On January 7, 2021, 30-year-old Octavio Varela Gutierrez of Watsonville, California, was shot and killed while driving on South Green Valley Road at about 8 p.m. A Watsonville patrol officer arrived within a minute and attempted CPR, but Gutierrez died after being struck at least once in the upper torso. His death was recorded as Santa Cruz County’s first homicide of 2021.

Investigators initially considered a possible gang-related motive because Gutierrez had recently finished a sentence tied to a 2014 arrest for shooting at an inhabited dwelling and street gang involvement. Further inquiry identified 19-year-old acquaintance Ricardo Jesus Garcia as the primary suspect; Garcia was reportedly heavily intoxicated and playing with a gun in the car’s backseat when a shot struck Gutierrez. Garcia was arrested the night of the incident and later charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful use of a firearm.

Garcia pleaded no contest to those charges and was sentenced in April 2021. The court record noted he was blackout drunk at the time and that his attorney characterized the shooting as a tragic accident. Did anyone in the Watsonville area know Gutierrez or have information about the events that night?