Suspect Seeks Deputy’s Aid, Is Arrested

A Calaveras County man, sought for investigation of murder, was arrested after his car ran out of gas and he appeared at the house of an off-duty sheriff’s officer seeking a ride, authorities said.

Bruce Allen Smedley, 18, was being held Saturday in the Calaveras County Jail without bail for investigation into the fatal shooting of Lala Hendricks, 44, of San Francisco, authorities said. He will be arraigned on the charge Monday in Calaveras County Justice Court, said Sheriff’s Detective Norm Varain.

The body of Hendricks, also known as Lala Aiken, was found Thursday evening with a gunshot wound to the head in her cabin near Mountain Ranch, a rural foothill area east of Stockton. Varain said she was living at a mining claim owned by her common-law husband, a merchant seaman.

Varain said Smedley told neighbors he murdered Hendricks earlier Thursday and related the same story to sheriff’s detectives. Varain said he could not release details of Smedley’s conversations, but said the two were not involved in an argument or a romantic relationship.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Warren Redman said Smedley left the crime scene near Cowbell Mine sometime Thursday night in his car but ran out of gas on California 4 about 10 miles west of San Andreas. The man showed up at the home of an off-duty sheriff’s lieutenant asking for a ride to a gas station.

“That was sheer coincidence. He did not know it was the officer’s house,” Redman said.