Jorge Diaz, the homeless man accused in the March 2011 homicide of 72-year-old Francisco Rojas at a Hollister cemetery, was sentenced to six years in prison and, with credits, is scheduled to serve about 28 months.
Judge Steven Sanders handed down the mid-term sentence for the manslaughter charge last week. Diaz, initially charged with homicide, had accepted a plea deal on a lesser charge. The 35-year-old previously pleaded not guilty in February 2012. He was accused of stabbing Rojas on March 30 of 2011 at the IOOF Cemetery on Buena Vista Road.
In January, Diaz agreed to accept a plea arrangement on a charge of voluntary manslaughter, with the homicide count dropped.
The nearly two-year court process began following the cemetery incident – after which witnesses described seeing Diaz with Rojas together moments before the murder. Diaz was found at another location in Hollister the day after the homicide. Around 3:15 p.m. that day, deputies responded to the 600 block of Buena Vista Road after a report of a stabbing. Deputies found Rojas with a stab wounds in his heart and on his hands, referred to at the time as defensive wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The six-year prison sentence for Diaz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was ordered held by federal immigration officials at the outset of the court process, was far from the maximum penalty for a homicide conviction of 25 years to life. His sentence was the mid-term for the voluntary manslaughter charge to which he agreed.
The prosecutor who made the deal pointed to the condition of witnesses in justifying his decision. Diaz’s attorney, Public Defender Gregory LaForge, was pleased with the outcome.
“Anytime we can get out of the murder realm and get it into manslaughter, that’s what we’re shooting for,” LaForge said.
LaForge called it a “fair and just” sentence, with slightly more than two years incarceration remaining.
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Palacios in the sentence’s aftermath called justice “a process.”
While the defendant didn’t have much of a criminal history, Palacios said, the prosecutor had been concerned about the condition of the witnesses at the time of the slaying and also at the time of a prospective trial.
He said a prosecutor must weigh all factors, including the chances of prevailing at trial.
“It’s a matter of making sure we get justice to the extent we can get justice,” he said.
Palacios said the homeless victim did have some family members in the area. He said the charge does not alleviate Diaz of having responsibility for the death.
“I have no doubt the person who committed the crime is now going to prison,” Palacios said.
