Who’s Christopher Straub? White supremacist gang member had long criminal history
A white supremacist gang member who was killed in a shootout with San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Thursday had a long history of criminal allegations in San Luis Obispo County, local court records show, including a prison term for manufacturing a weapon as a felon.
He also was given more time for an assault he allegedly committed while in prison, records show.
Christopher Michael Straub, 38, was killed near the Templeton Cemetery after shooting and wounding a deputy in the leg, the Sheriff’s Office said.
That deputy, Richard “Ted” Lehnhoff, underwent surgery for the gunshot wound and was in good spirits while recovering at a local hospital, county Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a news conference Friday.
Parkinson said that Straub was a member of a white supremacist gang, though he would not name the group and local court records don’t show any gang-related allegations.
In San Luis Obispo Superior Court records, Straub listed an address on Larkspur Lane in residential Paso Robles.
His local criminal history included a misdemeanor conviction in 2007 for possessing an altered or fictitious check.
Asked for Straub’s state prison history, Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Straub was sentenced in San Luis Obispo County in August 2008 to two years for receiving stolen property and writing checks with insufficient funds. He was paroled in June 2009.
While out on parole, Straub was again sentenced in February 2010 to two years for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and a one-year enhancement for having a new offense while out on parole.
He was admitted to state prison in February 2010 and paroled in March 2011.
While on parole, Straub was sentenced to one year, four months for manufacture, sale and possession of a weapon in San Luis Obispo County. He returned to prison in March 2012, Thornton said.
While imprisoned, Straub was convicted again in Kern County to serve three more years for a charge of assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury, in October 2012. It’s not clear who he assaulted.
Straub was released on parole in April 2014.
In January 2015, Straub violated his parole for an unlisted offense and spent 22 days in San Luis Obispo County Jail, local court records show.
In March 2015, he was, again, arrested for theft of more than $400 from an elderly person, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded no contest to the felony theft charge, and the latter count was dismissed.
San Luis Obispo County court records show Straub was ordered to be on mandatory supervision by the county Probation Department for eight years.
He would be arrested three more times in the next three months. In 2015, his parole was revoked in April and again in May, and in July, court records list a felony conviction for conspiracy to commit a crime. For that offense, he served two months of “county jail state prison” time.
“County jail state prison” sentence is a type of sentencing enacted by the California State Legislature under 2011’s AB 109, also known as state prison re-alignment. That court-mandated prison reform initiative sought to reduce the state’s prison population by sending lower-level offenders who would have served a prison sentence to instead serve that sentence in county jail.
Since his release from County Jail, Straub was again convicted in April 2019 of a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance, for which he served another 30 days in jail.
He was arrested for driving on a suspended license in March 2020, and spent no time in jail.
Most recently, in June, a warrant for Straub’s arrest was issued by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office for a May 18 incident where he allegedly evaded a law enforcement officer in a vehicle. The agency filed a felony charge, and officers were to arrest him if encountered, court records show.
Thursday’s shootout began shortly after Lehnhoff recognized Straub’s vehicle parked on the side of Theatre Drive and later found Straub walking on Cemetery Road off Theatre Drive near the Templeton Cemetery, according to Parkinson.
The deputy tried to make a pedestrian traffic stop, but Straub fled on foot toward the cemetery, the sheriff said.
Straub hid and “ambushed” Lehnhoff and a second deputy when they approached the area and shot “multiple rounds” at the deputies, wounding Lenhoff, Parkinson said Thursday.
Straub again fled into a nearby vineyard and ran toward his car, where additional guns were located, Parkinson said. More deputies arrived and a shootout ensued as Straub tried to get into the locked car.
Straub was pronounced dead at the scene.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 6:12 PM.
