Identity withheld, next of kin sought for victim of Sunday’s fatal shooting
December 27, 2013
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
An autopsy determined that a Santa Paula area farmworker died early Sunday from a single gunshot wound to the head, but the Medical Examiner’s Office has been unable to locate next of kin to be able to release the murder victim’s identity.
The 22-year-old homicide victim was found dead in his SUV when Santa Paula Police Officers responded to a 1:20 a.m. report of someone brandishing a weapon in the 200 block of South Garcia Street.
Officers came upon an SUV that had rear-ended a parked pickup truck and inside the SUV, that had a shattered rear windshield, was an unresponsive male with a single-gunshot wound to the back of his head.
When Santa Paula Fire EMTs and AMR paramedics responded to the scene they declared that the driver had died.
The victim had crashed his SUV into the parked pickup behind Ruben’s Lounge, 1247 E. Harvard Blvd. where police investigators determined the victim and his alleged assailant, Jesus Montejo Cardoso, 29, of Santa Paula had been drinking that evening.
The two men according to SPPD Lt. Ish Cordero had a long-standing feud that police believe led to the shooting.
Cardoso was arrested at about 10:30 a.m. that same December 22 morning at a friend’s house on North 14th Street. Police also recovered a weapon now undergoing testing to determine if it was used in the homicide.
Both the victim and Cardoso are Mexican nationals that worked in the agricultural industry.
According to Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Stevens the autopsy on the 22-year-old male victim showed he died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
“We’re still working at tracking the family,” to notify them of the man’s death, required before the name of a deceased person can be released publicly.
Stevens said since the victim is a Mexican national, so far the Medical Examiner’s Office has had just “bits and pieces” to go on in locating the murder victim’s next of kin.
The unidentified victim was working and living with friends in the South Mountain area of Santa Paula.
So far the investigation has not shown that Cardoso has a criminal record and investigators believe the incident was not gang-related.
The homicide was Santa Paula’s sixth in 2013.
