The State - News from Feb. 6, 1989

The man accused of fatally shooting a 13-year-old newspaper carrier in San Pablo was “hung over” from a two-day cocaine binge when he pulled the trigger, police said. Henry J. Bookout, 25, cashed a welfare check and bought $160 worth of the drug from a north Richmond drug dealer, said Police Chief David Sylstra. Two days later, Bookout allegedly fired a single pistol shot at Salvador Roberts after the seventh-grader came to Bookout’s mobile home to collect for the West County Times, police said. “He said he was hung over” from smoking crack cocaine and believed Roberts was a prowler, Sylstra said. Bookout, who was being held in the Contra Costa County jail, works for Rubicon Programs in Richmond, a nonprofit community group that helps mentally ill or physically disabled people find jobs and housing.