Arrest Close In West Point Homicide

West Point, CA – There may be an arrest soon in the West Point Homicide according to Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz. He believes the July 9th shooting which took the life of 45 year-old Norman Curtis Gresham III and left 37 year-old Jessica Elder fighting for her life with a bullet wound to the head was a case of a drug deal gone bad.

However, Kuntz says he is close to making an arrest, “When I get back to work on Monday, I am going to get my Homicide Investigators together get a full briefing. If it’s what I’m thinking it’s going to be, we will probably make an arrest next week.”

Early on in the case, investigators called 31 year-old Gary F. McMahan a “person of interest” in the case and put it out to the public that they wanted to question McMahan about the shooting. McMahan was taken into custody July 11th after a high-speed chase with police that started in Lodi and ended in Sacramento. (Click here for an earlier story on McMahan’s arrest) Kuntz would not confirm if McMahan is the prime suspect in the murder or if he is the person targeted for possible arrest next week.

With no arrest in the nearly three month old case, Kuntz says residents in the West Point area have been fearful of a killer on the loose. Kuntz stresses the public is safe, “This is not a serial killer. This is not a person going around gunning people down. This was an isolated incident in a home with subjects who knew each other.”

The case has been turned over to the Calaveras County District Attorney’s office, but Kuntz says it is an ongoing investigation and he could make an arrest at any time.

(During the interview Kuntz stated that Elder was not cooperating with the investigation and that she was an AB 109 parolee. The Sheriff’s Office now says that those statements were  inaccurate. The story was updated to reflect the changes on November 1st.)