Another participant in South Lake Tahoe murder heads to prison

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - One day before the victim would have turned 46, another one of those involved in the murder of Dennis "Spike" Wright is heading to prison for at least the next 15 years.

Andrew Adams has been in the El Dorado County Jail since his arrest by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on September 15, 2016 in his hometown of Suisun City, Calif. He was 25-years-old at the time of his arrest for Wright's murder.

Adams' trial was set to being August 3, but instead he entered a guilty plea on July 12. The District Attorney's office had negotiated a plea with Adams for 2nd Degree Murder which carried with it the statutory sentence of 15 years-to-life. Since the murder happened during a robbery, Adams faced much longer.

"I think you Mr Adams did the right thing," said Judge Suzanne Kingsbury of his guilty plea.

It was a snowy night on January 30, 2016, when Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. brought at least 100 pounds of marijuana to the Beverly Lodge on Lake Tahoe Boulevard to sell to an interested party. Wright, who was better known as Spike, never made it back to his home in River Pines, Amador County that night.

Instead, he was shot and killed in an attempted robbery at about 7:45 p.m. in the parking lot of the motel.

It's been five years, six months and six days since Spike died, but through all of the numerous court hearings for all of the defendants, his mother Janet Wright has not missed a day in Judge Kingbury's court room.

At Friday's sentencing, Janet brought a life-size cutout photo of her and Spike during happier times.

"This is a picture of him working towards his dream, a dream you took away," she told Adams during the portion of court proceedings allowing victims to give a statement.

In an emotional series of statements from family, the story of the son, brother, husband, uncle, cousin and friend was told. They told of the avid outdoorsman and sportsman who would do anything for anybody.

Looking at Adams, Spike's wife Kendra Ghiorso said how Spike’s birthday is Saturday, "another birthday we cannot spend with him, we cannot sing happy birthday, we cannot watch him open gifts." Ghiorso was with Spike at the time of his death. She was hit on the head with a pistol and had her purse stolen. Adams was changed in that crime too, and the five-year sentence will be served concurrently with the bigger term.

"You watched from the back seat of that car, you could have stopped it, you sat in that back and watched," said Janet to Adams of his role in her son's murder. "For five years and seven months I’ve watched you sitting around. Your 'no contest' is a slap in my face. You had a chance to be a man, you chose not to be."

Judge Kingsbury urged Adams to take advantage of all programs offered through prison.

"I encourage you to have an end game that is more positive," said the Judge. "You have family that cares about you, you have opportunity to take your life in another direction. Do the best you can to make something positive out of this situation."

"We have had an inordinate number of homicides over marijuana - such a senseless crime,"said Judge Kingsbury Friday. "It's heartbreaking."

"We'll see the rest of this through," El Dorado County Deputy DA Casey Mandrell promised the family Friday. He is the third member of the District Attorney's office to handle the cases since 2016.

On Feb. 25, 2020, a jury of seven men and five women took just 80 minutes on Tuesday to find Dion Jermaine Vaccaro guilty of murdering Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr.

Vaccaro faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, but has since hired a new attorney and working through the court again because of what he said was inadequate representation previously, and he is asking for a new trial. His next court date is September 3, 2021.

On October 2, 2020, Tristen Batten was sentenced to prison for 31 years to life by Judge Suzanne Kingsbury for murder, involuntary manslaughter, 2nd degree robbery and 2nd degree robbery where a weapon was present. He was 18 at the time of the crime and had previously plead guilty and offered evidence against the others arrested. He pleaded the 5th during Vaccaro's trial, removing any benefit of the previous arrangement.

The remaining defendants in this case, Tevarez Lopez, Domenic Randolph and Harvest Davidson, have been in ongoing court proceedings while being housed in the county jail since their 2016 arrests. Lopez's trial was set to begin earlier this summer but his change of lawyers gave the new defense time to get up to speed on the case. His next court date is August 12, 2021.

Adams is being turned over to the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation for placement. He is not entitled to any reduction of sentence for good behavior but he has been in jail for 1,787 days which is part of the minimum of 15 years he'll serve. Since Adams was under 25-years-old at the time of Spike's murder, there bay be some adjustments to the sentence at the state level.