Jury selection is slated to resume Monday for the trial of a convicted felon accused of fatally punching a 31-year-old man for trying to take one of his beers without permission in a downtown Riverside parking lot.
Mike Mendez, 38, of Riverside allegedly caused the death of George Ryan Sifontes of Rialto in 2023.
Mendez is charged with assault resulting in great bodily injury and a sentence-enhancing allegation of causing injuries that left the victim comatose.
On Wednesday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro summoned several panels of prospective jurors to the Riverside Hall of Justice for screening as to their availability and qualifications. The judge ordered the prospects to return to the courthouse Monday morning. Opening statements are expected before the end of next week.
Mendez is free on a $100,000 bond.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, in the predawn hours of Oct. 7, 2023, Sifontes and his friend, identified in court documents only as “Angel,” left a bar after it closed and walked to the intersection of University Avenue and Lemon Street, where there are multiple parking lots with both reserved and public spaces.
The men spotted Mendez and two of his associates engaged in a heated argument in one of the lots and stopped to observe, standing outside the parking area on a planter and watching behind a four-foot high iron fence, the brief said.
Sifontes noticed a box of unopened Modelo beers and reached through the iron gate, retrieving one as the men continued arguing. Mendez spotted the victim taking a beer and “yelled at Sifontes not to touch his beer,” according to the narrative.
The victim released the brew and asked innocently, “Who, me?” The brief said Mendez shouted an expletive and confirmed he was directing his comment toward Sifontes, who again asked innocently if the defendant was talking to him, angering Mendez and drawing him out of the parking lot.
“The defendant … walked over to Sifontes, who was unarmed, and punched him in the jaw so hard that Sifontes immediately lost consciousness and fell backward,” the prosecution said. “The force of the blow caused Sifontes to fall all the way back and hit his head on the pavement — so hard that it sounded like a gunshot.”
Mendez and his friends immediately jumped into his vehicle and sped out of the lot, according to the brief.
Angel looked down and saw blood streaming out of his friend’s ear and mouth, at which point he ran to get help from Riverside Police Department officers less than a block away watching the downtown bars shut down before 3 a.m.
Sifontes was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died from the severe head trauma 10 days later.
One of the beers later recovered from the parking lot had Mendez’s fingerprints on it, and security surveillance video cameras on surrounding buildings captured his car leaving the area at the time of the alleged assault, according to the brief.
There were several witnesses to the alleged attack who ultimately identified the defendant, court papers said.
Riverside police Officer Ryan Railsback said investigators spent about a month on the case before finally gathering sufficient evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for Mendez, who was taken into custody without incident in early November 2023.
He has prior convictions out of San Bernardino County for assault and receiving stolen property.