Oregon man accused of killing Bay Area boy in 1987 pleads not guilty

Charged with the 1987 murder of a 6-year-old Vallejo boy, Fred Marion Cain III pleaded not guilty and denied all enhancements during a brief jail arraignment hearing Friday in Solano County Superior Court.

Shackled and again seated in a wheelchair at the defense table, Cain, 69, and his attorney, Chief Public Defender Oscar Bobrow entered the plea in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.

Later during the proceeding, Judge William J. Pendergast assigned the case to Department 9, denied bail for Cain, then scheduled a readiness conference for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 22, when it will be heard by Judge Wendy Getty. She has been assigned the case.

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But before the proceeding ended, Pengergast heard an objection from Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira, who asserted that the Public Defender’s Office representation of Cain presents a possible conflict.

Pendergast responded, “I’ve been thinking about it,” but reminded the attorneys that he would not be the trial judge.

Sequeira noted, “This is a capital (punishment) case,” because of its special circumstances, and the previous suspect in the case, Shawn Melton, who was twice acquitted of the charge some years ago, was represented by the Public Defender.

Saying Bobrow could argue “third-person culpability” to a jury, asserting that Melton, despite the acquittals, was the actual killer instead of Cain, Sequeira asked: “What harm would there be if he (Cain) relieved the Public Defender?”

Pendergast recommended that both attorneys submit motions in defense of their arguments to Judge Getty before the Jan. 22 readiness conference.

Wispy white hair falling to his shoulders, an unkempt white beard growing off his cheeks and chin, and tattoos visible on his right arm, Cain was then wheeled out of the courtroom and back to Solano County Jail.

Cain faces a murder charge for the death of Jeremy Floyd Stoner, with special circumstances. They include kidnapping, sodomy, and a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14.

Jail records show Cain was arrested a second time, after being first taken into custody near Medford, Ore., on a warrant served Sept. 27 in Red Bluff by Solano County Sheriff’s deputies. He was booked into custody in Fairfield without bail shortly after noon that same day.

Before Cain’s second arrest, some additional details about the case emerged during a press conference called by Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams.

She recounted some of the previously published details of Cain’s Sept. 18 arrest, news that gained statewide attention after the release of a press statement Sept. 21 and a Reporter story posted online later that evening.

She also provided new information about the case not mentioned in the prepared statement, including the name of the victim, who, according to the criminal complaint, was killed on or about Feb. 21 in Solano County.

Additionally, Abrams cited previous felony convictions against Cain in Contra Costa County Superior Court on May 22, 1979. He was found guilty of sodomy, rape by the use of an intoxicating substance, burglary, and first-degree burglary.

Abrams also noted she reinstated the Cold Case Unit in her office after being first elected in 2014 and credited new DNA analysis and two cold case investigators, Steve Howisey and Kevin Coelho, for “working tirelessly” to solve a case she described as “every parent’s worst nightmare.” Stoner’s death “wracked” the Vallejo community, she added.

Howisey, said Abrams, “took another look at the case” in October 2022, obtaining evidence that showed a match for the initial suspect in the case, Shawn Melton. However, after a trial and retrial, with juries unable to reach unanimous verdicts, he was released from custody and eventually exonerated.

So investigators determined DNA could lead to another suspect, and it led to Cain, who, Abrams said, was initially interviewed after the killing, on March 3, 1987, but was not taken into custody.

Cain, she said, “did know the child” and was not living in Vallejo at the time of the alleged killing.

Howisey and Coelho, with members of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Cain at his home in Central Point, just north of Medford on Interstate 5. Coelho, he said, was “compliant” with officers’ commands.

A former Vallejo police officer, Coelho described the investigation as “very lengthy,” recalling that the case has been “talked about for years” by Vallejo officers and others. He said he “took a personal interest in this case.”

In the initial press statement, Abrams noted Stoner was abducted near his home in Vallejo. Four days after he went missing, his body was discovered on Sherman Island in Sacramento County. An autopsy revealed that the boy had been sexually assaulted.

At the press conference, she provided additional details about why Melton initially was named as a suspect in the case and arrested. She said Melton walked into the Vallejo Police Department and appeared to have his own investigative service and provided information, as Abrams explained last week, “only the person responsible for the child’s death would know.”

Abrams told The Reporter that, given the charges against Cain, he “is eligible for the death penalty at this time, but we will not make the final decision until after the preliminary hearing is concluded.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 signed an executive order halting executions in California while he’s in office, but capital punishment convictions remain possible in the Golden State.