May 19, 2021 - Yesterday, Merced County Superior Court Judge Hansen sentenced Defendant Hector Manuel Delacruz, Jr., to 147 years to life, plus 41 years for the murder of Santiago Perez Mantar, and the attempted murder, robbery, and assault of additional victims. In mid-April of 2020, Mr. Delacruz targeted dairy workers in the Gustine area, attempting to kill and robbing a man on April 15, 2020 and then murdering Santiago Mantar during a similar assault on April 20, 2020.

On March 30, 2021, a Merced County jury found Mr. Delacruz guilty of first degree murder, attempted murder, and six other felonies relating to robbery, assault, and possession of a firearm. In Merced Superior Court case number 20CR-02963, the jury also found true several enhancements relating to the defendant's use of weapons and the infliction of great bodily injury upon multiple victims.

Mr. Mantar was a native of Guatemala who immigrated to the United States in 2015 for work. His family returned his body to Guatemala for a reunion with his parents and burial. At yesterday's sentencing hearing, Mr. Mantar's brother, Herminio Perez Mental, spoke about the loss his family has endured in the wake of Mr. Mantar's death:
He was killed not because he had issues with the person that committed the crime, not because he owed that person money, no, he was killed because he had a job and the person that killed him wanted to rob him. . My mother received his cold dead body, not the loving son she had sent off five years before to the United States. She would never be able to hug him again; he would never hear her say, "I love you, my son."

The victim of the attempted murder, Francisco Lopez, also spoke to Judge Hansen, explaining
My wife to this day is on medication for anxiety and post-traumatic stress. I still have nights that I still cannot sleep and be calm .. . . After two surgeries on my hand and four months of therapy, I cannot do several jobs that previously I was able to do, but nothing is impossible and I continue to move forward little by little. . . . I hope that no one else has to live this nightmare and that no one goes through life wanting to take someone's life just for nothing.

Mr. Delacruz had only been out of custody from the Merced County Jail for two days before he began the crime spree that started on April 15, 2020. He has a history of violence. On March 8, 2017, Mr. Delacruz appeared unprovoked at a relative's door, stabbed him, and threatened him. A jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict, and the case ended in mistrial on December 8, 2017. The same thing occurred when a second jury assessed the evidence, with a mistrial declared on February 2, 2018. After the second mistrial, the District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges against Mr. Delacruz, and he was released from custody in early 2018.

On February 27, 2019, Mr. Delacruz stabbed a neighbor without provocation. A portion of the incident was captured on video, but the victim refused to cooperate with law enforcement. When Mr. Delacruz was arrested on these charges, the District Attorney's Office reified the felony assault charges from the incident in 2017 and sought to bring both incidents to trial together. On May 20, 2019, the District Attorney's Office settled both cases against Mr. Delacruz, 17CR-01255-RF-02 and 19CR-01006. Mr. Delacruz entered a no contest plea to two counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, both as strike offenses, with credit for time served on the 2019 case amounting to 165 days in jail, and a nine year suspended prison sentence. Mr. Delacruz was given no credit for the time he spent in custody during 2017 and 2018 when the older case produced two hung juries.

On November 20, 2019, just six months after Mr. Delacruz entered his no contest plea to two counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, he was arrested again with five allegations of violations of probation. All five violations were new law violations, alleging Mr. Delacruz had twice committed arson, twice vandalized another's property, and had also driven on a suspended license. On January 10, 2020, Mr. Delacruz was found to have violated his probation in both felony cases. The court asked the Merced County Probation Department to prepare sentencing reports.

The reports authored by the Probation Department were filed with the court on February 10, 2020 and were reviewed by the Merced County Superior Court Judge at a sentencing hearing for Mr. Delacruz that day. Probation, instead of recommending the imposition of the nine year sentence to be served at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, suggested that the court impose two sentences of 180 days each to be served consecutively in the Merced County Jail. The District Attorney's Office opposed the recommendation from Probation and asked the court to impose the nine year prison sentence. The Merced County Superior Court Judge accepted the recommendation of Probation and ordered Mr. Delacruz to serve his sentence in the Merced County Jail, assigning him 180 days on each case to be served consecutively.

Mr. Delacruz was arrested on the violations of probation on November 15, 2019. Based upon the court's order, his scheduled release date was May 12, 2020. On April 13, 2020, Mr. Delacruz was released from the Merced County jail. The booking card lists the reason as "early release".

The Merced County Sheriff's Office worked diligently to quickly identify the suspect, who was masked when the 2020 offenses were committed. During the homicide, which was captured on video, Sheriff's detectives were able to distinguish a facial marking on the assailant because the victim pulled at the mask. In collaboration with Gustine Police Department, California Highway Patrol's Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MASI), and the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Forensic Services, Mr. Delacruz was tracked down and arrested. At trial, the surviving victims bravely testified before the jury. Law enforcement officials and experts presented physical evidence linking the defendant to the crimes, including DNA on a wallet located in the defendant's home that belonged to one of the victims and photos taken by the defendant within minutes of the April 15th assaults. The Sheriffs Office Dive Team searched a canal directly behind Mr. Delacruz' residence and found a sweatshirt and gloves matching those seen in video of the crimes. In addition, blood stains containing the murder victim's DNA were found on Mr. Delacruz' vehicle and on boots located at his home. Katie Gates and Sara Rosenthal of the District Attorney's Office prosecuted the case.

The entirety of the victim statements made to the court during the sentencing hearing yesterday are below:

From Herminio Perez Mantar, whose brother was killed by Mr. Delacruz:
Hello, my name is Herminio Mantar Perez, this Statement I am making is on behalf of my entire family but especially on behalf of my younger brother, SANTIAGO MANTAR PEREZ, born in Jocotan Chiqumula, Guatemala on January 1", 1986, ad who was murdered on the 20th of April, 2020.

My brother had never been in any kind of trouble, legal or otherwise. He was killed not at a party or dance, or while he was drinking or breaking into someone's business or home or while courting a young lady. He was killed at approximately 1 a.m. on April 20, 2020, while he was working at his job, at a dairy.

He was killed not because he had issues with the person that committed the crime, not because he owed that person money, no he was killed because he had a job and the person that billed him wanted to rob him.

Santiago, and Saul another brother of mine and I were here in the United States to work, nothing else. We are from a small town in Guatemala that does not have much to offer in way of employment. My two brothers and I came to work to help our aging parents support the other seven siblings that remained at home.

Never in our wildest dream did we even imagine something like this.

Have any of you ever gone to sleep with the knowledge that, be it your wife, son, cousin, mom, dad, sister or brother who work the late shift or overnight shift will not be alive after that one night?

Neither did I. When I received the telephone call from his a coworker of his who is from our same home town, I can honestly tell you I was not sadden, oh no that came later. I was in clink, bewildered, even confused. I thought they made a mistake, it couldn't be my brother, he was working, I would see him later, but sadly it was true.

I had to call everyone, and as you can imagine, everyone was just as clinked as I had been. My beloved parent were inconsolable.

I was the person who had to make all the arrangement to ship his body back to our country. His body had to be taken to Los Angeles in order to ship him home. Our parents would be there to meet him at the airport. Neither my brother Saul or I were able to accompany his body.

My mother was going received his cold dead body, not the loving son she had sent off 5 years before to the United States. She would never be able to hug him again, he would never hear her say, I love you my son.

We miss him every day, not a day goes by that he is not missed. His murder will follow us and have an impact on all of our, his family, and anyone who knew him, for the rest of our lives.

From Francisco Lopez, victim of the attempted murder on April 15, 2020:
To whom it may concern,

I am Francisco Lopez and we are wiling about the events, my wife and L After April 15, 2020, we changes our lives completely, both physically and mentally. I had to leave my job and our house, since the first thing for me is the safety and tranquility of my family (wife and children). My wife to this day is on medication for anxiety and post-traumatic stress. I still have nights that I still cannot sleep and be calm but day by day, we are getting ahead. My children still do not know what happened to me, they only know that an accident happened to me at work. Since my children are five, 8, 12 years old and I do not want to harm them and take away their peace of mind that they are thinking that a man wanted to take my life. Since it has been very difficult for my wife and I, to go through this whole process, we do not want to damage them mentally, everything will come in due time.

Regarding myself the damage that was did to my hand was severe. After two surgeries on my hand and 4 months of therapy, I cannot do several jobs that previously I was able to do, but nothing is impossible and I continue to move forward little by little. I know that time and God will help me. It has been very, very difficult to go through all of this and I thank God for leaving me alive, every day my wife and I ask God for justice and nothing more.

In addition, the day has come that God heard us! I hope that no one else has to live this nightmare and that no one goes through life wanting to take someone's life just for nothing.

Thank you for Justice!

From Rachel Correia of Correia Family Daily Farms, LLC, the dairy involved in the April 15, 2020 incident:
Without a doubt, April 15 of 2020 will be remembered for myself and my family as one of the most horrifying and shocking days of our lives. In just a few minutes, the course of our business and our lives were forever changed. The damage left behind when our employees, business and way of life was attacked is still trying to be repaired today. We were harmed financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Because of the actions by Hector our business has had to invest in tens of thoimmis of dollars in making modifications to our farm, our home, to make it more secure. This has included even more security and surveinanre cameras, modifying our milking barn doors so that our workers can completely lock themselves in it while working, we're currently in the process of installing a fence along the entire frontage of our farm, hiring an armed security guard to protect our workers in the days after his attack, increased insurance costs, and the list goes on and on. We have also had a hard time finding employees to work at our dairy because our business is known as a place, and I quote "where people get stabbed". However, the financial burden Hector put on our business is of the least importance to us. Hector physically harmed our employees, Francisco and Antonio. These are hardworking, good men who are doing jobs that most of us in this room wouldn't want to do. They are men trying their best to provide and care for their families and that Hector would intentionally attack them knowing they were in no position to truly defend themselves is nothing more than an act of a truly cowardly man. I thank God that Francisco and Antonio were not more seriously physically injured that night than they were. It is also with deep and continued sorrow that I pray for the family of Santiago, the man that Hector did kill, I pray they may feel God's peace in knowing that justice has been served. Hector mentally & emotionally harmed every one of us who were present that night- in an instant our view of the world changed. We went from believing we lived and farmed in a safe and peaceful place to truly being scared for our lives and our employees' lives. We had never considered that such a cruel and evil attack such as this one would ever occur — let alone to us: our home, our business, our employees. The trauma of that night still remains fresh in my mind. I remember the sounds and the sights of that night. From Antonio banging on our door yelling for help, to trying to provide first aid to Francisco's wounds, the sounds of the all the first responders showing up to help us, all of it I remember so vividly and probably always will. Hector put an overwhelming amount of fear and anger, in our hearts and minds and it will continue to take time for all of this damage to heal.

While it is easy to focus only on the destruction Hector left behind after his attack, it has been healing for me to remember that if there is evil in this world, then there also has to be good. I have seen the "good" of mankind more evidently than the evil acts of one man. I think of Francisco, Antonio and Gilmer, our employees, all courageous, strong, and hardworking men who continue to push forward in trying to create a better life for their families and all whom have returned to work.

Good does exist. I think of all the brave and dedicated first responders who helped in this case especially the Merced County Sherriff s Office who so quickly brought an end to this nightmare for us. I am specifically grateful for Detective Diane Rentfrow who answered the phone every time I called and helped us feel as safe and protected as possible during that time. Good does exist. I think of our extended family, friends and neighbors who have shown us love and support, whether that was by volunteering to milk cows for us when we thought none of our employees would show up because they were too scared, to sitting down and having a drink with us and just listening. Good does exist. I think of Lupe Gonzalez with the County's victim assistance office who has walked my family and our employees through every step of this legal process, always keeping us informed and reassured. She is a woman that I personally have found much comfort in speaking with Good does exist. Lastly, I think of Sarah Rosenthal and Katie Gates, the district attorneys on this case who have dedicated their lives in seeking justice for us, to them I am truly grateful. Good does exist. Your honor, my husband and I have children, and one of them is aware of the situations that occurred on April 15th and 20th of last year. When they found out what happened Hector had already been arrested. Lots of questions were asked but the most important to them was, is he ever going to get out of jail? I looked them in the eyes and promised, that he would never, ever be getting out of jail, and he could never hurt anyone again, that we were safe. From the depths of my heart, I ask that you help me today, keep that promise to my child, that Hector will never get out of jail and never hurt anyone again.
Source: Merced County D.A.