MENDOCINO CO., 11/5/26 — A Ukiah man called the Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday afternoon to say he had just been robbed. The robber shot at him, he said, and took his phone, his wallet and his keys.
Then the victim went looking for the alleged robber. He rode in a relative’s car and used the relative’s phone to track his own stolen phone along Highway 101. It led him to a gas station in Hopland, where he found the man and the two fought, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
The suspect got away on foot. That set off a search around Hopland that lasted for hours. It ended at San Francisco International Airport, or SFO, where Darrell Law Jr., 36, of Hiram, Georgia, was arrested, according to a release from Capt. Quincy Cromer.
Law was booked into the San Mateo County jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery, possession of cannabis for sale and transportation of cannabis for sale. He is held on $300,000 bail. He was expected to be moved to the Mendocino County Jail on Thursday.
The robbery grew out of a marijuana sale on the south side of Ukiah, investigators said.
A rental car with Idaho plates
The first call came in at about 3:11 p.m. The victim, a 23-year-old Ukiah man whose name the Sheriff’s Office didn’t release, said he was robbed near Oak Knoll Road and South State Street. He said the robber drove off in a rental car with Idaho plates.
Deputies checked automated license plate readers, cameras that take and store pictures of the plates on passing cars. The readers turned up a white van with Idaho plates.
Deputies who went to Oak Knoll Road found no one and no evidence. But the plate readers pointed to Hopland. Deputies, state Fish and Wildlife wardens, Cal Fire officers and the California Highway Patrol all headed there.
A Fish and Wildlife warden spotted the white van at the pumps at Hopland Food and Gas, at 13600 Mountain House Road. Several people were fighting at the store. One of them, a man in a gray tracksuit, ran north.
The victim was in that fight. He had tracked his phone to the station and found the suspect there, the Sheriff’s Office said. Officers found the victim and the relative who drove him.
A search around Old Hopland
Sheriff’s detectives, including the county’s marijuana eradication team, took over the case. They talked with the victim, his relative and other people at the gas station. The suspect had run north on foot along Highway 101, they learned. He was last seen heading east on Highway 175 from downtown Hopland.
At about 4:37 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office sent an alert telling people nearby to stay inside. It described the man and said he was considered armed and dangerous.
Officers set up a perimeter around Highway 175 and Old Hopland. Ukiah police sent a drone. A Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter flew over. Neither found the suspect. Officers kept searching the area for hours.
At 8:36 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office sent a second alert. It said the order to stay inside had been lifted and the incident was resolved.
A phone trail to SFO
While officers searched, detectives went through the van the suspect had left at the pumps. Inside they found the victim’s phone and keys. They found about 177 pounds of processed, packaged marijuana. And they found the suspect’s own wallet and ID, which named him as Law.
After they recovered the victim’s phone, detectives got a phone number for Law. Because he was believed to be armed, they asked his phone company for an emergency trace of where the phone was.
The first answer came back at about 7:35 p.m. The phone was in downtown Santa Rosa.
As more readings came in, the phone kept moving. The way it moved told detectives Law was riding public transit or an airport shuttle, the release said. Detectives called transit companies and airport shuttles in Sonoma County to tell them Law might be aboard. Then the phone moved into San Francisco, and detectives decided Law was most likely headed for SFO.
They called the San Francisco Police Department’s airport bureau. Officers at SFO held Law while detectives got a signed arrest warrant. The warrant was sent to the officers at the airport, and they arrested him.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information to call 707-463-4086 and press 1. Tips can be left without a name at 707-234-2100.