Investigation continues in boating death
BY JASON KOTOWSKI, Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com
A man jailed on suspicion of boating while under the influence in a fatal crash on Lake Webb will remain in custody because he was out on parole when the collision happened.
Justin Ennis, 23, had been scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, but that was postponed because the case requires more investigation. Chief Park Ranger Robert Boardman said investigative reports will be finished either by the end of the week or early next week.
Ennis is accused of driving a boat while drunk when he hit another boat and killed its driver, 29-year-old Salvador Rodriguez, park officials have said. Rodriguez died at the scene of the crash, which happened about 5:15 p.m. Sunday.
Ennis was on parole because he pleaded no contest in 2009 to felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
That case stemmed from the death of 44-year-old Lora Louise Shine, who Ennis and James Arthur Wyatt, Shine's boyfriend, allegedly tied up after Shine and Wyatt argued. Shine suffocated to death after being bound and gagged with duct tape in Wyatt's southwest Bakersfield home.
Wyatt pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison.
The last boating while under the influence case to result in a death on Lake Webb happened in 1985. In that incident, Jimmie Lee Markle was convicted of causing death or injury by operating a boat while under the influence of alcohol.
Terri Gann, 11, died after Markle's boat collided with a boat that Gann was on and she was thrown into the water. Her body was not recovered for four days.
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