San Jose: Man dies six years after beating; police treating case as homicide – suspect already deported to Mexico

By Lisa Fernandez
lfernandez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 06/29/2011 12:32:01 PM PDT
Updated: 06/29/2011 10:27:21 PM PDT


Silvestre Felix Burgara, 53, of San Jose. Credit: San Jose police. ( San Jose police )

Octavio Medina was kicked, punched and knocked into a wall outside a San Jose bar nearly six years ago, and when he died two weeks ago in a hospice, he became, according to San Jose police, the city's 28th homicide victim of the year.

The 48-year-old's death on June 21 is the third instance of a 2011 homicide victim who died after being attacked in a previous year. A store owner was stabbed in December and died in January, and an 82-year-old inventor died in January -- 12 years after he was assaulted by his girlfriend's son.

"It is just very weird," San Jose Police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said.

Medina never regained consciousness after he was attacked Feb. 28, 2005, outside La Palma bar in the 200 block of Keyes Street. For nearly six years, he has remained under hospice care.

The man accused of assaulting him, Silvestre Felix Burgara, 53, was arrested after the brawl but was later released without being charged and is no longer in the country.

At the time, police said that the two were in the bar when Medina, who also went by the last name of Navarro, asked Burgara for a ride home. Burgara refused, and witnesses later told police that they saw Medina vandalizing Burgara's car.

Burgara spotted Medina a block away and was angered that Medina denied damaging his car, police said. Burgara kicked Medina in the groin and punched him in the face. Medina was knocked backward and "it appears that the back of his head struck a wall
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behind him" before blacking out, the 2005 news release states.

Detective Ray Barrera and Officer Bill Bacerra tracked Burgara down and booked him on a charge of attempted murder.

But the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office declined to file any charges. There is no record of why.

Police say immigration agents deported Burgara to Mexico on Aug. 25, 2005, where they assume he is still living.

While police announced Wednesday that Medina's death was a homicide, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Jensen said the medical examiner's office will await autopsy findings, including any additional test results, to determine the official "cause and manner of death."

San Jose police are now waiting for the office of current District Attorney Jeff Rosen to review and determine whether there is a homicide case to pursue. George Kennedy was the district attorney in 2005.

If there is, police are poised to act.

"If someone is wanted for murder," Dwyer said, "they don't get a free pass. We go after them. Just because it's six years later, we just don't forget about it."

Court records show that Burgara does not have a major criminal history.

He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery on a girlfriend and vandalism in 2000 and was sentenced to a 45-day work program.

In addition to Medina, San Jose police investigated two other "delayed" homicides this year.

Salvador Pena, the 56-year-old owner of Pena Joyeria Y Discoteca on Alum Rock Avenue, was stabbed inside the shop on Dec. 15, 2010. He died three weeks later after having blurted out a description of his attacker, court records indicate. Prosecutors charged Mykal Myrick, 28, with Pena's death. They believe the two had a romantic relationship that went sour, after spotting myriad texts and phone calls between the two.

In an even longer delayed homicide, 82-year-old Lowell Noble died Jan. 7 following a savage beating that had occurred on May 15, 1999.

Unlike Medina, who lay unconscious for nearly six years, Noble could function after the attack, though he never had the same verve, his daughters said.

Still, the medical examiner ruled Noble's death a homicide. His death certificate said his swallowing problem, or "aspiration pneumonia due to dysphagia" stemmed from the trauma he sustained in 1999 and was the most significant factor leading to his death.

Walter Jones, 49, is serving out the remainder of a 16-year attempted murder sentence for savagely beating Noble and Jones' mother, Linda Jones, whom Noble was dating at the time. Deputy District Attorney Brian Welch, who will also review the Burgara case, said Wednesday that he has not yet decided whether he will recharge Jones with murder.

He did note, however, that it was quite "unusual" to have "several (homicide) cases with such unique patterns."

Though the San Jose police are counting Medina's death as the 26th the department is investigating this year, there are two additional homicides within city limits, bringing the total number of homicides in San Jose to 28, a total that hasn't reached that high this early in the year in two decades.

Two of the deaths resulted from a May 10 double-murder-suicide at San Jose State, where an angry husband set off a hail of gunfire on his wife and her male friend, rising stars at the business school, before killing himself.

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