Jury deliberations got underway Monday in the trial of a 24-year-old man accused of stabbing two partygoers, one fatally, during an unprovoked attack in the Santa Ana River bottom.
Raul Sanchez of Rialto allegedly killed 19-year-old Raul Saldana and wounded 18-year-old Alejandro Saucedo, both of Riverside, beneath a Pomona (60) Freeway overpass in 2021.
Sanchez is charged with murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon resulting in great bodily injury.
After just over a week of testimony, the prosecution and defense rested Friday. Both sides returned to the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, delivering closing arguments, after which Riverside County Superior Court Judge Matthew Perantoni sent the jury behind closed doors to begin weighing evidence. The panel deliberated briefly before breaking for the day.
Jurors are slated to resume deliberations Tuesday morning.
Sanchez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
According to a trial brief filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, the defendant and victims were in the river bottom for an off-road vehicle party, with several hundred people gathered, some of them on all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, in the predawn hours of Feb. 28, 2021.
During the event, a young man became embroiled in an argument with Sanchez’s girlfriend, Italy Hernandez, prompting her to call on the defendant, who challenged the boy to a fistfight, which he declined, prosecutors said.
Sanchez’s friend, identified only as “Tony,” tried to bully the teenager into fighting the defendant, culminating in an intervention by Saucedo.
The brief said that initially Sanchez and Saucedo tussled, while Tony focused on Saldana as he mounted his dirt bike and attempted to leave the location. Tony tried to push the victim off his bike, but Saldana pushed back, at which point Sanchez attacked him, according to the brief.
Court papers allege the defendant pulled a knife and stabbed Saldana five times, as well as punched him in the face. The defendant then turned his attention back to Saucedo, allegedly stabbing him several times, mainly in the arm, according to the brief.
Sanchez then assisted Tony in stealing Saldana’s dirt bike, pushing it to an unknown location along the river bottom, according to the prosecution.
Multiple people went to Saldana’s aid, including the wounded Saucedo, and they loaded him into a Jeep, whose driver transported both victims to Riverside Community Hospital. Saldana died in the emergency room at 1:20 a.m. Saucedo underwent surgery and ultimately recovered from his wounds, according to the brief.
Riverside police were unable to identify the assailant until a relative of Saldana posted a social media message the next day offering a reward for the return of the victim’s dirt bike. Several people contacted the man, saying they were in the river bottom when the attack happened, leading to police interviews and the identification of Sanchez as the alleged perpetrator, prosecutors said.
The defendant was taken into custody without incident on March 25, 2021, in Rialto.
“Sanchez stated he had heard (Saldana) was a boxer and had heavy hands, so he believed he was justified in stabbing him,” the brief said.
Sanchez proceeded to change his statement, telling detectives “alcohol made him stab the victim” and when he “gets mad, he blacks out” and is incapable of controlling himself, according to the narrative.
The defendant’s friend, Tony, has never been positively identified.
Sanchez has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.