Deputies have called off the helicopter and tactical team in
their search for a fugitive who eluded deputies after they shot at
him in San Martin, according to the sheriff’s office. The man is
wanted for a host of violent crimes, has served 11 years for
manslaughter and was last seen in Mount Madonna County Park.
Deputies have called off the helicopter and tactical team in their search for a fugitive who eluded deputies after they shot at him in San Martin, according to the sheriff’s office. The man is wanted for a host of violent crimes, has served 11 years for manslaughter and was last seen in Mount Madonna County Park.
Just after midnight this morning, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputies received a tip that Joel Barnes, 39, of Gilroy, was at a house in San Martin, according to Sgt. Rick Sung. Deputies went to the home at 12605 Harding Ave. and found Barnes, who is wanted for burglary of a pistol, ditching a stolen motorcycle, assault with a deadly weapon, and felony domestic violence.
Ignoring orders to surrender, Barnes ran to his green 1973 Ford pickup – license plate no. 4L81646 – and fled the scene. Deputies fired shots at Barnes while he fled from the home surrounded by fields. It was unclear if deputies hit Barnes or if Barnes fired back at the deputies.
“It sounded like a firecracker to me, so we just went to sleep,” said Tomiko Thada, who lives and owns a nursery across the street.
Barnes then led deputies on a 10- to 15-minute chase up Redwood Retreat Road and Mount Madonna Road to Mount Madonna County Park, Sung and a neighbor said. Deputies lost Barnes, who was still in his truck, in the park, Sung said. Sung did not know if the chase reached high speeds or why the deputies lost Barnes. However, a resident in the area said that he heard a truck roaring up the road, with sirens following a bit behind.
This afternoon, the sheriff’s office reduced the personnel looking for Barnes to the regular beat deputies and one canine team, Sung said. Sung said he had not received any tips, but that the detective assigned to the case might have.
This morning, special tactical teams gathered near the historic home of cattle baron Henry Miller. The deputies sat around a trailer on chairs, about 500 feet from where park rangers went about their daily business, watering the lawn outside the pen of Mount Madonna’s iconic and rare white fallow deer and directing an ongoing construction project. Meanwhile, a helicopter circled overhead and deputies set up a perimeter around the park in hopes of spotting Barnes or his truck.
Down in San Martin, deputies blocked off Harding Avenue south of Cox Road and scoured the residence where deputies saw Barnes, using surveying tools to recreate the scene. There were no signs – such as blood – that Barnes had been shot in the encounter, Sung said. The property where the shooting happened has three residences with three separate mailboxes, and its yards were littered with chairs, a fountain, a child’s pedal car, a tractor, pots, towels, volcanic rocks and cactuses. What appeared to be two delivery trucks and a white car sat in the back of the lot.
Across the street, sheriff’s deputies surrounded the parking lot of Mt. Green Nursery with crime scene tape and forced the business closed. Still, the inconvenience hasn’t affected business that much because Thada mostly sells wholesale, she said.
Her family, who has lived there since 1985, had not had any problems with anybody at the neighboring residence in the past, Thada said. However, she had reported a suspicious pickup – a “very old, American-made,” tan truck with a “lot of beer cans” in its bed – in the parking lot of her business late at night several times, she said.
Other nearby neighbors also did not pay much attention to the late-night scene. Troy Holderfield didn’t even hear the shots, and his family only found out about the incident when deputies called his house about 1 a.m. to ask if everyone was safe.
However, neighbors had noticed an increase in police activity, with multiple cars passing through the area day and night.
“There was a whole slew of stuff going on,” said Steve Gales, a 20-year San Martin Avenue resident out fixing his mailbox with a sledge hammer Wednesday morning.
Some neighbors said they noticed that police were carrying heavier firearms than their usual sidearm.
Barnes served 11 years for manslaughter, and his parole ended Dec. 23, 2007, according to Sung and the California Department of Corrections. However, Sung did not have information about the crime Wednesday morning.
Barnes was originally listed as one of the Gilroy Dispatch’s Most Wanted last month after deputies searched a home on the 5000 block of Hecker Pass Highway Aug. 15 looking for Barnes. Instead, deputies arrested two men in their 30s and a teenage girl who were staying in the house on various weapons and drug charges. The men and girl had machine guns, methamphetamine for sale, marijuana and stolen property between them, deputies said.
Then, on Aug. 17, a nearby resident living on the 10000 block of Sycamore reported that Barnes had stolen a handgun worth $200.
Two days later at 4:39 a.m., Barnes abandoned a motorcycle stolen out of Gilroy in a yard on the 13000 block of Sycamore Avenue in Morgan Hill, deputies said.
The sheriff’s office said Barnes – who is white, 5 feet, 10 inches and about 170 pounds – should be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.
Check back in later this afternoon for more information on the manslaughter charge for which Barnes served 11 years.
Anyone with information about Barnes’ whereabouts can call the Sheriff’s dispatch at (408) 299-2311.
