Feb 17, 2009 10:22 pm US/Pacific
Not Guilty Plea In Napa Co. Security Guard Murder
NAPA (BCN) ―
A 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty in Napa County Superior Court Tuesday morning to murdering a security guard at the California Veterans Home in Yountville in 2003.
A preliminary hearing date for Juan Jose Hernandez Mendoza was set for May 26, Assistant Napa County District Attorney John Goold said.
Mendoza was in an Oregon jail under an assumed name awaiting prosecution for sex offenses when he was arrested in March for the murder of 58-year-old Manuel Reyes, the Napa County Sheriff's Department said.
He had been identified as a suspect within two weeks of Reyes' murder on Aug. 4, 2003.
Reyes was on duty and working overtime at the veteran's home on the night of Aug. 3, 2003 when he was asked to act as a translator between Mendoza and a cab driver. The cab driver had picked up Mendoza in Napa around 11:30 p.m. that night, according to the sheriff's department.
Reyes instead offered to drive Mendoza to his destination, a labor camp north of Yountville. His security car was found crashed into a tree on Dry Creek Road near Mount Veeder Road early the next morning. Reyes had been stabbed multiple times and was found near his vehicle, the sheriff's department said.
Mendoza is being held in the Napa County jail under no bail.
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