WOODLAND — As his alleged fellow gang members await trial for a downtown Davis homicide, a West Sacramento man is headed to state prison for associating with them on the night of the crime.
Joseph James Underwood, 24, had been on probation with a 10-year suspended prison sentence when, according to Yolo County prosecutors, he knowingly socialized with Norteño-affiliated gang members at the KetMoRee nightclub on Sept. 19, 2015.
Six of them would later be arrested and charged with the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Peter Alexander Gonzales, a Los Angeles college student visiting Davis for his sister’s wedding. Their trial is set to begin in early November.
It marked the fifth probation violation for Underwood, who has prior convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, committing a felony while on bail, transportation of drugs for sale and criminal street gang activity in Solano County. His probation terms include a clause prohibiting him from associating with any gang members.
Despite a defense attorney’s argument that Underwood had “turned a corner” and put work and family ahead of his gang ties, in Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson’s view the defendant’s chances had simply run out.
“I can’t escape the conclusion that this defendant has had multiple opportunities to comply. He has been given multiple breaks along the way,” Richardson said at Tuesday’s court hearing. “At some point, there has to be consequences.”
Formerly a Vacaville resident, Underwood had been living in West Sacramento with his father and grandmother when he was invited to the KetMoRee nightclub at Third and G streets last fall.
“It was supposed to be a birthday party for a female friend,” Underwood testified Tuesday under questioning by his attorney, J. Toney. He added that he was in the bathroom when the fatal stabbing occurred, and that he left the nightclub immediately.
“I wasn’t involved in the altercation,” he said.
Underwood acknowledged joining the Brown Street Locos — one of Vacaville’s Norteño-affiliated street gangs — at age 14, committing crimes for the gang to earn his membership.
Free on bail since April, Underwood said he had obtained a $27-an-hour job as a flagger for a traffic-control company while also caring for his elderly grandmother and disabled father.
“I just want to work — that’s all I want to do,” Underwood said. “I work so much I don’t have time to do anything else.”
But while Underwood claimed his contact with gang members at KetMoRee was inadvertent, Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Alvina Tzang noted that security video of his arrival shows him walking “directly toward the group of individuals who are charged with murder in that case” and remaining with them for about an hour.
Photos taken that night depicted some members of the group throwing gang signs, while one image captured Underwood smoking with soon-to-be murder suspect Zackary Sandeno, according to Tzang.
“His sole purpose that night was to hang out with that group … who later took the life of an innocent victim,” Tzang said. She also disputed Underwood’s version of his departure, saying video shows him moving toward the melee and striking someone before he left.
Toney, meanwhile, argued that his client “couldn’t possibly have known what was going to happen at that party.” The defense attorney asked that Underwood’s probation be reinstated, allowing him to continue working and supporting his family.
“It would be counterproductive to send him to prison,” Toney said, calling Underwood’s encounter with the gang members “incidental contact.”
But Richardson disagreed, ruling that Underwood’s association with the Brown Street Locos that night would have been incidental only if he had quickly turned around and walked away.
“That isn’t what happened here,” Richardson said. “He must have known as soon as he entered that was among fellow gang members, and he stayed there.”
Citing Underwood’s multiple probation violations — including a scuffle with a Vacaville police officer while in possession of a loaded gun — Richardson imposed the suspended 10-year prison term and remanded him into custody, denying Toney’s request that Underwood remain on bail long enough to make arrangements for his job and family.
He did, however, allow Underwood to hug his father in the courtroom’s front row, across the aisle from Henry Gonzales, the father of the KetMoRee stabbing victim, who attended Tuesday’s court hearing.
“I’m never happy with anything like this. I doesn’t bring back my son,” Gonzales said of the outcome. “But at least they’ve taken another terrorist off the street.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene