Victim describes carjacking in wake of deputy’s slaying

When a man in a checkered blue shirt and a black Kansas City Royals baseball cap jumped over a fence and into the backyard of a home in Keyes, the family that lives there had no idea every law enforcement official in the county was looking for him.

The man, later identified as David Machado, would be arrested several hours later and charged with murder in the slaying of Stanislaus County sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace, who had been shot to death in Fox Grove Park near Hughson just 15 minutes earlier.

If the family had known what the man was accused of doing, they might not have engaged him before he took the daughter’s white Kia Rio, according to authorities. The car was later recovered in the town of Lindsay, where Machado was ultimately captured.

One of those family members agreed to speak with The Bee on the condition of anonymity because she fears retaliation.

When she saw the man jump over her fence Sunday morning, she said she pounded on her sliding glass door and yelled at him.

She said the man flipped her off and continued toward her side yard and the garage at the front of her house. The garage side door and roll-up door were open and her husband was in the driveway detailing their daughter’s Kia. Her daughter was visiting for the weekend with her 10-year-old son.

The woman said the 10-year-old was sleeping in a room next to the garage, so she told her daughter and her 13-year-old and 21-year-old sons to take him, go to the bedroom at the back of the house and stay there.

She went to her driveway, where the man had approached her husband. She said the man demanded the keys to the Kia. Her husband asked the man if he had a gun and he pulled up his shirt to show one tucked in his waistband.

The woman said the man seemed distraught and was saying things such as, “I’m the son of Satan,” “My family is dead,” “My kids are dead” and “I used to work for the government.”

The woman said she asked the man his name, what was wrong and if he needed her to pray for him. She said she was trying to engage the man, hoping he would leave without taking her daughter’s car, but also worrying about what might happen with the children.

She works for a school district and is a mandated reporter.

She thought whatever trouble he was in originated from the property behind her home. The 5-acre property off Rohde Road contains several small apartments and a single-story house.

She said she’d never seen him before, but the woman later learned that Machado was living or at least staying in one of the apartments. Law enforcement had the property on lockdown for most of the day Sunday.

Witnesses said Machado tried to steal a car from his roommates and another resident on the property before jumping the fence into the woman’s backyard.

As the woman talked to the man in her driveway, he sat in the Kia with the gun in his lap. For a moment, she said, it appeared he might leave without taking the car, but when she asked his name, the conversation was over. He drove away in the Kia.

The family called 911 and while they live in the Sheriff Department’s jurisdiction, Ceres police showed up. The family gave officers information about the Kia and provided a description of the man, from which a composite sketch was drawn.

Several hours later, Machado was in custody in Lindsay, where authorities say he was trying to break into a car.

On Tuesday, the victim of the carjacking said she and her family are still shaken, but mostly they are grateful to be alive and are heartbroken for Wallace’s family.

“Our family is devastated by Deputy Wallace’s death; it should never have happened,” she said. “Our family got off easy compared to what happened to him.”

She said she’d like to attend Wallace’s funeral Tuesday and bring her 21-year-old son, who has expressed interest in a career in law enforcement.

She said she’d support him if it is what he decides to pursue, but wants him to understand: “This is real, this is something that could happen.”

Bee researcher Maria Figueroa contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Victim describes carjacking in wake of deputy’s slaying."