The Super 8 Check-Out
There are certain places where a man ought to be able to spend the night without attracting the attention of the law. A monastery, for example, is one. A lighthouse, perhaps. A Super 8 Motel in Fernley, Nevada, however, turns out to be considerably less dependable in this regard.
On Monday, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office and detectives from the Novato Police Department were eyeballing a certain establishment on W. Newlands Drive. They were not there about the complimentary donuts.
The object of their attention was 19-year-old Andres Ruiz Lindo, whom California authorities had identified as the primary suspect in a gang-related homicide in Marin County. The killing had occurred on Aug. 4, and the victim was reportedly a member of a rival gang. This is the sort of business arrangement in which everybody involved eventually discovers that the terms and conditions are written in blood.
Lindo apparently traveled to Fernley, demonstrating once again that Nevada has become the place where people go when they wish to be somewhere else. The trouble with Nevada is that while it has a great deal of empty country, it also has remarkably efficient sheriffs and deputies.
The detectives watched the Super 8 and waited. Eventually, Lindo came out and entered a vehicle.
It was unfortunate, because the vehicle had barely become acquainted with him when the authorities conducted what is known as a high-risk felony stop. In ordinary language, this means that the evening's transportation arrangements were abruptly revised by people carrying badges and rather serious expressions.
The vehicle was stopped before it could become mobile, and Lindo was taken into custody without incident. It is the finest possible ending to such an operation, since an arrest without incident is one of those rare occasions when everybody gets to go home in the style they arrived.
Lindo was booked into the Lyon County Jail on murder charges and is being held without bail. His accommodations have therefore been upgraded from the Super 8 to a government facility where the checkout time is determined by a judge rather than the front desk.
There is an old saying that you cannot outrun your past. This case offers a slight correction: you may outrun it as far as Fernley, but if you walk into the wrong motel parking lot at the wrong moment, your past may already have checked in under your name.
And, unlike the Super 8, the Lyon County Jail does not appear to offer a continental breakfast.
