Jayson Palmero was 23 years old when he died on Saturday, February 15, 2020, in the city of Commerce, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near the 900 block of South Gerhart Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 23-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Feb. 15, after being stabbed near the 900 block of South Gerhart Avenue in Commerce." The entry did not say how he was hurt or who found him, and no news story about his death appears to have been written.
His family made sure he was remembered.
An obituary posted through the Guerra Gutierrez mortuary and republished on Legacy said that "Jayson Palmero, 23, resident of Montebello, California entered into eternal rest on Saturday, February 15, 2020." Another version of the obituary said he "was born on December, 23 1996 to Beatris Casillas and Ramiro Palmero," and that he "is survived by his son." That means he was a young father, and that a child lost a parent before reaching school age or soon after. He had turned 23 less than two months before he died.
Only short excerpts of those obituaries were available for this story, so little else is known about his life, his work or his friends. The name Jayson Palmero also belongs to several men in the Philippines who appear in online posts, none of whom have any connection to this death.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Commerce is a small industrial city a few miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, bordering Montebello, where Jayson lived. It is known for its warehouses, rail yards and trucking companies, for the Commerce Casino and for the Citadel Outlets, a shopping center built behind the walls of a former tire factory. Its residential neighborhoods are small and close to the industrial districts. Commerce contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, so homicides in the city are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jayson Palmero could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 900 block of South Gerhart Avenue in Commerce in February 2020, or who knew Jayson from Montebello or the surrounding area, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
