1:37pm Friday 6th November 2009
A BLACKBURN man has appeared in court charged with strangling a man in California.
Andrew Brian Sharkey, 36, is alleged to have murdered 67-year-old Michael Van Tillman using a wire in June.
Sharkey, who is in custody in Sonoma County Jail, faces char-ges of murder in the first degree and abuse of an elder.
He appeared in court on Monday and again yesterday a preliminary hearing took place ahead of a trial.
Sharkey, who worked as a medical marijuana grower, is accused of carrying out the attack in the garage which housed his business.
If convicted, the counts carry a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 26 years, said Sonoma’s deputy district attorney Traci Carrillo.
Ms Carrillo said her records indicated that Sharkey has been living in the US since at least 1996.
Mr Tillman, who lived in a flat attached to the premises in Guerneville, worked for the nearby Bohemian Grove.
It is an organisation which has consisted of some of the world’s most powerful people.
Bohemian Grove has a 2,700-acre compound at which past United States presidents and high-ran-king global figures have mixed with business leaders and other powerful figures behind closed doors.
Mr Tillman’s association to the secretive society is not thought to have any connection to his death.
Guerneville, which has a population of just 2,400 people, is a tourist town, north of San Fran-cisco.
It is understood that Sharkey used to live in Moorgate Street in Mill Hill, Blackburn, and played pool for the White Bull Inn in Livesey Branch Road.
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