March 1-8: Accused Stabber Fled to Former Fair Oaks Apartment

Family members attacked with steak knife

A Carmichael man accused of attacking his wife and family members with a steak knife during a domestic dispute last month had his bail increased Friday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Enrique Santay, 29, was arraigned on one felony count of inflicting injury on a spouse and three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon for the Feb. 28 melee at the couple’s Enfield Street home. If convicted of the charges, Santay could face eight to 21 years in prison.

According to Sacramento County sheriff’s officials, Santay and his wife were having a verbal argument that Monday morning in their home. It was 3:25 a.m. and Santay was intoxicated, said sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. The dispute became physical when Santay allegedly punched his wife in the face.

Three male siblings of Santay and his wife were also in the house and shortly became involved, Ramos said.

“Everyone was awake, or woke up shortly after the argument started,” Ramos said. “It sounds like the male victims attempted to mediate the dispute, and in doing so, became victims.”

Santay stabbed a 25-year-old male victim in the leg/hip area. The victim was trying to calm down Santay, Ramos said. Santay then went after the two other men, ages 21 and 25, knifing one in the stomach and wounding one on the hand.

Ramos said Santay then left the residence, driving to a Fair Oaks apartment complex in the 4900 block of San Juan Avenue, where he used to live. Sheriff’s deputies arrested him there without further incident.

Ramos said the victims were recovering from their non-life threatening injuries.

Santay is due back in court for further proceedings on March 24.

Violent misunderstanding

A 24-year-old Fair Oaks man was given court-appointed counsel last week in a felony assault case that could warrant four years in state prison.

Jake Surwald, 24, is scheduled for a settlement conference next month in Sacramento Superior Court.

Surwald was arrested in Sacramento in the early morning hours of Feb. 20 after allegedly beating a 19-year-old man he crossed paths with earlier in the night into unconsciousness. According to Sacramento police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck, the victim and a friend were walking by Surwald when an apparent misunderstanding sparked the violence.

“The victim and suspect did not have any known relationship prior to running across one another that night,” Peck said.

After the attack, the victim walked to a friend’s house and called police, Peck said. The victim said Surwald punched him several times and that he lost consciousness.

Officers arrested Surwald not far from where the beating took place. He faces one felony count of assault causing great bodily injury, which carries possible penalties of one year in county jail or as many as four years in prison.

According to online court records, Surwald was last in court in 2009, when multiple drug and firearm possession charges against him were dismissed.

Storytelling

A man may or may not have been assaulted, and his car may or may not have been stolen in Fair Oaks last month.

Sheriff’s authorities don’t yet know what to make of a 46-year-old man’s evolving tale of the interrupted visit he paid to his girlfriend’s Fair Oaks home the morning of Feb. 25. The sheriff’s report that attempts to describe the ostensible victim’s account reads like an incomplete screenplay.

According to the man, he arrived at his girlfriend’s house to see two men inside her bedroom. The man decided to get back into his vehicle and leave, but was stopped by two male suspects who followed him. It wasn’t clear from the sheriff’s report whether these were supposed to be the same two individuals the man saw in his girlfriend’s home.

The report goes on to say the man initiated a fight with the two suspects, who were described as 6-foot-3 32-year-old and 5-foot-5 male of unknown age, dropping his car keys in the process. There’s no further mention of the fight or whether it actually occurred. What presumably happened next is that the two suspects told the victim they were borrowing his car and asked him to get into the vehicle. The victim refused and the suspects drove off.

When sheriff’s officers arrived, the victim couldn’t provide any information on the allegedly stolen vehicle except for its color — gray, said sheriff’s media officer Sharon Chow. Regarding the holes in the tale, Chow said the victim’s story “changed several times during the report process.”