RIVERBANK -- Authorities have arrested a 38-year-old Riverbank man, a 1990 college wrestling standout who fell on hard times, in connection with stabbing three people to death and leaving a fourth hospitalized.
Jesse Allen Frost is being held without bail at Stanislaus County Jail on suspicion of homicide and attempted homicide, according to the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department. He has been arrested previously, once in connection with an attack on a Modesto man whose family had befriended Frost, according to Frost's family and the man's family.
Friends and neighbors said Frost's mother, Donna Norton; sister, Judy Niemi; and brother-in-law, Tony Niemi, were killed. His nephew, they said, remains hospitalized. Authorities would not confirm his identity.
Authorities said Monday the victims were Norton, 62; Niemi, 37; and a 38-year-old man. They would not confirm any of the relationships.
Deputies were called to Frost's home, in the 6000 block of Arcaro Drive on Sunday, for a disturbance. They found Frost in the front yard and took him in for questioning, officials said.
Inside they found four victims who had been stabbed. Two were dead and a third died on the way to Oak Valley Hospital. The fourth victim, an 18-year-old man, survived and is in stable condition at Memorial Medical Center, said deputy Royjindar Singh, sheriff's spokesman.
Frost is a former high school and college wrestling star in Stanislaus County. Coaches and teammates who knew him through 1993 said he was a hardworking, talented athlete -- a "gentle giant" without an anger streak.
'Absolutely a good kid'
Ron Hebert, 63, of Riverbank coached Frost in varsity track, football and wrestling for three years at Riverbank High.
"The Jesse Frost I saw in the paper today, I don't know who that is," Hebert said Monday. "When he was in school, he was just a good kid. Absolutely a good kid."
Former coach Chris Courtney said he met Frost in 1988, Frost's senior year at Riverbank High. Other students looked up to Frost, who was light on his feet despite being "such a big guy," he said.
"There was a clique of guys that were seniors that were just wonderful, and Jesse was one of them," said Courtney, 45, of Oakdale. "There were some kids in his class into the partying and the drugs, the typical country boy type of thing. He wasn't one of those. Back then he was into the athletics and into doing well, and being a good friend."
Frost had qualified for the state wrestling meet as a sophomore and junior, but did not make the cut as a senior, according to The Bee's archives. In 1989, he had surgery on both knees to repair damage caused by years of football and wrestling. He then wrestled for Modesto Junior College and was, for a time, the No. 1-ranked heavyweight in the state.
"He was a super nice guy," said former MJC teammate Jack Sperry, 37, of Hughson. "He was kind of like the dancing bear."
Sperry wrestled with Frost in 1990 when the MJC team placed fifth in the state championships. Frost finished seventh at the State Meet, according to Bee archives. A December 1990 story about his "disappointing" defeat was the last reference in the archives to Frost's wrestling career.
Another former teammate, Rex Rabine, 44, of Turlock said Frost had a self-deprecating sense of humor and was generous, always sharing food on overnight trips.
"Some guys, you can tell that, when they get in a pickle, they could blow up and be really angry," Rabine said. "I didn't see that in Jesse."
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