Santa Cruz County prosecutor refiles 2018 murder charges – Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ – Prosecutors have refiled murder charges against one of three men accused of killing a 41-year-old Santa Cruz man who was found shot and stabbed multiple times in a rural Live Oak neighborhood in October 2018.

Family members reported Bernardo Rodas missing for three days before he was found off the road on North Rodeo Gulch Road. Investigators with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office believed the killing was a gang-related case. Rodas had no gang affiliation, despite the allegations of his alleged killers, sheriff's office authorities said at the time.

A week after Rodas' death, investigators arrested Milton Molina, an unnamed 15-year-old from Santa Cruz, and a 17-year-old from Capitola. Jose Leonard Alfaro-Juarez and Elmer Ernesto Mendez-Lopez were subsequently arrested and charged as well. The criminal case against the three named men did not move to the preliminary hearing phase until 2020. During the trial, which dragged on due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, co-defendants and witnesses were not provided with enough Spanish-speaking interpreters, according to a July decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.