POT GARDEN SUSPECT PLEADS INNOCENT

OROVILLE - A suspect arrested Friday guarding a $22 million marijuana crop
near Feather Falls pleaded innocent in Butte County Superior Court Tuesday
to charges connected with the huge grow.

Court officers also attempted to correct the suspect's name and its
spelling for the record, changing it from Valentine Guisar Mora, to Guizar
Valentine Mora.

Judge Thomas W. Kelley said there was still some confusion about the
suspect's actual first name.

Mora, 34, is believed to be from Mexico and speaks no English.

On Tuesday, during his second appearance in court, a translator told Mora
what was being said. The suspect said nothing, except to tell his
translator he understood the charges against him.

His next appearance in court will be Oct. 7.

Mora is charged with the unlawful planting and processing of marijuana,
possessing marijuana for sale and cultivating marijuana while armed.

He is the lone survivor among three men known to be tending the marijuana
grow Friday when Butte County Sheriff's deputies launched a long-planned raid.

Two of the cultivators where shot and killed by deputies when one leveled
an AK-47 assault rifle at them and a second, armed with a handgun, ran into
the line of fire.

Mora reportedly also had an AK-47, but was subdued by deputy Jim Dimmitt
before he could use it.

Three deputies are on paid administrative leave following the shooting, but
will return to duty after a psychological debriefing is completed.

The two suspects killed in the raid have been identified, but authorities
are withholding their names until relatives can be notified of their deaths.

Lt. Tony Burdine said Sheriff's Office is working with the Mexican
Consulate and authorities in San Jose to locate possible family members.

State and local law enforcement officers pulled more than 11,000 mature
marijuana plants from the grow Friday, which were flown by helicopter to a
command center. They will eventually be destroyed.