TACOMA, WA – Today the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office arraigned Cesar Chicas-Carballo, 30. The Prosecutor’s Office charged Chicas-Carballo with first degree murder on March 2, 2017 for the stabbing of Samuel Cruces Vasquez in April of last year. Chicas-Carballo was arrested on April 13.
“Our gang unit has successfully reduced gang violence, and we are continuing to vigorously prosecute gang crimes,” said Prosecutor Lindquist.
On April 28, 2016 at about 11:19 p.m., Tacoma Police Department patrol officers were dispatched to 7850 S. Trafton Street and found Samuel Cruces Vasquez lying in the road. Vasquez’s car was up against another car nearby with the engine still running. There was a large amount of blood in the vehicle and a large amount of blood on the cement leading from Vasquez’s vehicle to where he was lying in the road. A knife was found on the ground next to Vasquez’s vehicle.
Vasquez was taken to Tacoma General Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Pierce County Medical Examiner found numerous stab wounds on his body. She determined the cause of death to be multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma. Additionally, it appeared that Vasquez may have been run over while he was in the road.
Officers interviewed Jose Jonael Ayala-Reyes after the stabbing. Ayala-Reyes is a co-defendant who was charged and arraigned in July of last year. He stated that he stabbed Vasquez in the leg and that he had done it as part of an initiation into the MS-13 gang.
A witness stated that two men, Chicas-Carballo and Juan Gaitan Vasquez, both identified as members of the MS-13 gang, had met with Ayala-Reyes before Samuel Vasquez was killed. According to the witness, Gaitan Vasquez discussed slitting Samuel’s throat.
Bail was set at $3,000,000.00.
Charges are only allegations and a person is presumed innocent unless he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
For more information, please contact James Lynch at (253) 798-6265, [email protected].