Four judges removed in Humboldt County threat case, trial stalled

Four judges have now been taken off the Humboldt County threat case against Daryl Ray Jones, leaving a prosecution that has already been slowed by competency questions, undisclosed police reports and repeated judge-assignment disputes. The court’s position has been that a fair trial can still happen, even as the case continues to bounce between courtroom calendars and keeps school and business owners waiting for an ending.

Jones is accused of making more than 20 threatening phone calls to schools and businesses across Humboldt County, calls that officials said began in January 2025 and triggered lockdown protocols and law-enforcement responses in communities from Arcata to Fortuna. County officials publicly identified a suspect on March 19, 2025, and later reporting identified that suspect as Daryl Ray Jones, who was extradited to Humboldt County from Lawton, Oklahoma.

The case quickly ran into questions about Jones’s mental competency. On April 24, 2025, Judge Kelly Neel ordered a psychological evaluation after expressing doubt about whether Jones could stand trial, and court reporting at the time said he was facing 19 felony counts. Neel also addressed a possible conflict in open court, telling the parties that her daughter’s attendance at Arcata High School, one of the schools allegedly targeted, would not affect her ability to preside fairly.

The evidence hearings have been just as tangled. At an August 2025 preliminary hearing, an officer testified that the calls began Feb. 27 with a call to the California Conservation Corps office in Fortuna and said investigators linked the phone number used in the threats to Jones. The officer also said a red 2000 Nissan Frontier registered in Jones’s name matched a vehicle described in the calls. Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees said 23 previously undisclosed police reports had been turned over, and Judge Timothy Canning continued the hearing because neither side had enough time to review them. In that same round of reporting, officers said one business, Northpoint Consulting Group, had received 64 calls alone.

The legal process became more complicated still on June 2, 2026, when a follow-up hearing was paused until the court could resolve which judge could hear the matter. The next hearing was set for June 16 at 8:30 a.m. California Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6 allows a party to disqualify a judge in a civil or criminal case without proving actual bias, and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has used that procedure as the case has been shuffled through courtrooms.

For Humboldt residents, the stakes are not abstract. The alleged calls disrupted schools, rattled businesses and forced repeated safety responses across the county, while the court works to keep the case on track without opening the door to claims that the eventual trial was tainted before it began.