A Watsonville man pleaded not guilty in Santa Cruz Superior Court Wednesday to the slaying of 39-year-old Christopher Fagon.
Alvaro Melendrez, 42, remains in County Jail on a no-bail status, facing homicide, felon in possession of a gun and other charges for the Oct. 3 homicide near Watsonville.
A prosecutor said the men had been in a car together, with others, before the Aromas man’s body was left along Larkin Valley Road.
After court, Mahan said forensic evidence was pending and sheriff’s investigators were “reverse-engineering” what happened in the hours before the shooting, going through bank records, surveillance photos, cell phone information and more.
“There was a car full of individuals with the defendant and the victim,” he said. “But at this point, no one else has been charged.”
Mahan declined to identify the type of vehicle or where the group got in it. He said there “could obviously” be more than one crime scene. He added that an autopsy was completed and the family was planning a memorial service in the coming days.
Melendrez was arrested Oct. 5, and his Oct. 8 arraignment was continued.
Wednesday, attorney Manuel Nieto of the Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender entered the not-guilty plea for him then, after the two sat together talking for a few minutes.
He also faces charges of having a prior felony “strike” from 2007, an aggravated battery carrying a 2-year prison sentence.
His local record also includes two felony convictions in 2006, check fraud and an escape from jail. He was also convicted in 2011 of participating in a criminal street gang.
Wednesday, Mahan told Judge Nancy de la Pena that a group of Fagon’s family were again in court, and de la Pena thanked them and said they were “always welcome, at any time in this court, as is the general public.” She said she found no conflicts of interest from her 30-year career as a public defender that could preclude her from hearing the case.
Melendrez nodded slightly to family members after Wednesday’s hearing, before being led back to County Jail. Out in the hallway, his family declined comment.
