among California counties, with 86,635 plants seized just during the summer and fall outdoor harvest season.

Marijuana growing has flourished in Clearlake, in part because the city until recently lacked clear rules, Celli said.

This year, Clearlake police have been cracking down on illegal pot growing, eradicating thousands of plants at a time from multiple locations. Nearly 50,000 plants have been seized in the city limits since March, Celli said. At the same time, the city has implemented a permit process for legal, medical marijuana growers.

This year, there has been just one homicide, where a police officer shot and killed a suspected burglar during a struggle.

“We’re hopeful our efforts are making a difference. I don’t know that for sure,” Celli said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter