Mother of murder suspect: 'I'm very, deeply sorry' for victim

The mother of 22-year-old Modesto resident Shaun Santos, who faces charges in the death of a victim of a robbery in Turlock's Donnelly Park, spoke Friday about her son and the crimes of which he's accused.

"The first thing I really want to say is I'm very, deeply sorry for that young man," Janice Young said by phone from her home in the Contra Costa area. "I cannot imagine" the pain his loved ones are feeling, she added.

Cameron Tracy, 21, and his girlfriend were at the skate park at Donnelly Park at about 6 p.m. when, according to the account on a gofundme.com page set up while he was comatose, four "masked assailants pulled up in a white van, jumped out and surrounded Cameron and beat him to unconsciousness."

The Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office reported Thursday that Tracy died Wednesday.

Santos was among four people arrested Dec. 5 in connection with four robberies in the park and Tracy's death. The others arrested are Santos' girlfriend, 38-year-old Lavinia Perez, and a Modesto boy and a Manteca boy, ages 15 and 16. Young said the 15-year-old is Perez's son.

The DA’s Office said a criminal complaint regarding Tracy's death has been filed against two suspects in custody. Stanislaus County Superior Court records indicate those two are Santos and Perez, who already faced charges of attempted murder while Tracy remained alive.

The criminal complaint filed in the case shows Santos faces an enhancement for using a deadly weapon, a metal baseball bat, to inflict great bodily injury.

Young said her son has a history of violence and aggression. "Shaun has been like this since he was really young, about 6 years old."

For various reasons, including her own alcoholism, "Shaun was taken from me at a real young age and put in foster care in Turlock," said the mother of five.

She said she regained custody of three of her children, but Santos' brother Robert "found a wonderful foster family, so I gave up my parental rights for him." Santos was taken in by the same family, she said, but "he gave them the hardest time" and ended up in a group home.

Court records show that Santos' criminal history in Stanislaus County (he's also lived at least in San Joaquin County) includes no-contest pleas in 2013 to assault likely to produce great bodily injury, in 2014 to petty theft and in September to battery with serious bodily injury.

Young said the criminal justice system failed to protect the public from her son. "My son had been locked up before and was on formal probation. He had to check, in, but he never checked in, so when they're having these incidents where he's arrested, what I don't understand is if they have him incarcerated, why don't they revoke his probation, why did they keep letting him go?"

According to a source in the Stanislaus County Probation Department, Santos had been in custody for noncompliance of his probation terms. However, he could only be held for prescribed limited periods of time and was subject to early release credits.

On Santos’ 2013 conviction, the source said, his probation expired in early 2017. Regarding his September no-contest plea, he was given informal probation, which meant the only thing the county was responsible for was seeing that Santos made restitution.

Meanwhile, his mom said her son also has a history of mental illness, Young said, has tried to commit suicide and has been admitted to mental hospitals on "more than a handful of occasions."

She said he received Social Security payments and Perez was his "payee," whose job was to look after him and make sure he was taking his medications.

Young regrets that she herself "didn't reach out and help him 24-7," she said. "He's done his bad things and ... I'm really sorry for that young man, I really am. I have five children and could never imagine losing a child."

Tracy was just days away from moving to his home state of Utah, where he had a job lined up, according to the gofundme page. "We have lost such a beautiful, kind, wonderful friend (whose) passions included spending time with family, friends, video games and photography," campaign creator Christy Juarez wrote there. "Through this tragedy comes the gift of life. ... Cameron was a donor and will be helping many people live on."

Juarez added Thursday night that memorial service information will be added to the page within the coming week.

Tracy's parents spoke to Fox 40 about their son, a longtime skater, skilled photographer and counselor at the Foothill Horizons camp in Sonora for sixth-graders.

Of the robbery, Jennifer Tracy told the TV station, "He took the hits for his girlfriend. He wanted to make sure she was safe."

And of their son being an organ donor, his father, Brad, said, "We couldn’t be more proud of that fact. ... Knowing that for him, his suffering is over, but for someone else. Hopefully theirs will be over as well."

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Mother of murder suspect: 'I'm very, deeply sorry' for victim."