The boy was 15 at the time that 50-year-old Sergio Martin was shot dead in his home in Dinuba, California. Martin was a longtime Spanish teacher at El Monte Middle School.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged in the killing of a beloved middle-school teacher during a burglary in central California last year.

Officers found Sergio Martin, a 50-year-old teacher for the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District, dead from multiple gunshot wounds in his home in Dinuba at around 3 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2023. At the time, police described the shooting as a random act of violence and said the suspect was not a former student of Martin’s.

The teenager was charged with murder and burglary, among other counts, the Tulare County District Attorney said Monday. The teen was arraigned in Tulare County Juvenile Court on Friday.

Under California law, the boy will be tried as a juvenile because he was 15 at the time of the killing. If convicted, he can only remain in custody until the age of 25.

Two young adults also charged in burglary

Two others were charged with burglary in connection to the crime, according to the district attorney’s office.

Jorge Arrieta, 21, and Joseph Garcia, 20, were charged with second-degree burglary and accessory. Arrieta is also charged with having stolen property, according to the prosecutor.

The two were arrested on Friday, with Arrieta remaining in custody and arraigned on Monday. Garcia was released on bail and is scheduled to return to court on May 22 for his arraignment.

USA TODAY was working to track down attorneys for Arrieta and Garcia for comment.

Martin loved vinyl records and the Dodgers

Martin taught Spanish at El Monte Middle School for 17 years. Following his death, students and teachers at the school posted dozens of notes with letters and pictures outside his classroom. One of them said, “I am sorry,” while another simply said: “We will miss you, Mr. Martin.”

The educator was a dedicated fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, his colleague Chris Velasco told KFSN-TV in November.

Emilio Botello, one of Martin’s close friends, said he deeply cared about his parents and students and was enthusiastic about his vinyl record collection.

“Beyond his teachings and in the classroom, he’s affected many kids, but to adults that’s not that easy, it’s not that easy and he’s done that,” Botello told KFSN.

Contributing: Eric Woomer, Visalia Times-Delta

Extreme snowfall will become less common in California by 2100, a new study found.

Scientists understand how a lack of snow or “snow drought” can affect a region, especially in the midst of a warming climate. However, before now, they did not understand the impact of unusually high levels of snow. And this is becoming more important, as California has just emerged from its second winter of high snowfall.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used the 2023 winter as a case study to learn more. Computational hydrologist Adrienne Marshall and colleagues from the Colorado School of Mines dubbed the term “snow deluges” to describe the phenomenon recently seen in California.

To reach their findings, they analyzed the unusual snow deluge across the Sierra Nevada mountains in 2023 to assess the impact of “high snow years.”

In 2023, California saw an extremely high amount of snow accumulation, with record snowpack levels. Observations showed the accumulations were a “once-in-54-years event,” with some areas reporting “once-in-320-years accumulations,” the study reported.

By looking at climate projections, scientists found that years like these with the so-called “snow deluges” are set to decline by 58 percent by the end of this century. Years with median levels of snowfall are also estimated to decline by 73 percent, they reported.

“California’s massive snow year of 2023 was record-breaking at 42 percent of snow monitoring sites,” Marshall told Newsweek. “Climate models indicate that in warmer future climates, our biggest snow years will be smaller than our biggest snow years now. Another way of putting this is that a snow deluge like we saw in 2023 would be much more rare in a warmer climate like that we might expect later in the 21st century.”

Similar patterns will also be seen across the wider Western U.S., the study reports.

The findings “underscore the significance of uncovering the impact of climate change on the dynamics of snow deluges and snow droughts in mountainous regions,” the study reports.

“These findings align with a bigger scientific picture that shows declining average snowpack and more frequent snow droughts in California and throughout the West,” Marshall said. “Our new findings suggest that we shouldn’t count on big snow years like the one we had last year to save us in warmer climates.

“This is important because snow acts as a natural reservoir in the mountains that stores water until the late spring and summer when we need it most. Our best opportunities to avoid the worst consequences of this snow loss lie in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and finding ways to adapt to adapt to changing snow and water availability.”

The study notes that snow deluges can be “both destructive and beneficial” meaning better understanding of the phenomenon can improve management of “snow-dependent ecosystems and economies.”

The 2023 snow deluge in California, in many ways, could be seen as good thing. Before it occurred, the state had been suffering from prolonged drought conditions. As a result, there was a severe lack of snowpack in the surrounding mountains, meaning less water was feeding the state’s reservoirs.

The large snow build-up, however, meant that come spring, it melted into rivers and reservoirs, saving the state from a water crisis. In fact, drought conditions in the state officially ended.

However, the heavy snowfall indicates that climate change is worsening, as weather patterns become more unpredictable and extreme. While the drought has ended for now, climate change could cause another prolonged dry period in the future.

“Snow is important for both ecosystems and water resources, and there’s a lot still to learn about how our biggest snow years—or the loss of them—impact these systems,” Marshall said. “The present study focuses on annual-scale snow deluges, but the largest individual snowfall events could change in different ways.

“We focused on a moderate warming scenario in California and the Western U.S., but it would also be helpful to learn more about how different climate scenarios could affect snow deluges in other parts of the world.”

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about California snowfall? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

Prices at Chipotle, McDonald’s and other fast-food giants in California are rising after a minimum wage hike went into effect. 

“Chipotle said in an investor call Wednesday that prices at its nearly 500 California restaurants climbed 6% to 7% during the first week of April compared with last year, playing out across its menu,” The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. 

“The state isn’t making it easy,” Chipotle Chief Executive Brian Niccol reportedly said. 

CALIFORNIA’S $20 MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST-FOOD WORKERS GOES INTO EFFECT

“I feel ripped off a little,” Greg LaVay said of rising prices at McDonald’s. 

Prices for Chick-fil-A in Los Angeles are also putting the squeeze on customers. 

“The price for a spicy chicken sandwich at that location had gone up to $7.09 from $6.29, or 13%, since mid-February, according to research by Gordon Haskett Research Advisors,” The Journal revealed. “Chick-fil-A’s prices increased 10.6% on average in California during that time period, Gordon Haskett found.”

California’s new law boosting the minimum wage for fast-food workers in the state to $20 an hour went into effect on April 1, impacting restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide, except those that make and sell their own bread.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation, AB 1228, into law in September.

The overall minimum wage for other workers in California is $15.50 an hour, among the highest of any state. The federal minimum wage, which has remained unchanged since 2009, is $7.25 an hour, or $15,080 a year for an employee working 40 hours a week.

CALIFORNIA FOOD CHAINS LAYING OFF WORKERS AHEAD OF NEW MINIMUM WAGE LAW

Los Angeles, CA – September 28:Gov. Gavin Newsom signs legislation raising California fast food workers minimum wage to $20 an hour at SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles on Thursday, September 28, 2023. Newsom gave Anneisha Williams, who works at Jack in ( Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

Other companies, including Chick-fil-A, Domino’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Jack in the Box have also raised prices since September, The Journal reported. 

Chipotle, McDonald’s and Gov. Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

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Fox Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.