The body of evidence against suspect investigators charged for a deadly stabbing outside a Newhall alcohol store was dropped after a witness neglected to show up, as indicated by a representative for the L.A. Region Lead prosecutor’s Office. On March 14, three days after Eduardo Rosario Becerril was stabbed to death in front of Dooly’s Liquor in Newhall, detectives from the Homicide Bureau filed a case with the DA’s Office.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputies arrested Steven Castro, a Canyon Country mechanic, on suspicion of homicide at 6:20 a.m. Walk 12, under 24 hours after the fight at the 22500 block of Fourteenth Road. While manslaughter investigators said a homicide case was introduced to examiners, Castro at last was accused Walk 14 of disregarding Segment 245 (a)(1) of the California Correctional Code, attack with a dangerous weapon, not a gun. Castro was delivered on $30,000 bail three days after his capture, as indicated by Sheriff’s Specialty custody records accessible on the web.
From April to October of last year, Castro’s case went through more than a dozen continuances. In the end, Judge Pamela Usher in Department G of San Fernando Superior Court granted a motion to dismiss the case, citing Section 1382 of the Penal Code, which guarantees a defendant the right to a speedy trial. “The case was dismissed because the prosecution was unable to proceed due to a witness not appearing,” according to an email Tuesday from Venusse Dunn, spokeswoman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, “and in reviewing the evidence it was determined that the case/charge could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” Local officials did not share any suspicion that the suspect or the victim in the case is connected to organized crime or the ongoing turf war between two local gangs, although the area surrounding the crime was the subject of several investigations into recent reports of gang-related violence during the same period.
Other than to state that the case is still part of an ongoing investigation, homicide detectives declined to discuss the details of the incident. Appointee Lead prosecutor Stephen Rivera, who was relegated to the situation, as per the DA’s Office, was not quickly accessible for input on Wednesday. A GoFundMe made by the casualty’s family raised more than $6,400 as of Wednesday.
