Alleged shooters held to answer in Watsonville murder case
A judge has ruled that two men charged with gunning down an 18-year-old Watsonville man in a residential carport last year will be held to answer for murder.
Wednesday's ruling, by Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Nancy de la Peña, came after a twoday preliminary hearing for codefendants Matthew Madriz Alcaraz, 19, of Morgan Hill, and Erick Deharo, 20, of Watsonville.
Feliciano Martinez-Perea was killed on the evening of April 2, 2022, in the courtyard of an apartment complex on the 100 block of Riverside Drive in Watsonville when two assailants appeared to have opened fire on him, Watsonville Police Department investigators said at the time. Much of the encounter was caught on apartment video surveillance cameras. Footage played during this week's hearings appeared to show two men engaging a third man who turns to face the duo and, at one point, rapidly waves both his hands in front of his body. One of the duo, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, appears to pull the second man, wearing a red flannel shirt, back in the opposite direction. The two start to walk away before the flannel-wearing individual doubles back, following the third man into a carport and appears to begin punching him. The whiteshirted man soon joins the others inside the carport before the three move out of the camera view.
Defense attorney Art Dudley, representing Madriz, argued in closing that the prosecution had not provided sufficient evidence, for the lower-standard purposes of a preliminary hearing, that his client had personally shot a firearm that caused Martinez-Perea's death, an allegation that serves as an adjunct special allegation to the murder charge.
Attorney Ryan Perreault, representing Deharo, went further, asserting that no real evidence pinpointed his client beyond taste in widely available clothing styles. Video footage shows one individual wearing a red flannel shirt and a second wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, but their faces were not clear.
“The idea that that's a smoking gun is a little outrageous,” Perreault said, prior to de la Peña reprimanding him for his use of the analogy during a shooting murder case.
Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Conor McCormick responded to both Dudley's arguments, saying that in order for Martinez-Perea to suffer from 13 gunshot wounds, both defendants must have fired on and struck the man at some point. He also rebutted Perreault.
“There really is just overwhelming evidence that (Deharo) was involved,” McCormick said, referencing Deharo seen wearing exactly the same clothing as one of the alleged shooters seen on video. “But not only that, it shows that he was with Mr. Madriz for hours and up to within about 20 minutes before the shooting.”
In the final minutes before the shooting, McCormick said video evidence had shown the route of an SUV, matching the description of one owned by Deharo, moving toward Riverside Drive.
Deharo and Madriz return to court for an arraignment on the information during a May 31 hearing.
A third man associated with the case, Damian Padilla, 29, of Watsonville, has been accused of harboring Madriz and DeHaro after the shooting. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony accessory after the fact, plus an enhancement for street gang activity. His case is scheduled for a separate preliminary hearing Monday.