Merced County homicides reach all-time high

Two homicides last week placed the overall number of violent deaths for 2014 in Merced County above 30 for the first time ever.

A total of 31 homicides have been reported in Merced County in 2014, a record high, law enforcement officials confirmed.

Merced County last year reported a total of 28 homicides, which tied the previous record set in 2010. County officials at the end of 2013 initially reported 29 cases, but that number was later reduced by one when investigators learned one of the deaths actually occurred in Stanislaus County, according to the Merced County Coroner’s Office.

All but one of the county’s violent deaths this year have occurred in the city of Merced or unincorporated areas of the county. The Merced Police Department and the Merced County Sheriff’s Department have each investigated 15 homicide cases.

The shooting death Sunday of 17-year-old Raymond Sevilla in Los Banos was the first homicide of the year in a jurisdiction not controlled by either Merced police or the Sheriff’s Department. No homicides have been reported in 2014 in Atwater, Livingston, Gustine or Dos Palos.

While the police and Sheriff’s Department have the same number of cases, sheriff’s deputies have been able to resolve more of them.

Sheriff’s detectives have solved, or “cleared,” 12 of the 15 total violent death cases, and two of the unsolved deaths are from the same case, a double homicide in Winton.

City police have cleared five of their 15 homicide cases. Two of the five cleared cases were deemed justifiable homicides; one was the officer-involved shooting death of a robbery suspect April 26, and the other was an Aug. 14 death that was deemed self-defense.

The 15 homicides in the city in 2014 are a significant jump from the five homicides reported in Merced in 2013. None of the 2013 homicide cases were cleared.

Most linked to gangs

Merced police said of the 15 total homicides reported this year, nine have involved some connection to area street gangs. Two of the gang-related homicide cases have resulted in the arrests of suspects, Merced police confirmed.

“The gang-related cases are some of the toughest to solve because people are in fear of retaliation, so they’re not readily providing information or speaking with us when we contact them,” said Sgt. Scott Skinner, head of the department’s Major Crimes Unit.

A lack of cooperation from witnesses and the public in general continues to be major obstacle for city police detectives in violent crime investigations.

“We know there are a lot of very good citizens in Merced who have information about all these cases and we’d love for them to come forward,” police Chief Norman Andrade said.

“We have numerous ways they can provide information anonymously. Between the citizens and us, we can take control of these situations. But if citizens don’t get involved, it’s going to be a lot harder and some of these cases may never get solved,” the chief said.

Andrade noted that while homicides have spiked dramatically over the last year, the total number of violent crimes in Merced has fallen.

“I wish there was a single answer for all of this, but if there was, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Andrade said. “There are socioeconomic issues at hand; it’s hard for young people, young males in particular, to find jobs. Another factor is a lack of resources for all law enforcement agencies.”

Andrade said several consecutive years of “reductions in budget, personnel and materials” forced law enforcement into “a more reactive mode, as opposed to a more proactive mode.”

“It’s not a problem we can just arrest our way out of, either,” Andrade said. “We need to understand and address the factors that cause people to join gangs in the first place and address the bigger picture. But, ultimately, we do need to have the resources necessary to address all of this.”

Pot-related violence

Homicides in unincorporated areas of Merced County are actually down from last year and the Sheriff’s Department’s clearance rate is higher than a year ago. So far in 2014, deputies have cleared 12 of the 15 violent deaths reported, compared to clearing 10 or 18 last year, the department confirmed.

Three of the cases from 2014 have been gang related, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

Sheriff Tom Cavallero said the number of murders connected to marijuana grows this year has been the most “surprising.” Five of the county’s 15 homicides in 2014 have been connected to illegal marijuana cultivation, Cavallero said.

“Homicide and gun-related violence (in the sheriff’s jurisdiction) are both down this year, but the violence with some of these (marijuana) grows is something I’m not sure we’ve really seen before at this level,” Cavallero said.

Deputies cited the Feb. 24 death of Casey DeSalles in Stevinson and the Sept. 10 death of Christopher Hernandez outside Winton as particularly disturbing examples of marijuana-related violence.

Cavallero said he is pleased with the improved clearance rate this year in those cases. The sheriff specifically praised the work of the 11 detectives assigned to the Major Crimes Unit led by Detective Sgt. Chuck Hale.

“They’re absolutely tenacious; they don’t stop until they’ve totally and completely exhausted every possibility in a case,” Cavallero said. “They have a team philosophy; the whole unit is involved in the major investigation, and they get a lot done with the old-fashioned, knocking-on-doors, shoe-leather approach to their investigations.”

Still, Cavallero said, while homicides and overall violence are down compared to last year, nobody is taking any victory laps. The sheriff agreed with Andrade regarding the need for public help in all investigations.

“We always need more people to come forward and share any information they may have about illegal activity,” Cavallero said. “Especially in the unincorporated areas, we hope they report any unusual activity, any people walking through the area that seem suspicious. It’s always better for us to investigate a tip that turns out to be nothing than to have to respond later to something that could have been prevented.”

Conviction rate high

Statistics from the Merced County District Attorney’s Office show that nearly all of the homicides cases that have gone to trial since 2007 have resulted in convictions.

Of the 41 homicide cases that went to trial since 2007, 38 have resulted in convictions, the District Attorney’s Office reported.

Two of those trial losses came from the same case in 2007 against defendant Robert Thompson, who was tried twice and eventually found not guilty. Another case in 2010 resulted in a not guilty verdict on a murder change, but a guilty verdict on being an accessory to the crime after the fact, the prosecutor’s office confirmed.

Merced County prosecutors so far in 2014 have reported an overall conviction rate of about 95 percent.

District Attorney Larry Morse II, who was out of town this week, has long praised the work of the attorneys and investigators in his office.

“We rigorously evaluate the state of the evidence in every case and have set very high standards for evaluating that evidence so we know we can sustain criminal charges that will result in convictions,” Morse said in a recent interview.

“Those standards and the talented people working in this office are why we have not lost a murder trial in years,” Morse said.

This story was originally published December 14, 2014 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Merced County homicides reach all-time high."