Police say crime spree was possible gang retaliation

09/19/2012

Police say Eric Castilleja and Luis Gonzalez targeted five different spots, all in the same neighborhood, last week before officers found them inside an apartment on McNew Court. Police say the shootings and robberies were possibly part of a gang retaliation.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 14th, Bakersfield police officers were dispatched to the first of five crime scenes. The first was at Baker and Lake Streets, where, police say, two men approached Daniel Chavez, who was visiting a girlfriend. The men asked Chavez "where are you from?"

When Chavez said he wasn't from anywhere, police say the defendants shot him in the hand. Chavez told police "they were trying to kill me."

He crashed his SUV. into a light pole while trying to get away. The report says Chavez stayed slumped over the wheel and played dead as the men circled the block approximately three times before they left.

Minutes later, 36-year-old Raul Morales was shot and killed at Lake and Inyo Streets. Then around 2:30 a.m., an armed robbery at the AM/PM near Union Avenue took place.

Taxi driver Rosa Garcia says two men demanded cash from her saying "Gimme what you got, Gimme everything you got!"

The police report says she gave them $141 and they took off. The next robbery was minutes later and a block away on Baker Street. Police say a man was robbed at gunpoint while walking near Varsity Fuel.

The last incident was around 2:45 a.m. on Williams Street. That's where 33-year-old Torik James was gunned down. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police say witnesses led them to some apartments on McNew Court where officers found and arrested 23-year-old Eric Castilleja and 18-year-old Luis Gonzalez. Both, they say, are members of the Okie Baker gang.

Both Castilleja and Gonzalez appeared in court last Friday and pleaded 'not guilty.'

Castilleja and Gonzalez are charged with attempted murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle, and two counts of second degree robbery.

Castilleja is being held on $1.2 million bail, and Gonzalez is being held on $960,000 bail.

Both are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing September 27th.
Police say crime spree was possible gang retaliation | KGET TV 17