Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
Thanks to reader-researcher RC fgor the sendalong.
PERRIS: Man charged with three counts of murder (UPDATE #4)
By Richard K. De Atley
August 7, 2013
Press-Enterprise
Authorities said Wednesday, Aug. 7 that they have solved a serial killing case with three counts of murder filed against a Perris man the say committed “random, unprovoked” knife attacks.
All of the three of the victims, including a mother and her adult daughter, were stabbed to death while they were taking a walk.
David Rey Contreras, 25, was arrested about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday at his home on Wilson Avenue in Perris. He is being held without bail and faces arraignment on Friday. The special circumstances filed against him make Contreras eligible for the death penalty.
Contreras was an early suspect in the case, but authorities said it was only recently that enough evidence was developed to charge him in the killings.
The attacks on the three victims were “some of the most horrific I have ever seen,” Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said at news conference.
He said two of the victims suffered 20 separate stab wounds. “We hope and expect that justice will be done,” Zellerbach said.
“There’s nothing that connects the victims or the suspect in this case. It’s totally random and unprovoked,” said Sheriff’s Homicide Lt. Joe Borja. ”I would say his actions — they account for what you would consider a serial killer. And if not stopped, I believe there would have been more victims in the area.”
Borja said the law enforcement definition for a serial killer was three victims or more.
Contreras is charged with murder in the Dec. 29, 2012, death of Jose Apreza, 53, of Perris. Apreza was reported missing by his wife that same day after he took his dog out for a walk early that morning and did not return.
His body was later found in an open field. The deputy who found Apreza’s body had to shoot and kill Apreza’s dog when the animal attacked him, reports said at the time.
Contreras also is also charged with murder in the Feb. 4, 2013, deaths of Maria Gonzalez, 51, and her 25-year-old daughter, Consuelo Gonzalez, the release said.
The two women left their Nuevo home about 5 p.m. to go for a walk. A short time later, authorities received a call of a stabbing on Central Avenue in the city.
Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies found both women lying in the street. Consuelo Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene and Maria Gonzalez died while being transported by ambulance to a hospital.
The slayings shocked the community.
Contreras was first arrested after a woman reported a suspicious person near the double-murder scene on Feb. 11, a a week after the women’s slayings, Riverside County Sheriff’s Capt. Scot Collins of the Hemet station said at the news conference.
There was not enough evidence then to charge Contreras with the murders, Collins said, but “detectives started focusing on the possibility that he may be our suspect. ”
Court records show Contreras was convicted on the two counts — carrying a a concealed weapon, described as a knife, and possession of a “leaded cane.” He was given 36 months probation on May 23. He had already served 102 days in jail by the time of his sentencing.
Borja said that with physical evidence from the scenes, search warrants, and interviews with others who were originally suspected, “we determined that Mr. Contreras is the suspect who committed these crimes.”
Borja declined to give details about the murder weapon, or whether the knife Contreras had when he was arrested in February was involved in the slayings. “I’m not going to go into exactly whether the murder weapon was located, but it’s consistent with everything we have investigated.”
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