Out of all the electrical poles that line Oakley Street in Santa Maria, there is one near the corner of Main Street that is different from the rest. Several candles, bundles of red roses, white balloons with messages written on them, and half-empty bottles of Miller Lite are strewn at its base, along with rosaries and a plastic plate of pancakes and a hard-boiled egg.
Scrawled on the post are messages such as “RIP homies,” “RIP My Nigga,” and “Rest in Paradise Javi.” Attached to the pole are two pictures of a man. It’s Javier Murillo-Sanchez, who was allegedly gunned down along with his cousin Aaron Sanchez-Hernandez on the evening of Jan. 12. Both men were 23 years old.
The new year began the same way the old one ended—with a double homicide. The alleged murders of two young men shocked a community still reeling from the Dec. 26 killings of 42-year-old Ramiro Ceja Gonzales and 26-year-old Manuel Manzano-Mata, who were both shot dead in another part of town only days earlier.
Santa Maria Police Department Chief Ralph Martin told the Sun that he’s not sure why Murillo-Sanchez and Sanchez-Hernandez were killed, but that they associated with known criminal street gangs.
The announcement from Martin to news media came as a surprise to the family of Sanchez-Hernandez, who vehemently disagree and consider Martin’s remarks in news reports as insensitive.
“It was wrong to say that it was gang-related,” said 23-year-old Irebid Gilbert, who was a cousin to both men. “They didn’t even give us a call first. We had to read about it in the news.”
It’s not clear how Martin reached this conclusion. However, Gilbert said she was very cooperative with police and let them search her house. She noticed the police were very inquisitive because they told her that Murillo-Sanchez didn’t have a criminal record, except for a DUI.
Gilbert’s only been in contact with SMPD detectives, who so far have not been forthcoming with details. The police haven’t identified any suspects.
As to why someone would want to kill her cousins, Gilbert doesn’t know. She said that the men were trying to get their lives back together. Both men were walking back from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when they were shot, according to Gilbert.
Despite the hope for a better future, Murillo-Sanchez’s death marks the final chapter in an otherwise difficult life.
According to his sister, Arely Cortez, Murillo-Sanchez lived in Santa Maria from the ages of 4 to 10, after which he lived in San Diego and attended high school there for a short time before returning and attending Righetti High School for a brief period. He was living with his sister at the time.
“Me and my brother went through a really hard time a little more than 10 years ago,” Cortez told the Sun. “Mother was deported, and we always had to go to different families and relatives, and they had to take care of us while she was away. My brother lived with different relatives until he was 18. He was able to get his life together and get a job and live on his own.”
Murillo-Sanchez followed his mother to Oaxaca, Mexico, where he finished high school. He came back to Santa Maria at 19 years old and worked in the fields for a short time while building his life. He held a job in the California Conservation Corps, Cortez said. He had recently separated from his wife.
Although Cortez didn’t know Sanchez-Hernandez as well, she said he was going through a similar situation to her brother.
Cortez is baffled as to why Chief Martin would say her brother supposedly associated with a gang. Most of his life was spent outside of Santa Maria. This would have made it hard for him to have any ties to gangs, she said. If anything, Cortez said, her brother was simply battling an addiction to alcohol.
“They clearly told me that my brother’s record was clean,” Cortez said. “He was not registered as a gang member, and was not on probation. He was still going to court for a DUI. They had clearly told me that they wanted to know more about him because he didn’t have a record of anything that was gang related.
“We’re in pain and we’re suffering because we lost someone who was so close to us; a brother, a father, and a son and they’re being inconsiderate,” Cortez continued. “They tell us one thing and they don’t know anything about him, and they turn around and say all these things that are totally opposite of what they’re telling us.”
After Martin’s press release, Cortez said others in her community are treating her family differently.
“Now everyone is looking at us like we’re gang members and that we’re crazy, that we deserve this,” Cortez said. “But we don’t deserve this.”
Cortez remembers her brother as a good-hearted person who always tried to make people laugh. He loved everything about the outdoors and loved going to the beach. She remembers him as a brother who gave a lot, even though he had very little.
Recently at the makeshift memorial for the two men on Oakley Street, someone would occasionally walk up to the electrical pole and stand for a few minutes, as if to pay their respects, and leave in silence. A man, 24-year-old Matt James of Santa Maria, walked up to the memorial, took a drink from his Coors tallboy, poured a little on the ground, and walked away. He didn’t know the victims, but said he felt sorry for the families.
“My brother was a loving person,” Cortez said. “He wasn’t violent, he wasn’t disrespectful. Whenever someone would tell him something bad, he would look down and wouldn’t yell. He was always just so calm.”
Murillo-Sanchez also leaves behind a 2-year-old son, Cortez says.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2016.