Just a month shy of the nine-year anniversary of Adrian Carranza’s homicide, police arrested the man they believe killed him, the Salinas Police Department announced Aug. 1.
Carranza, 24, was shot and killed in the 2100 block of Perez Street over Labor Day weekend in 2008. His death was Salinas’ 19th homicide of the year.
Two other men were shot and injured during the shooting, which police called gang-related at the time.
Police later identified a suspect, Juan Antonio Cervantes of Salinas. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he proved elusive.
That is until the night of Sunday, July 30, when officers conducting a walk-through of a restaurant and bar in the 300 block of Main Street spotted Cervantes, 28.
Salinas Police Cmdr. Stan Cooper says it was good police work and a bit of luck that led to the arrest.
The two officers who were doing the walk-through just happened to have had experience with Cervantes in the past, who has an extensive arrest record, Cooper says.
When the two spied Cervantes they said to each other, "'Isn't that? Yeah it is, let’s go grab him,'" says Cooper.
He was taken into custody without incident and was later booked into Monterey County jail for the outstanding no-bail warrant.
Cervantes is charged with one count of homicide, two counts of attempted homicide and gang enhancements.
(1) comment
I really hope the whole story about how or why Cervantes was out for so many years gets told. The police arrested him on weapons charges in April 2009 and it was said at the time that he retaliated for the shooting of his father. Cervantes was long a suspect in a homicide and the police even said they found a gun used to kill someone.
So what happened after his arrest??? Did he get out of jail on the gun charges and did they just not have enough to hold him for homicide? Did he skip town?
Anyone who actually believes that the cops got so lucky as to walk into a bar and bump into a homicide suspect is gullible. They must have had a tip he was in town and would be there or they were watching him or someone close to him.
Here two news articles from 08-09 Monterey County Herald and a Salinas PD press release that included info. on the 09 arrest of Juan Cervantes.
http://www.montereyherald.com/article/ZZ/20090410/NEWS/904109938
http://www.montereyherald.com/article/ZZ/20090509/NEWS/905099960
http://news.salinaspd.com/userfiles/file/Press%20Conference%205-8-09.pdf
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