It was late Wednesday night, February 25, when a man was with his girlfriend at his home on Crestview Drive, a winding road in the woods overlooking the southern tip of Ukiah, near the airport. The couple began to fight, and the argument turned physical. According to the Mendocino Sheriff’s office, at 12:30 am, deputies were sent to the home on a call of domestic violence.
Deputies were called twice to a home on Crestview, which overlooks the Ukiah Valley.
When they arrived the man said that he had been in an argument with his girlfriend, identified as Elizabeth Mae McAllister. He showed them a silver-dollar-sized lump on his forehead, and said she had hit him with a baseball bat. He said he didn’t need medical help, but that she was somewhere in the house.
The deputies searched the house, and McAllister was found hiding in a bedroom, buried under some loose clothing. She was also found to be in possession of a controlled substance, and under the influence. She was arrested on those charges, along with assault with a deadly weapon, and felony domestic battery on a spouse or co-habitant. She was also in violation of probation.
But this story goes back much further. Elizabeth Mae McAllister was born Elizabeth Mae Lawson, in Ukiah in 1982, and she still uses that name at times. A search of archived arrest records show that she was charged with burglary on September 28, 2005. Three years later, on July 26, 2008, she was charged with battery, driving under the influence, and violating her parole. The circumstances of those incidents, and the final court resolutions were not available.
Elizabeth Lawson, AKA McAllister – images from Facebook.
In the intervening years, she was married, becoming Elizabeth Mae McAllister, and had a child. Then in May of 2013 she was arrested again, this time charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance. And in October that year, according to a Ukiah Police press release, she and a man named Wesley Thomas Zynda were caught loading Walmart shopping carts with merchandise at the store. While she paid for a few items, he pushed two full carts out without paying. They were both arrested for theft of $500.00 worth of goods, and criminal conspiracy.
In 2014, her troubles with the law escalated even further. On January 28, she was arrested at 2:50 pm for driving under the influence, child endangerment, and being under the influence of a controlled substance. On July 12 she was again pulled over, and charged with being under the influence. Then on July 25, she was arrested for making “terrorist threats”, or threats of violence, along with petty theft with a prior. Her probation was revoked at that time. She was charged with the same offenses, possibly due to an outstanding warrant, and once again being under the influence of a controlled substance, on December 16. She was living in nearby Willits at the time.
Jose Alfredo Martinez – Facebook
At some point during this time, using the name Elizabeth Lawson – likely because of a breakup with her husband and the loss of custody of her child, she met a new boyfriend, Jose Alfredo Martinez, a 36-year-old man who lives at the Crestview Drive home in Ukiah where the latest incident was reported. According to posts on his Facebook page, he bailed her out of jail on January 3 of this year, and she moved in with him (or had already moved in.)
Martinez had been in some trouble with the law before, with an arrest in July of 2014 for cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale while he resided at another west Ukiah property in the woods overlooking the airport, on Doolan Canyon Road.
Again, from posts on Martinez’ Facebook page, it appears that trouble began for them soon after she moved in. On Friday, February 13, he described a conflict that led to screaming, “Liz” turning his daughter against him, damages to the home, and her getting the neighbors to call the Sheriff’s office. The result was the arrest of Martinez on felony domestic violence charges of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant. His bail was set at $25,000, and he was released the same day.
But then, apparently, she moved back in with him, something Martinez later said he regretted for obvious reasons. That arrangement led to the Wednesday night fight, baseball bat hit, and early Thursday morning call and arrest of Elizabeth Mae McAllister on her own charges of assault, domestic battery, and possession and use of a controlled substance. Her bail was set at $220,000 for the collective offenses and probation violations, and she remains in custody at the Mendocino County jail. She has her next court appearance scheduled for April 30 at 8:30 am.
