Five suspects in three murder cases released from jail after DA declines to file charges
Five murder suspects arrested over the past several months were released from jail after the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against them.
The office has cited a need for additional evidence to file charges, but some fear there could be more violence or the suspects could get away before that happens.
“My son is dead and they are out there walking the streets; it’s not fair,” said Athan Hicks, the mother of one of the victims, Evan Robinson. “It’s just unbelievable, it’s crazy, it’s sad. I’m sad every day for my son.”
The people released without charges are:
- Demetreo Knox, a suspect in the March homicide of 23-year-old Clive Stewart in Modesto.
- Anthony Joseph Pando, a suspect in the June homicide of 16-year-old Evan Robinson in Keyes.
- Three juveniles, suspects in the December homicide of 30-year-old Jamal Nejat in Salida.
All of the suspects live in Stanislaus County but were arrested out of the area, including one who was captured reentering the country from Mexico.
“The prerequisite to filing a case is that the investigative reports supply enough information that our office believes we can prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt,” DA spokesman John Goold said. “Double jeopardy precludes trying someone twice for the same crime, so it is critically important that the evidence presented supports filing criminal charges.”
The suspects were arrested on probable cause warrants signed by a judge, known as a Ramey warrant. For a jury to convict a defendant, they must find there was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, a higher standard than probable cause.
“If the District Attorney’s office filed charges based simply upon the probable cause listed in a Ramey warrant affidavit, we would lose that case in court,” Goold said. “Probable cause is not enough to convict someone of anything.”
In nearly every homicide case, a prosecutor responds to the scene with detectives. The prosecutor continues to work with detectives and discusses with them whether there is enough evidence to file, according to a source at the DAs office.
The source would not confirm whether those discussions were held in each of the three recent cases before detectives made their arrests.
Sheriff Jeff Dirkse said detectives on the cases involving Pando and the three juveniles will continue to investigate. “We hope to provide the desired information for the DA to file.”
The three male juveniles, two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old at the time Nejat was killed in a parking lot in the 4300 block of Salida Boulevard, were arrested July 1 in Clear Lake in Northern California.
A source close to the investigation said the suspects’ Salida home was raided shortly before their arrests.
The source said the DA wanted more evidence but fears investigators might not get the evidence they need because the threat of retaliation by the suspects is high. Since the December homicide, the juveniles have been implicated in several shootings in Modesto this year, according to the source.
Goold would not say what more information was needed to file charges on this case.
Shooting death of Robinson in Keyes
The month before, sheriff’s detectives arrested two men who had warrants for their arrest in the shooting death of Robinson, an unintended victim hit by a stray bullet near taco trucks in Keyes in May.
Hicks, Robinson’s mother, can’t talk about her first born without crying. The family lived in Keyes for 11 years before moving to Modesto a few years ago.
“We knew everyone on every street corner, that’s why I felt he was safe there,” she said.
She said she spoke with him on the phone about 20 minutes before he was shot and was just about to leave to go pick him up when she got a call from a family member in Keyes who said Robinson had been shot.
“I called my son’s phone and he didn’t answer, and I just kept calling and calling and he wouldn’t answer and I got there, it was all taped off.” Hicks said.
“I’m not dealing with it at all. Not at all. I’m lost. I miss my child,” she said.
Hicks said Robinson had just ordered food from his favorite taco truck when he was shot, caught in the crossfire of two groups that had been in a physical fight before guns were drawn.
Sheriff’s Detectives issued warrants for the arrests of men in each group.
Ruben Perez, 19, of Keyes, was arrested in south Modesto when he went to attend classes as part of the terms of his probation on an unrelated case. Anthony Joseph Pando, 22, of Ceres, was arrested later the same day when police in Medford, Oregon, made contact with him during a traffic stop.
The District Attorney’s office filed murder charges against Perez but not Pando.
The source from the DA’s office said Perez was the main aggressor. He was charged not only with Robinson’s murder but the attempted murder of Pando and another man who was with Pando.
“It is mind-boggling to me; how could he not be charged with something? Manslaughter, gun charges, child endangerment, something?” Hicks said Monday night, not long after a prosecutor called her to tell her Pando wouldn’t be charged.
She said the prosecutor told her ballistics show Pando’s bullet killed her son but that he fired in self defense.
“He still fired the gun and shot and killed my child,” Hicks said. “Regardless of how it went down ... they have to be held accountable for something because my child is dead.”
Before the prosecutor called on Monday, Hicks said everything else she learned about her son’s case was through posts on social media or by doing her own research online. She found by searching booking records that Pando was released from jail in Oregon and never extradited to California.
She doesn’t know where Pando is now and questions what he was doing in Oregon.
“Why would you flee if you didn’t do anything,” she said.
Suspect arrested coming back from Mexico
A suspect in a Modesto Police Department case went all the way to Mexico after a March shooting and was found in May trying to reenter the country in San Diego.
Demetreo Knox, 21, was the second suspect arrested in the shooting death of Clive Stewart in the area of East Coolidge Avenue and Water Street on March 7.
Jon Edward McDonald was arrested the day of the shooting and charged with Clive’s murder and the attempted murder of a second shooting victim.
Authorities would not say what motivated the shooting or what part they believe Knox had in the shooting, but he was released without charges.
“Any time someone is released and not prosecuted I think that is concerning for ... the community,” said Modesto Police Department Interim Chief Brandon Gillespie.
He said this case and other homicide cases are continuously under investigation, even after an arrest. He said detectives continue to work the case but, “I can’t say we will obtain additional information that will lead to an arrest.”
Since his release, Knox failed to appear for a hearing in June on an unrelated DUI case and a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to court records.
“Any time somebody flees it’s concerning,” Gillespie said. “The concern is always, are we going to be able to locate him again, and in this case it took us a while to locate him after the warrant was issued.”
Goold said, “It is not unusual to let an arrestee out while additional investigation is conducted.”
He pointed to a 2019 homicide in which Modesto business man, Jeremy Fennell was arrested, released, then charged five months later and ultimately convicted of the second-degree murder of a homeless man.
The lead detective continued to investigate the case following Fennell’s release from custody. He was eventually alerted to social media posts by Fennell in which he made disparaging and hateful comments about homeless people.
In May, the victim’s mother gave a statement in court about the impact of her loss. Then she watched as the judge sentenced Fennell to 40 years to life in prison.
There is no statute of limitations on a charge of murder. If new evidence comes out, charges can be filed on cases that prosecutors previously rejected.
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 8:18 AM.
