Willits CA Funeral Homes
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Heart-felt tributes to honor a dear friend or loved one who has passed away
95 West Commercial Street
Willits, CA 95490
(707) 459-5515
1200 State Hwy 20
Willits, CA 95490
(707) 459-5252
Willits CA Obituaries and Death Notices
Monday, November 28, 2016Mike Harkins, a family friend and author of “Move to Fire,” a book about Maxfield’s legal battle with Bryco.On Sunday, at the age of 29, he died at his home in Willits, Calif., of complications from his paralysis, a family friend said. The gun had belonged to Maxfield’s parents, who kept it in a drawer. When a 12-year-old relative found it, a 20-year-old babysitter took it away and tried to unload the weapon. The gun discharged, wounding Maxfield so gravely that he was not expected to survive.The ease with which the gun seemed to fire became a cornerstone of the fight against Bryco, then a dominating player in the manufacturing of cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials. In court, Maxfield’s attorney, Richard Ruggieri, argued that the gun had a notorious flaw: When the safety was on and the slide was pulled back to extract or check on a bullet, the gun would jam. Rather than spend money repairing the flaw, Ruggieri said Bryco took the cheap way out, and rewrote the gun’s instructions, advising owners to remove the safety before pulling back the slide. Ruggieri said the newly written instructions made as such sense as advising drivers to remove their seat belts just before a crash.Although a jury in Oakland awarded Maxfield millions, Bruce Jennings — who’d dropped his liability insurance — closed Bryco, declared bankruptcy and moved to Florida, where he bought a 3,000-square-foot home with its own airplane hangar. The house was protected from creditors in a bankruptcy. Jennings is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for distributing child pornography. Maxfield, who’d formed a nonprofit organization called Brandon’s Arms to aid in his fight, tried to buy what remained of Bryco — chiefly guns and gun parts — and have it melted in a giant blob that could be displayed as artwork. But he was outbid by a former Bryco employee who renamed the company and moved it to Nevada.Harkins said that Maxfield once remarked that his own fate was like a contestant who tripped over the final winner-take-all question in a game of “Wh...
Willits News
Monday, November 28, 2016Mike Harkins, a family friend and author of “Move to Fire,” a book about Maxfield’s legal battle with Bryco.On Sunday, at the age of 29, he died at his home in Willits, Calif., of complications from his paralysis, a family friend said. The gun had belonged to Maxfield’s parents, who kept it in a drawer. When a 12-year-old relative found it, a 20-year-old babysitter took it away and tried to unload the weapon. The gun discharged, wounding Maxfield so gravely that he was not expected to survive.The ease with which the gun seemed to fire became a cornerstone of the fight against Bryco, then a dominating player in the manufacturing of cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials. In court, Maxfield’s attorney, Richard Ruggieri, argued that the gun had a notorious flaw: When the safety was on and the slide was pulled back to extract or check on a bullet, the gun would jam. Rather than spend money repairing the flaw, Ruggieri said Bryco took the cheap way out, and rewrote the gun’s instructions, advising owners to remove the safety before pulling back the slide. Ruggieri said the newly written instructions made as such sense as advising drivers to remove their seat belts just before a crash.Although a jury in Oakland awarded Maxfield millions, Bruce Jennings — who’d dropped his liability insurance — closed Bryco, declared bankruptcy and moved to Florida, where he bought a 3,000-square-foot home with its own airplane hangar. The house was protected from creditors in a bankruptcy. Jennings is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for distributing child pornography. Maxfield, who’d formed a nonprofit organization called Brandon’s Arms to aid in his fight, tried to buy what remained of Bryco — chiefly guns and gun parts — and have it melted in a giant blob that could be displayed as artwork. But he was outbid by a former Bryco employee who renamed the company and moved it to Nevada.Harkins said that Maxfield once remarked that his own fate was like a contestant who tripped over the final winner-take-all question in a game of “Wh...
