Sentencing delayed for Hickman pastor convicted of murder

Sentencing for former Hickman Community Church pastor Doug Porter, scheduled for next week, has been delayed until Nov. 21.

His attorney, Kirk McAllister, told Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff he needed more time to prepare a motion for a new trial.

Porter was convicted in August of murdering 85-year-old Hickman rancher Frank E. Craig in a car crash near Hickman in April 2004. Porter also was convicted of elder abuse causing death and theft from an elder by a caretaker.

Authorities claimed that he siphoned $1.1 million from Craig, using the money to supplement his lifestyle and subsidize a family compound in La Grange instead of developing the agriculture museum Craig had long envisioned.