Seaside Cold Cases Cracked By Peninsula Partnership

The arrests of two men in separate cold case homicides in Seaside were announced this week as a result of a partnership among Monterey Peninsula law enforcement agencies, a police commander said.

On June 26, Martin Lopez, 22, was arrested in connection with the murder of Erick Curiel, 21, Monterey police Cmdr. Michael Bruno, who is part of the Peninsula Cold Case Project, announced Wednesday.

Lopez allegedly drove a vehicle carrying Francisco Chacala-Valdez, 26, and Juan Hernandez-Delgado, 19, who shot Curiel multiple times on July 11, 2013 as he walked in the 500 block of Palm Avenue. The pair had asked Curiel if he was associated with a gang before the shooting, Bruno said.

The suspected gunmen were arrested on January 2014 and have been linked with another murder, Bruno said.

Lopez is also suspected of shooting at an occupied home in the 1400 block of San Pablo Avenue in Seaside on Nov. 1, 2014, Bruno said. There were adults and children inside the home, but none of them were injured, he said.

Lopez is being held in jail on $2.15 million bail, according to jail records.

On Aug. 13, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office also filed murder charges against 20-year-old Andre Johnson in the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Solomon Sandoval-Perez during a Jan. 7, 2014 robbery, Bruno said.

Sandoval-Perez was found dead inside a motel room in the 1900 block of Fremont Street, according to Bruno. Johnson is being held at San Quentin State Prison serving time for an unrelated case, Bruno said.

The arrests of Lopez and Johnson were made with help from the Peninsula Cold Case Project, a partnership facilitated by the Peninsula Regional Violence and Narcotics Team. The project was resurrected this year after brief runs over the past 10 years, according to Bruno.

Currently, the project is reviewing the 1983 case of Jennifer Morris, a 20-year-old Pacific Grove resident last seen at Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey, Bruno said. Morris’s skeletal remains were found in a wooded area behind the shopping center in 2011, according to Bruno. Investigators are working on some leads provided through the FBI in Morris’s case, he said.

The project plans to hold monthly meetings with representatives from Peninsula agencies and the Department of Justice to hear presentations on one or two cold cases in the area and then exchange ideas that can help further the investigations.

--Bay City News