From the article in the Sacramento Bee: The gunman was living in a compound on the property and was growing marijuana.
I lived in neighboring Sonoma Cty. in the '80s and we were very careful of where we hiked, staying on marked trails above Armstrong Redwoods and other public lands, 'cause they were growing sinsemilla on public lands, especially to the north.
(Obvious reasons: remoteness, free govt land, no seizure of your property if caught.)Today, with legalized medicinal marijuana dispensaries all over Denver (there are now more of them than Starbucks here), that legal pot has to come from somewhere. And they've got totally legal grow houses all over Southpark in the mtns to the west of Denver. You definitely want to be careful of trespassing around a "mountain home" with an electric meter whirling
(for all the grow lights blazing in the basement.) 
It would be interesting to know if that former mayor was trespassing (accidentally) on that
compound on the property, but even if he was, I hope that they catch that trigger-happy fool who'd
kill someone for a few plants -- or the
profits from a few plants.