People v. Sanchez CA5

STATEMENT OF FACTS

1985 Homicide Investigation The investigation into the victim’s death began on the morning of November 8, 1985. Pete Chavez, then a homicide detective for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, responded to a report of a body found on the outskirts of San Joaquin, a rural community located in the western region of the county. A deceased woman, estimated to be in her 30s, had been discovered lying face down in a field next to a dirt road. She appeared to have been run over by a car. Ralph Preheim, the sheriff’s criminologist, processed the scene. This entailed photographing the victim and her surroundings, taking measurements of fresh tire tracks left near the body, and collecting physical evidence. Deputy Preheim determined the point of initial impact to be an area in the road where investigators found a shoe and fragments of glass. There were footprints and tire tracks leading into the field where the victim lay. The tire tracks extended beyond the corpse in a manner which suggested the woman had been run over twice; once when the vehicle entered the field and again as it reversed back out onto the road. A second shoe was found next to the body, as was a…