The reappearance of Joseph Azevedo
– the man who was sent to jail for the 2001 Hollister Community
Center murder – in court last week was dismaying, and it points to
a troubling result to taking a soft approach o prosecuting violent
crime.
The reappearance of Joseph Azevedo – the man who was sent to jail for the 2001 Hollister Community Center murder – in court last week was dismaying, and it points to a troubling result to taking a soft approach o prosecuting violent crime.
Two years ago, Azevedo went to jail for shooting 38-year-old Jose Sanchez three times and killing him in an alley outside the Hollister Community Center. Sanchez died at the scene in front of his two small children, according to police.
Ultimately, Azevedo was convicted of being an accessory after the fact, and spent only a year in county jail. Former District Attorney Harry Damkar originally charged Azevedo – 18 during the trial, but 17 at the time of the shooting – with murder, and he could have faced life in prison if convicted as an adult. But District Attorney John Sarsfield took office in 2002 and tried Azevedo as a juvenile.
In December, police picked up Azevedo during a traffic stop and the officer found a loaded 9mm handgun in his car. It’s frightening to think of what he might have been planning to do with the gun, and it raises questions about the county’s approach to prosecuting violent crime.
In 2004, Sarsfield said his office plea bargains 90 to 95 percent of his cases. In the high-profile Ralph Santos murder case, Sarsfield accepted a plea bargain, in part, to ensure a conviction of one of the suspects. Going to trial is risky because juries are unpredictable.
Another important reason Sarsfield said he accepts so many plea bargains is because he doesn’t have the resources to prosecute as many people as possible. The county has let the District Attorney’s Office staffing levels stagnate for two decades, he has said.
Still, plea bargaining 90 percent of all cases seems overboard. As the Azevedo case shows, Sarsfield is also taking a risk with the public’s safety when he employs legal strategies that let violent offenders back onto our streets earlier than if they were convicted as adults or in open trial. The county runs the same risk if the district attorney doesn’t have the staff to do his job properly. The Board of Supervisors should take Sarsfield’s concerns seriously, study the situation and make changes if they are warranted. After all, the point is to make our San Benito County a safer place to live.
In the immediate future, the judge in the Azevedo case should put him back in jail for as long as possible. If you are not going to throw the book at him in this case, who are you going to throw the book at?
