The California Department of Justice’s Latent Fingerprints Unit assisted with evidence in this case

“California DOJ latent print analysts assist dozens of counties in our state with investigations and evidence.  Their work is vital to public safety and criminal justice.”

CSLEA President Alan Barcelona

UKIAH – On September 25, 2024, a Mendocino County Superior Court jury convicted Justin Michael Hietala, 41, generally of Ukiah, of three violent felonies and knife-use sentencing allegations attached to each of the three felonies.

Hietala was found guilty the following three felonies:

(1) Attempted carjacking of a woman and her two children in the McDonald’s parking lot in central Ukiah the morning of June 24th by his personal use of a knife;

(2) Attempted carjacking of the same woman and children in the Pear Tree Shopping Center parking lot again by his personal use of a knife on that same date after she had escaped his first attempt across the street; and

(3)  the carjacking of a patient transportation vehicle driver waiting to pick up a client at the dialysis clinic on South Orchard again by his personal use of the same knife.  This carjacking was committed on the same date that his first two carjacking attempts failed.

The law enforcement agencies that investigated and developed the evidence presented at trial were the Ukiah Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the DA’s own Bureau of Investigations, and the California Department of Justice’s Latent Fingerprints Unit.

After the jury was excused, a further bench trial was calendared for October 11, 2024 for the prosecutor to present additional evidence not heard by the jury to support the DA’s filed allegations that the defendant’s three-crimes-in-one is an aggravated case.

The defendant’s case will be referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study and sentencing recommendation and a sentencing hearing date picked after the October 11th evidentiary hearing.

Defendant Hietala remains in-custody. His bail was converted to a no bail hold after the verdicts were announced and entered into the record.