Man accused of killing friend in Canyon Country returns to court

Deputies: David Figueroa stabbed his friend during argument in 2018

A Pacoima man accused of killing his friend he met while both were in rehab together returned to court on Tuesday.

David Alonso Figueroa, 40, appeared in San Fernando Superior Court and was told to return May 9 for a pretrial conference.

During a pretrial conference, the involved parties establish timelines for concluding all pre-trial activities, such as setting a tentative trial date, encouraging the settlement of cases, counsel trying to agree on undisputed facts or points of law, and more.

On July 30, 2018, detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau began investigating the stabbing death of 29-year-old Brent Hariston, of Canyon Country.

Hariston and Figueroa, according to the late Homicide Detective John Corina, met in rehab.

The two men, according to Corina, were scheduled to meet up that morning and head to work together. An argument then is believed to have broken out between the two, and that’s when detectives believe Figueroa pulled out a knife and stabbed Hariston multiple times.

The suspect then allegedly fled the scene right as deputies were pulling up. The victim’s mother had called the Sheriff’s Department when she first saw the altercation.

Deputies established a containment in the neighborhood and eventually found and apprehended Figueroa, who they believe to be the suspect.

The stabbing victim was rushed to the hospital but died later in the hospital, Corina said, describing the stabbing wounds as in the upper body.

“We found the murder weapon at the scene,” Corina said at the time. “It was a few houses down from the house where Hariston was found.”