Police are investigating the 10th gang-related incident since
January, after a 16-year-old was stabbed Friday night.
Meanwhile, Osiris Quintero Munoz appeared in court Monday
afternoon on charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon in
connection with the fatal downtown stabbing at Rio Nilo last month,
but police do not believe that incident involved gangs.
Police are investigating the 10th gang-related incident since January, after a 16-year-old was stabbed Friday night.
Meanwhile, Osiris Quintero Munoz appeared in court Monday afternoon on charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the fatal downtown stabbing at Rio Nilo last month, but police do not believe that incident involved gangs.
San Martin Superior Court Judge Teresa Guerrero-Daley delayed the case until 9 a.m. April 11 to give the public defender’s office more time to make sure there are no conflicts of interest: Munoz was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, a felony, by the same court in September 2006.
Late Friday night, a 16-year-old male victim was stabbed multiple times at 10:14 p.m. on the 800 block of Wentz Drive. The minor had been stabbed by at lease two suspects who police said were associated with a white compact vehicle. The victim was transported to an area hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Juliene Larsen was baby-sitting at her daughter’s house that night on Carr Place, which intersects Wentz Drive, when she said the home’s Rat Terrier began barking persistently. She also heard “a little commotion” outside the front door about 8:30 p.m., but when she flipped on the light switch, she couldn’t see anything.
“It could’ve been the victim who probably freaked out and threw his jacket over the light,” Larsen said. “The dog was very persistent in letting me know that someone was there who wasn’t suppose to be there.”
Larsen’s suspicions seem to hold water because when she answered the door for police who came by about 10:30 p.m., the front light illuminated normally, Larsen said. She said she figured the victim had been running from his assailants down Carr Place and eventually turned on Wentz Drive, where he was ultimately stabbed.
While the suspects in that case are still at large, Gilroy police arrested Munoz, 26, the evening of March 25 on the 800 block of El Cerrito Way for violating the conditions of his probation. The arrest was a result of a tip that led undercover GPD officers to 2280 Cochrane Road near Anderson Reservoir in unincorporated Morgan Hill, where Munoz’s former employer lives.
That’s where police located the gold 1998 Chrysler Sebring with a black convertible top and a broken passenger window that matched witnesses descriptions from the murder scene. Using DMV records, police matched the car to Munoz and then arrested him at his Gilroy crowded apartment for illegally possessing a single .380 round. They also recovered clothing and a towel that “appeared to have blood stains” and a 4-inch knife, according to court files and a statement of facts compiled by GPD Detective Stanley Devlin.
In the affidavit, Munoz told police that security guards ejected him and a friend from Rio Nilo, 7474 Monterey St., because his friend was fighting with the two victims: Juan DeDios Arvizu Cabrera, 26, of Castroville, who eventually died outside the bar from multiple stab wounds; and Adan Arvizu Cabrera, 23, of Salinas, who suffered non-life threatening knife wounds, police said.
Munoz told police that he sat in his Sebring after being kicked out of the bar and did not see the fatal fight. He claimed a friend who recently returned to Mexico jumped into the car, yelling, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” and that the other friend who was involved in the indoor fight fled on foot, according to Devlin’s statement.
But Munoz’s former employer told police that after Munoz dropped his car off at Cochrane Road that night, he admitted to partaking in the fight and then departed with two males. The next day Munoz, who had a “fresh” cut on his wrist, returned to Cochrane Road and told his former employer that he had stabbed the two victims with his “pocket knife” outside because they were beating on the friend who had gotten into the fight inside Rio Nilo.
Police are still searching for another vehicle – a silver pickup with double tires on the rear axle – that drove away from the scene of the stabbing death after the Sebring.
The death of Juan Cabrera is the only violent death of 2008 and the first killing in Gilroy almost 11 months. Early in the morning of April 29, 2007, 56-year-old Juan Lugo was found in an alley behind La Colonia Latina, located on Monterey Street between Eighth and Old Gilroy streets.
In mid-May, police arrested 21-year-old Tomas Martinez Romero and turned him over to the district attorney, who charged him with murder. However, the charge was later dropped. Romero is now charged with two counts of attempted murder in an unrelated shooting.
Last 10 gang related incidents
April 4 – Attempted murder of a 16-year-old
April 1 – Drive by shooting, three injured
March 26 – Possible gang fight, three arrested
March 4 – Assault with a deadly weapon, man stabbed
Feb. 28 – Assault with a deadly weapon, man stabbed
Feb. 26 – Robbery and assault, 16-year-old victim
Feb. 25 – Shots fired into residence
Feb. 25 – Shots fired into vehicle
Feb. 4 – Assault with a deadly weapon, 15-year-old victim stabbed
Jan. 11 – Holding firearms while on parole
Anyone with information can contact Gilroy Police Department Detective Stan Devlin at 846-0335. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call 846-0330.
Dispatch reporter Sara Suddes contributed to this story.
