David Mendoza, 21, dies in tree-cutting accident on Thorn Road in Sebastopol, California

Gold Ridge firefighters found Mendoza in a pile of trimmed tree limbs several dozen feet from the base of the tree, Schipper said. A 21-year-old Santa Rosa man was the victim of a fatal tree-cutting accident Tuesday in the Bloomfield area of Sebastopol, the Sonoma County Coroner'€™s Office said. He apparently did not realize Mendoza was still there when he cut the top off the tree, Schipper said. David Mendoza, an employee of North Bay Tree Care, died after the company owner, who was some 80 feet up a tree, cut off a length at the top that apparently fell on Mendoza, authorities said. I knew what I was doing,'€ he said. '€œIt'€™s kind of one of those things where something went wrong.