A Gilroy doctor accused of killing his wife, Doris Mae Knapp, is scheduled to submit a plea July 9.
German Baldeon, whose practice was based in Salinas, is facing a murder charge while 59-year-old David Galvez, of Tracy and a friend of Baldeon according to police, faces a charge of personal use of a stabbing instrument.
Galvez is currently in Ecuador, according to Deputy District Attorney Angela Bernhard.
On June 5, Gilroy police arrested 68-year-old Baldeon after serving a search warrant at the couple’s home on the 1400 block of Bristlecone Court. Knapp, 74, suffered wounds to the upper torso. Details on how the wounds were inflicted were not released as of press time.
Knapp’s death was originally ruled a suspicious death by police and declared a homicide days after it occurred.
Authorities aren’t sure if Valdez fled the United States immediately after the murder, Bernhard said.
Both the Gilroy and Tracy Police departments were unsuccessful in an attempt to serve a past search warrant at Galvez’s home in Tracy and since that time were looking for the suspect’s whereabouts.
Both Baldeon and Knapp were longtime Gilroyans, moving to the Garlic Capital in 1986 where Baldeon opened his private medical practice.
Knapp was a teacher at Gavilan College and was part of a Columbia University research team that received a Nobel Prize for its research on insulin, according to her obituary.
More information will be posted as it becomes available.
