Arrest in alleged hit-and-run homicide at apartment

Deaths in greater downtown area marked the city's 13th and 14th homicides of the year

SAN JOSE >> An arrest has been made in a deadly hitand-run from earlier this month that is now being investigated as a homicide after evidence indicated the collision was intentional, according to San Jose police.

The victim of that collision, 33-year-old Ricardo Cendejas, was gravely injured April 8 in the 1100 block of South First Street, just south of downtown, and died at a local hospital April 15, according to police and the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office.

But the announcement that the death was classified as a homicide did not happen until Saturday. Then on Monday, police announced that detectives arrested Amber Daphnee Chavez, a 40-year-old San Jose resident, on April 20 after a “preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect was connected to a carjacking and used the vehicle as a weapon to intentionally attack the victim.”

Police have not disclosed if or how Chavez and Cendejas knew each other. His death marked the city’s 13th homicide of the year.

Meanwhile, a deadly shooting Saturday in a hallway of The Grad, a student-oriented 19-story high-rise apartment building on East San Carlos Street a block west of San Jose State University, remains under investigation.

According to police, the shooting was reported at 11:37 a.m. and responding officers found a man suffering from gunshot injuries. The victim, who died at the scene, has not been formally identified by the coroner’s office as of Monday, but a campus message from San Jose State affirmed that neither the victim nor the building — which is privately owned — had direct connections to the university.

Police said the shooting appeared to stem from some kind of clash in the hallway, but declined to detail the circumstances.

No suspect has been arrested or publicly identified in the shooting, which marked the city’s 14th homicide of the year.

Anyone with information about either homicide can contact the San Jose Police Department homicide unit at 408-2775283 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.