WOODLAND — Surveillance video, broken vehicle parts and a phone tip led police to the suspects in a hit-and-run collision that killed a longtime Woodland resident last fall.
Woodland police officers outlined the investigation this week in Yolo Superior Court, where Raymond Contreras, his girlfriend Norma Gentry and her father Roberto Sanchez were ordered to stand trial for their alleged roles in the incident following a two-day preliminary hearing.
Contreras is accused of striking and killing 65-year-old Richard Tafoya with a Dodge Ram pickup on the morning of Nov. 12, 2015, as Tafoya walked across Mariposa Street. Gentry, a registered owner of the truck, was a passenger at the time, and police say Sanchez filed a false insurance claim that blamed the damage on a mishap with a milk crate.
All three have pleaded not guilty to the allegations against them. Contreras is charged with hit and run causing death or permanent serious injury, concealing evidence and conspiracy. Gentry and Sanchez face counts of being an accessory to a felony, making a false and fraudulent insurance claim, concealing evidence and conspiracy.
Judge Paul Richardson’s courtroom was nearly full of relatives and friends of both the defendants and the victim, a lifelong Woodland resident who worked at an auto-parts store.
Tafoya was known to walk his dog, Heidi, in the middle of the night. He was doing just that when, according to court testimony, a southbound vehicle struck him on Mariposa Street shortly after 3:30 a.m., likely as he was crossing from Schneider Park toward the Utah Avenue home he shared with his sister.
The noise from the impact woke several neighbors, one of whom described it as sounding “like a truck dropping something,” followed by a dog’s yelping, Officer Darryl Moore testified.
Tafoya died at the scene, his body surrounded by debris that police collected for evidence. Meanwhile, two neighbors with security-camera systems captured images of the fleeing vehicle — a dark-colored truck that appeared to have a damaged driver’s-side headlight.
Police took one of the broken vehicle parts to a local auto dealership, “and that’s where we determined it belonged to a headlamp assembly” to a Dodge pickup, Officer Simeon McKenzie said. Officers later released a description of the suspect vehicle to the media.
On Nov. 17, five days after the fatal collision, police received a phone call from Kergel Auto Body Shop on Kentucky Avenue, reporting that a Dodge Ram with front headlight and bumper damage had recently come in for repairs. The bumper appeared to have been wiped clean, and a piece of debris from the crime scene matched up to the broken headlight assembly, officers testified.
The truck was registered to Sanchez and Gentry, whom police contacted later that day. Both said they were aware of the fatal hit-and-run but denied involvement, Sanchez claiming the pickup’s damage occurred when he struck a plastic milk crate on Highway 113 on the night of Nov. 13, McKenzie said.
Gentry, meanwhile, told investigators she and Contreras had driven to a Sacramento bar on the night of Nov. 11 and were home by 2 a.m. on the morning of the 12th.
“She said she knew it looked really bad, but it wasn’t them,” McKenzie said of Gentry. “She demanded an apology from the police in general for taking her truck.”
But text messages retrieved from Gentry’s cell phone disputed the family’s version of events. Officer Matthew Gray said Gentry exchanged texts with both her boyfriend and her father regarding an insurance claim on the afternoons of Nov. 12 and 13 — well before Sanchez reporting hitting the crate on the highway.
“Tell him the truth. You were asleep. I was driving. You won’t get in trouble for anything,” Contreras texted Gentry on Nov. 14, agreeing to pay $500 toward the repairs.
A month later, on Dec. 14, Woodland police arrested Gentry on suspicion of driving under the influence — her second DUI offense since May. At that point she confessed to being in the truck when Tafoya was hit, officers said.
Sanchez also owned up to police that day, according to Gray, saying Gentry had admitted to being asleep in the vehicle as Contreras drove on Nov. 12.
“She awoke at some point to see a male directly in front of the car, Mr. Contreras struck the male, and that’s where the damage came from,” Gray said. Sanchez acknowledged he should have called police, but called his insurance company instead — taking blame for the wreck so his daughter, who had a suspended license, wouldn’t get in trouble.
Sanchez’s attorney, Gary Talesfore, argued there’s no proof his client was aware the truck was involved in the hit-and-run at the time he filed the claim, believing at the time that Contreras had struck a tire, as he and Gentry initially asserted.
Pat McCarthy, who represents Contreras, conceded the evidence shows his client is responsible for the fatal collision but disputed his role in filing a false insurance claim. Gentry’s attorney Michael Stewart, meanwhile, contended she had no knowledge of either the hit and run or the false insurance claim and shouldn’t face charges at all.
Richardson allowed all of the counts to stand, ordering the trio back to court March 29 for arraignment. They remain free on bail in the meantime.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
