Video: Suspect accused of stabbing murder is charged in front of California police officer outside station

By Jessica A. York

Source Santa Cruz Sentinel, California

SANTA CRUZ, CA — A Watsonville man shot after allegedly charging a police officer was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail this week on suspicion of killing his stepdaughter's mother.

Joshua Gonzalez, arrested as Joshua Gonzalez-Martinez, was receiving medical treatment after a Watsonville Police Department officer shot him shortly before 9:30 p.m. Saturday night (July 6). Department officials said Gonzalez, 25, showed up at the Church Street police station with a 3-year-old child police later identified as his stepdaughter, called the department and threatened the child with a knife. Police said Gonzalez then charged an officer who arrived after he was asked to put down his knife twice, leading the officer to shoot him. Police Chief Jorge Zamora said he believes the child was in a nearby vehicle at the time of the shooting.

On Sunday morning, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office was called to a report of a woman found dead on a hiking trail south of Corralitos. The woman, later identified as Lizbeth Arceo Sedano, 25, of Watsonville, was the mother of the 3-year-old child. Arceo died from multiple stab wounds, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office.

Gonzalez was arrested Thursday on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, child abuse with possible serious bodily injury or death and resisting arrest for the Watsonville confrontation, and an allegation of murder related to Arceo’s death, which is being investigated separately by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. Jail booking records also showed several allegations of violations of local San Benito County ordinances. Gonzalez remained held without bail Friday pending his arraignment in Santa Cruz County Superior Court next week, though no charges had yet been filed by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office as of Friday afternoon.

Arceo’s death is the fourth homicide in Santa Cruz County this year and the first investigated by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. On Feb. 23, University of California, Santa Cruz student Zainab Mansoor was strangled to death at Seabright State Beach, a crime for which Samuel Branigan Stone, 21, was charged. A judge remanded Stone in custody to answer the charges, but a trial has not been set. On April 19, Todd Kolibas, 44, was fatally stabbed at a picnic area in DeLaveaga Park, a crime for which Joseph Young, 31, was charged. A judge remanded Young in custody to answer the charges, and a jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 23. On July 28, “Baby Z,” an 18-month-old girl, died of suspected drug poisoning after an apparent exposure at a River Street apartment, for which her mother, Korisa Woll, 38, has been charged. Woll is scheduled to be arraigned on August 29.

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