Rickner

A Crescent City man received a prison sentence of more than 60 years-to-life on Monday after a Del Norte County jury convicted him of murdering his mother.

Matthew Earl Rickner, 30, was found guilty on May 29 of second-degree murder with a special allegation of use of a firearm in the death of his mother, Phyllis Rickner, District Attorney Katherine Micks told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Friday.

Rickner was sentenced to 60 years and eight months to life in prison, Micks said.

That sentence includes convictions on various other charges, Micks said. These included felony use of a firearm resulting in death, which prompted Judge Darren McElfresh to add 25 years to Rickner’s prison sentence, Micks said.

Rickner was also found guilty of assault with a firearm, grand theft of a firearm, possessing a firearm while also possessing a controlled substance — Micks said the substance was methamphetamine — as well as damage to a telephone or power line.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Rickner at about midnight on Dec. 30, 2023 after finding Phyllis Rickner dead in the living room of her home on the 500 block of Humboldt Road.

Phyllis Rickner had called dispatch at about 11:06 p.m. Dec. 29 to report a gun missing from her bedrooms. The victim told deputies that she believed her son had possession of it. Shortly after, a neighbor called dispatchers to report shots being fired, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott told the Outpost on Jan. 2.

Deputies arrived to find Phyllis Rickner deceased and, after speaking with Rickner’s father, learned the suspect had shot his mother and fled on foot, Scott said.

Two California Highway Patrol officers found Rickner on Bertsch Avenue after dispatchers received an anonymous tip of a suspicious person being in the area.

Deputies had found the missing firearm in Rickner’s waistband along with methamphetamine and a methamphetamine pipe, Scott told the Outpost.

On Friday, Micks said Rickner was also charged with resisting an executive officer as well as possession of a smoking device for ingesting a controlled substance.

Deputy District Attorney Todd Zocchi prosecuted the case against Rickner, Micks said.

When speaking with the Outpost on Thursday, Scott said he was proud of the district attorney’s office and the judge.

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