Shaun Santos and Lavinia Perez Charged in 2017 CA Slaying of Cameron Tracy

[CharlesMartel]

Case in deadly Turlock park robbery eligible for the death penalty

BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
The Modesto Bee

Prosecutors have filed murder charges against two people accused of participating in a deadly robbery at Turlock’s Donnelly Park.

Along with the murder charges, Shaun Santos, 22, and Lavinia Perez, 38, both of Modesto, have been charged with four counts of robbery, three counts of misusing personal identifying information and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to an amended criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Santos, Perez and two teenage boys were arrested for their suspected involvement in a series of increasingly violent robberies at the park that included the Dec. 4 attack on 21-year-old Cameron Tracy, who was hit with a metal baseball bat.

Initially, prosecutors charged Santos and Perez with attempted murder. Those charges were changed after Tracy died at a hospital Dec. 13. Santos’ murder charge includes an enhancement for allegedly using the metal baseball bat; Perez’s murder charge does not.

Santos also faces enhancements in the Dec. 4 robbery for allegedly using a deadly weapon, the metal bat, and causing great bodily injury on Tracy.

A special circumstance allegation for a murder committed during a robbery makes the case against Santos eligible for the death penalty. But the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty against Santos.

The defendants are accused of using personal identifying information from a victim in a Nov. 26 robbery at a Chevron gas station on Whitmore Avenue in Ceres, at a Jack in the Box restaurant on Kansas Avenue in Modesto and a Chevron gas station on West Yosemite Avenue in Manteca.

On Thursday, Santos and Perez remained in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail. They are scheduled to return to court Dec. 29 for a pretrial hearing.

Turlock police has said the three robberies at the park occurred on different days of the week, but each robbery occurred between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Investigators believed a group of suspects approached the victims in the robberies. In each crime, the suspects demanded the victims to “empty their pockets.”

Tracy and his girlfriend were at the skate park at Donnelly Park about 6 p.m. when they were robbed, according to an online account on gofundme.com that was created when Tracy was still in a coma at the hospital before he died.

Investigators watched security camera video from a business near the park and identified a suspect vehicle, a white 2004 Kia Sedona with Nevada license plates. Turlock police detectives found the Sedona in Stockton and arrested the four suspects.

A Modesto boy and a Manteca boy, ages 15 and 16, also were arrested in connection with the robberies; Turlock police did not release the teenagers’ names because they are minors.

California Proposition 57, approved by the voters in November 2016, means a Juvenile Court judge must decide if a minor can be prosecuted as an adult. Until that happens, prosecutors will not release details about any filed charges against the teenagers arrested in the Turlock park robberies.

http://www.modbee.com/news/local/cri...191022554.html

[JLR]

Defendant gets six years for role in Donnelly Park beating death

Sabra Stafford
Updated: Jan 22, 2020, 7:13 AM
A Manteca man was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the beating death of a 21-year-old man during a robbery at Donnelly Park.

Terry Van Meter, 18, of Manteca was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, robbery and attempted robbery. Van Meter was one of four defendants accused in a series of robberies at the Turlock park that led to the death of Cameron Tracy of Patterson.

Tracy was at Donnelly Park with his girlfriend on Dec. 4, 2017 when four masked assailants jumped out of a white vehicle and surrounded the pair, demanding they hand over their property. Tracy shielded his girlfriend and she was able to run for help. The attackers used a metal baseball bat to beat Tracy. He was in a coma for nine days before he was declared brain dead and taken off life support on Dec. 13, 2017.

Turlock Police Investigators were able to identify the suspect vehicle, a white 2004 Kia Sedona with Nevada license plates, after reviewing surveillance video from an area business. Using this information, detectives working in conjunction with the Manteca Police Department were able to locate the suspect vehicle in the City of Manteca.

With the assistance of the California Highway Patrol and the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department, detectives were able to stop the suspect vehicle and its occupants in Stockton. All four subjects were taken into custody without incident and booked into the Stanislaus County Jail and Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall.

In addition to Van Meter, who was 16 years old at the time, investigators arrested Shaun Santos, 24, Lavina Perez, 41, and a 15-year-old boy, all of Modesto. Santos and Perez are both facing multiple charges, including murder and robbery.

Van Meter had been charged with murder but since that time SB 1437 changed the felony murder law in the state and no longer allows prosecutors to charge an accomplice with murder if they didn’t participate in the actual murder or show any intent to commit murder.

Van Meter was sentenced on Jan. 9 in Stanislaus County Superior Court. He got credit for 766 days for time already served.

https://www.turlockjournal.com/news/...beating-death/