Jessica A. York
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — A Watsonville man shot over the weekend after allegedly charging a police officer was booked this week into Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of killing his stepdaughter’s mother.
Joshua Gonzalez, booked as Joshua Gonzalez-Martinez, was receiving medical care after a Watsonville Police Department officer shot him shortly before 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. Department officials said Gonzalez, 25, had shown up at the Church Street station with a 3-year-old child later identified by police as his stepdaughter, called the department and threatened the toddler with a knife. Police said Gonzalez then charged an arriving officer after being told to put down his knife two times, leading the officer to shoot him. Police Chief Jorge Zamora said he believed the child was in a nearby vehicle at the time of the shooting.
Sunday morning, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office was called to a report of a deceased woman located on a hiking trail south of Corralitos. The woman, later identified as 25-year-old Lizbeth Arceo Sedano, of Watsonville, was the 3-year-old child’s mother. According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, Arceo died of multiple stab wounds.
Gonzalez was booked Thursday on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, child abuse with possible great bodily injury or death and resisting arrest for the Watsonville confrontation, and a murder allegation related to Arceo’s death, which is being investigated separately by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. The jail booking logs also showed several allegations of San Benito County-based local ordinance violations. Gonzalez remained held without bail Friday pending his arraignment in Santa Cruz County Superior Court next week, though no charges had yet been filed by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office as of Friday afternoon.
Arceo’s death marks the fourth homicide in Santa Cruz County this year and the first investigated by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. On Feb. 23, UC Santa Cruz student Zainab Mansoor was strangled to death at Seabright State Beach, a crime for which Samuel Branigan Stone, 21, has been charged. A judge held Stone to answer charges but a trial has not been set. On April 19, 44-year-old Todd Kolibas was fatally stabbed in a DeLaveaga Park picnic area, a crime for which Joseph Young, 31, has been charged. A judge held Young to answer charges and a jury trial is set for Sept. 23. On July 28 , “Baby Z,” an 18-month-old girl, died of presumptive drug poisoning after apparent exposure at a River Street apartment, for which her mother, 38-year-old Korisa Woll, has been charged. Woll is set for arraignment Aug. 29.
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