WOODLAND — The Yolo County grand jury handed down a felony murder indictment Sunday against the six suspects in a September stabbing death at a downtown Davis nightclub.
Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg announced the development Monday morning before a courtroom packed with members of both the victim’s and suspects’ families. It was to have been the first day of a 15-day preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
Instead, the indictment, which followed a weekend-long hearing convened by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office behind closed doors, supersedes the preliminary hearing requirement and sends the case straight to the trial stage.
The seven-page indictment charges all six defendants — Carlos Biviescas, 24; Martyn Contreras, 25; Anthony Rivera, 26; Joseph Sandeno, 20; Zackary Sandeno, 22; and Victor Vergara, 22 — with murder, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and participation in criminal street gang activity in connection with the Sept. 19, 2015, death of Peter Gonzales, a 23-year-old college student from Los Angeles who was in Davis to celebrate his sister’s wedding.
The document also appears to identify Vergara as Gonzales’ accused killer, adding a special circumstance allegation that he intentionally killed Gonzales as an active participant in a criminal street gang, as well as charging enhancements of premeditation and deliberation and personal use of a deadly weapon.
Davis police have identified the defendants as members of Norteño-affiliated street gangs in Vacaville. Two of them, Biviescas and Rivera, face additional case enhancements for prior felony convictions.
“These are domestic terrorists, thugs that are predators in our society,” Henry Gonzales, the victim’s father, said following Monday’s court hearing. “They don’t have any redeeming value for our community or any community, so I’m happy with the indictments.”
Less pleased were the defendants’ attorneys, several of whom complained they had spent the weekend preparing for the lengthy preliminary hearing, only to learn of the indictment when Rosenberg took the bench Monday morning.
Typically, the defense is excluded from participating in grand jury proceedings, which in this case began Friday night and continued all day Saturday and most of Sunday, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Garrett Hamilton said in court.
“It means we don’t get any opportunity to challenge the quality of the evidence presented to the grand jury,” attorney Rod Beede, who represents Joseph Sandeno, said Monday. “The grand jury will indict a ham sandwich for killing a pig. They’ll do whatever the prosecution tells them to do.”
Beede also noted that prosecutors have a duty to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury, and “we’ll be looking at whether they met that obligation or not.”
The DA’s Office has declined to comment regarding its reasons for taking the case before the grand jury rather than air its evidence in open court. The weekend hearing featured testimony from 16 witnesses, primarily law-enforcement officers from the Davis and Vacaville police departments and KetMoRee patrons who observed the fatal altercation.
John E.B. Myers, a criminal law professor at McGeorge School of the Law in Sacramento, said there could be a number of reasons behind the DA’s decision.
Convening a grand jury is common in very serious cases, “especially in a place like Yolo County, just to bring the legitimacy of the grand jury to bear on it,” Myers said. It also could have been for tactical reasons, given the large number of defendants and attorneys involved, or to avoid giving away too much of the government’s case.
“I think it’s probably a very smart move on the part of the prosecution, so they don’t have to show their hand,” Myers said. While the defense is entitled to discovery, “the (DA) now doesn’t have to hand it to them on a silver platter.”
Stunned by Rosenberg’s announcement, the six defense attorneys asked for more time to review the indictment before moving forward with an arraignment proceedings for their clients, which typically would have happened Monday.
Though some sought as much as a two-week delay before entering pleas, Rosenberg set that hearing for 8:30 a.m. Friday.
“I do think we need to keep moving forward,” Rosenberg said. While the preliminary hearing was to be a lengthy one, “the indictment process can be lengthy as well as things get sorted out.”
All six defendants continue to be held without bail at the Yolo County Jail while the case is pending.
Among the courtroom spectators Monday were Lucas Frerichs and Brett Lee of the Davis City Council, which in the wake of Gonzales’ death — and amid concerns of an increasingly violent downtown nightlife — imposed a moratorium on bars and restaurants over 2,500 square feet that serve alcohol.
After months of talks that included public forums and negotiations among police, city officials and local business owners, the council last month lifted the moratorium and replaced it with an entertainment permit ordinance that imposes new standards on bars and restaurants that provide dancing, music and other entertainment, with the goal of enhancing downtown safety.
Its name: the Peter Gonzales Entertainment Permit.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
