Three days before he allegedly shot and killed a California Highway Patrol officer, Brendt Anthony Volarvich was arrested at a Woodland motel on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine and metal knuckles.

He was released from jail two days later on a $10,000 bail bond purchased by his friend Gregory Fred Zielesch - a favor in exchange for which Volarvich agreed to kill the man who was dating Zielesch's ex-wife and who had stolen property from his house, according to documents on file in Yolo Superior Court.

The alleged murder plot that preceded the murder of CHP Officer Andy Stevens is detailed in the transcript of a grand jury proceeding that led to the Jan. 28 indictment against Volarvich and Zielesch.

It includes testimony from Lindsey Jane Montgomery, the 20-year-old Woodland woman charged with aiding Volarvich in his flight from police, who last month was sentenced to probation and drug treatment in exchange for her cooperation with prosecutors.

The grand jury, which met behind closed doors without the defendants or their attorneys present, indicted the 20-year-old Volarvich on charges of murder with special circumstances, conspiracy to commit murder and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon.

Zielesch, 48, was indicted on similar charges but without the special circumstances, eliminating the death penalty as a possible fate. Both men are scheduled to enter pleas on March 13.

District Attorney David Henderson, who is prosecuting the case, told the 18-member grand jury that the events leading to Stevens' death were set in motion following Volarvich's Nov. 14 arrest. He said Volarvich's then-girlfriend, Rebecca Pina, approached Zielesch and asked him to bail Volarvich out of the Yolo County Jail.

Volarvich's bail was set at $10,000, which meant a person would have to put up at least 10 percent - $1,000 - to secure a bail bond.

“Greg is the only one that I know that has any money like that to do anything with, and I asked Greg if he would bail Brendt out," Pina later testified before the panel. She said Zielesch agreed, and together they retrieved Volarvich from the jail.

“He (Zielesch) just said, ‘Take care of Doug,' " Pina recalled, referring to Gary “Doug" Shamberger, the target of the alleged murder plot. “He was always talking crap about wanting to ‘take care' of Doug."

Volarvich agreed to the request and asked Zielesch for a gun, which he provided, Pina testified. That night, at Zielesch's rural Woodland home, Pina warned him not to put the gun in his car and not to take part in the murder.

“He said, ‘Baby, that's money,' " Pina recalled. Volarvich then left the house to get “dope" - methamphetamine - but never returned.

The next morning, Pina testified, an angered Zielesch hit her because Volarvich failed to show up to sign papers for his bail bond. Pina called Volarvich and asked him to pick her up at Zielesch's home on County Road 95A - a short distance from County Road 96. They agreed to meet along the roadway.

“I waited and I waited, but he never came," Pina said. After a while, she began hearing sirens and helicopters. She tried calling Volarvich on his cell phone, but there was no answer.

At about the same time, Lindsey Montgomery was at her Woodland home when she got a call from Volarvich, “saying that he did something bad." He was driving into town and wanted her to pick him up, she said.

Montgomery borrowed a friend's car drove to the intersection of West Street and El Dorado Drive, where Volarvich was standing outside his vehicle, license plates in hand, she said. She agreed to help Volarvich switch plates, and the two eventually headed back to Montgomery's Leo Way home.

“I heard him say something about shooting a cop, but I wasn't sure," Montgomery testified. “He was trying to get money from (his mother), and she thought he was just like trying to scheme her for money, pretty much."

After about a half-hour, two girls from Roseville arrived to pick up Volarvich, Montgomery said. She stayed behind, shopping at Wal-Mart and playing poker with friends before joining Volarvich at a Rocklin motel at about 11 p.m. that night.

Paranoid due to both his recent release from jail and the gun in his car, Volarvich shot the officer in the face after he instructed Volarvich to get out of his car, Montgomery said. She also said Volarvich claimed he shot Stevens a second time, though in fact the officer suffered only one gunshot wound.

Montgomery also testified about her knowledge of the alleged murder plot, describing a “messed-up past" between Zielesch and Shamberger. She said Shamberger “took" Zielesch's ex-wife, then stole power tools and other property from Zielesch's home while Zielesch was in the hospital for treatment of an abscess on his arm.

Volarvich disposed of the gun after the shooting, Montgomery said. A search team later found the weapon - a .357 Magnum, according to the grand jury transcript - inside a black fanny pack that had been discarded along County Road 24, south of the murder scene.

Dale Johnson, a Yolo County sheriff's detective who interviewed Zielesch after his arrest, told the grand jury that Zielesch at first denied owning the gun, but later admitted it was his. He said Zielesch also recalled showing the weapon to Volarvich and that “he must have somehow taken it from him."

Also appearing before the grand jury was Bobby Joe Hernandez, a rural Woodland resident who witnessed Stevens' shooting from atop a tractor in a nearby field.

It was a clear, sunny day, and Hernandez recalled seeing a CHP commercial enforcement vehicle pull over a car on County Road 96. The officer approached the vehicle, and words were exchanged: “How's your day going?" “Not very good."

Suddenly, Hernandez heard gunfire and saw the officer fall to the ground, he said. He rushed to the officer's side - shouting for nearby children to run inside along the way - grabbed the radio off Stevens' shoulder and said, “Mayday, mayday, officer down."

Stevens, a Roseville resident and 13-year veteran of the CHP, was pronounced dead at the scene. Coroner's officials have said he died instantly from his wound.

In addition to the charges surrounding Stevens' murder, the grand jury indictment also includes charges from drug and weapon cases that Volarvich and Zielesch had pending at the time of the shooting.

“If this (Nov. 14) arrest hadn't occurred ... there wouldn't have been a bail issue, there would have been no reason that Greg Zielesch would be able to get Brendt Volarvich to go kill Mr. Shamberger," Henderson said.

Defense attorneys for Volarvich and Zielesch - Kevin Clymo and Rod Beede - did not respond to phone calls from The Enterprise requesting comments about the transcript's contents, though a gag order prevents them from speaking about the case.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Evelyn Zielesch said while her son may have contributed some money - about $200 - toward Volarvich's bail, the rest was supposed to have been secured from Volarvich's trust fund. And she is adamant that her son would not seek a murder contract as repayment for that debt.

“Heavens, no," she said. “That is ridiculous, that he would ask someone he hardly knows to do something like that in the presence of a little girl who is not trustworthy."

Referring to witness Rebecca Pina, Zielesch said she suspects the woman - who is currently serving time at the Yolo County Jail - may have been offered a deal from the district attorney's office in exchange for her testimony, though Pina denied receiving special treatment during her appearance before the grand jury.

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