Thread: CA: OCEANSIDE: One arrested in 'Back Gate' stabbing

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OCEANSIDE: One arrested in 'Back Gate' stabbing
Second killing on Stephanie Place this month
By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Monday, May 19, 2008 3:12 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- A man confessed Sunday to stabbing one of his roommates to death with a steak knife at the home they shared on Stephanie Place, police said.

Jesus Vasquez Borja, 27, is being held without bail at the Vista jail on suspicion of murder, according to county booking logs. Borja also is being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the logs show.

The victim's name is being withheld until his family can be notified of his death, the medical examiner's office said Monday morning.

Sgt. Kelan Poorman said Borja admitted stabbing his roommate during a fight about missing property. Police have not disclosed what missing item or items triggered the incident.

Multiple families live in the home, located in the city's "Back Gate" area near Camp Pendleton, Officer Kim Rainwater said. Approximately 15 people were present at the time of the killing, which happened just before 4 a.m., she said.

Borja and the victim occupied separate rooms and neither had family members at the residence, she said.

All of the occupants were interviewed at the police station, but only one reported seeing any part of the assault, Rainwater said. Many of the home's residents opted to be taken to relatives' homes instead of the Stephanie Place address, which was still cordoned off by police tape late Sunday afternoon, she said.

The house is owned by Nomura Home Equity Loan Inc., which bought the 1,224-square-foot house for $200,000, according to public records.

Stephanie Place was the scene of another homicide on May 3 when 20-year-old Cesar Melgar was shot to death on the sidewalk near the intersection of Stephanie Place and Michael Street, two blocks from the site of Sunday's stabbing.

The killings are not related, Poorman said. No one is in custody in connection with Melgar's shooting.

Police responded to Sunday's shooting just before 4 a.m. after someone called 911 to report a stabbing in the 4900 block of Stephanie Place, Poorman said.

Officers found the wounded man, described as being in his late 20s or early 30s, laying face down in a residential back yard, he said.

Fire Department paramedics were called to the scene, but the man could not be saved.

Jose Luis Martinez, who lives within eyeshot of the home where the stabbing took place, said the pair of homicides have made him rethink his decision to move to the neighborhood with his family.

"We came because it seemed so quiet," he said.

Martinez said that since Melgar's killing, there have been more teens walking around the area.

There also have been more police, he said.

"We need them."


www.nctimes.com

The house is owned by Nomura Home Equity Loan Inc., which bought the 1,224-square-foot house for $200,000, according to public records.

15 people living in a 1,224 sq. foot home?!?!? That's some serious overcrowding!