Still no charges in 2004 Jenner double slaying as Forestville suspect to appear in court

A Forestville man named by sheriff’s officials 11 months ago as the lone suspect in the 2004 shooting deaths of a young Midwestern couple slain while camping on a Jenner beach has yet to be charged in the case.

Shaun Michael Gallon, 39, who remains in jail on suspicion of killing his brother, Shamus Gallon, shared information with investigators last year that then-Sheriff Steve Freitas said pinpointed him as the killer of Lindsay Cutshall, 22, and her fiance, Jason Allen, 26.

But the District Attorney’s Office has yet to charge Gallon with the couple’s murder, and Sonoma County Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi expressed profound doubts Thursday about his involvement, despite a criminal past that includes prison time for firing an arrow into an occupied car and current allegations in his younger brother’s death.

“I am absolutely, unequivocally not convinced that Shaun Gallon had anything to do with the Jenner killing,” Pozzi said in an interview.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady said his office hopes to make a decision about filing charges in the double homicide by the time Gallon next appears in court, May 14. But prosecutors are still awaiting some investigative reports from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, and until they’re in hand “we can’t make that decision,” Brady said.

Even the pre-existing case involving the death of Gallon’s younger brother appears at a standstill.

Shaun Gallon has repeatedly waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing in that case, and did so again Thursday morning. His attorney, ?Deputy Public Defender ?Lynnette Brown and Pozzi, her boss, declined to discuss why. A preliminary hearing is a criminal proceeding in which prosecutors must show sufficient evidence to bring a defendant to trial.

But with Gallon jailed, “the community is safe, (and) he is safe,” Pozzi said. And with the Jenner homicide still uncharged and under continued investigation, “we’re just kind of in a holding pattern,” she said.

Shaun Gallon grew up along the Russian River and is well known to authorities, though his profile was elevated with the 2009 incident in which he fired a homemade arrow from a third-floor balcony of his home and through the roof of a car. The arrow struck one of its occupants in the head, though the wound was not serious.

Gallon was convicted the next year of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to three years ?in prison.

He already was on the radar of detectives investigating the deaths of Allen and Cutshall in August 2010, sheriff’s officials had said.

The two Christian camp counselors were shot in the head at close range while they slept on a remote beach during a break from work in the Sierra Nevada for reasons still unknown.

Gallon was arrested six days later on weapons and stolen property charges that were later dropped.

But his name was never deleted from a list of potential suspects in the double homicide, Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Duke said last year, though just what made him a likely suspect is unclear.

Then last March, Shamus Gallon, 36, was gunned down during a confrontation with his brother at their mother’s River Road home, where both resided at the time.

Shaun Gallon was later arrested and charged, and has pleaded not guilty.

Detectives informed him after his arrest in his brother’s death that they wanted to talk to him about another case, and Gallon eventually directed them to “articles of evidence” that only someone involved in the Jenner homicide would know about, officials said.

“We are confident we have Jason and Lindsay’s killer,” Freitas said last May, announcing a break in the case after a painful 13 years in which the murders remained unsolved.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum, a department spokesman, said Thursday detectives “absolutely” believe Gallon killed the Jenner couple.

Pozzi, who as a deputy public defender once represented Gallon, met with him upon his arrest in his brother’s slaying and said she has yet to see any evidence linking him to the Jenner incident.

Brady said his office is working closely with sheriff’s investigators so that prosecutors can make a decision about charging the case, possibly next month, though there’s no guarantee.