Clayton Garzon, whose brutal beating of Mikey Partida, while shouting anti-gay epithets, horrified and captivated the Davis community last spring, has plead no contest to two counts and will receive a five-year prison sentence, to be served at the Yolo County Jail.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Mr. Garzon plead no contest to battery causing serious bodily injury and a hate crimes enhancement.
The agreement means that Mr. Garzon will receive a five-year sentence in Yolo County custody, of which he must serve 2.5 years. It is a straight sentence and once he is released, he will no longer be under supervision.
The DA is still calculating restitution amounts from hospital bills and lost work. He will be sentenced on October 30, 2013 at 8:30 am and remanded to local custody at that time.
Mr. Garzon was charged with assault causing great bodily injury; committing a hate crime; assault with a deadly weapon; stalking; committing a felony while on release from custody; and inflicting great bodily injury during the commission of a felony.
He also faced assault with a deadly weapons charges stemming from the September 11 stabbings in Dixon, in Solano County.
Mr. Partida had attended a party at his cousin’s apartment and apparently left his keys there and returned to retrieve them, “when a man began kicking and beating him while yelling homophobic slurs.”
He suffered a fractured skull, bleeding on his brain, multiple fractured bones in his face and a laceration to his head that left a pool of blood on the lawn where he was beaten.
Witnesses testified that Mr. Garzon followed Mr. Partida and his cousin. He hurled anti-gay slurs numerous times as they left another cousin’s home during the early morning hours of March 10, 2013.
Mr. Garzon apparently became angry when they ignored Mr. Garzon’s efforts to talk with one of his cousins. Mr. Partida indicated that Mr. Garzon had followed him and his cousin around the block after they left the party, and he that he was attacked when he went back for his set of forgotten keys.
During the beating, Mr. Garzon yelled the epithet and followed it by pounding on the front door yelling that “Your f- cousin was talking sh-. I had to f- him up.”
Mr. Partida suffered serious injuries that required hospitalization and months of the treatment. He suffered fractures to his skull and rib cage during the beating, and underwent surgery to remove from his right eye socket a nearly two-inch-long piece of wood.
According to his family at the time, the bruising and swelling around his eyes was so bad he was not able to open his eyes for a long time, and there was a cut under one eye that went all the way though the lid. The trauma to his ear was so severe it caused his ear to swell three times its normal size and it had to be lanced to release the pressure.
Last September, Mr. Garzon and a 16-year-old from Carmichael were arrested in Davis after the Dixon police, at 1:14 am on a Sunday morning, responded to a fight. There were five victims in the incident – four them were stabbed and one received blunt force trauma to the head.
Mr. Garzon and the 16-year-old were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and booked into Solano County Jail and Juvenile Hall, respectively.
The Vanguard will have more details as it becomes available.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
[i]Harvey waiver[/i]
What is a “Harvey waiver”?
” A Harvey waiver allows the court to consider dismissed charges during sentencing.”
this makes me sick. after so many cases of minor crimes and people getting huge sentences… he’ll walk in two and a half years and he nearly beat a man to death.
I wonder if he’ll be a more violent or less violent person once he is released?
doesn’t seem like he’s getting any help. he’s being released and no supervision.
wdf1 – i added that explanation while you were reading
How the hell did this happen? This “sentencing” is a disgrace and is the farthest possible thing from acting as a deterrent to other potential violent criminals in Davis, Yolo or Solano counties. Everyone knows Garzon comes from a “good” family that has plenty of means for his defense – had that NOT been the case, this little scumbag would have been in jail for stabbing 2 people at a party in Solano instead of out on bail free to harm Mr. Partida. But how far did that go? How could a punk who is implicated in a double stabbing, who also nearly beat-to-death (yes, I’m saying that!) a much smaller unarmed man, get only a 5-year sentence? He may only have to serve 2-1/2? This monster will NOT be rehabilitated in 2+ years – he’s been in and out of counseling for much of life already, without it helping him. This monster will harm an innocent bystander again, I only hope with the next bloodshed the “system” will know it’s own failure.
The news brought the words of Bob Dylan’s “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” ringing in my head.
Yes, Highbeam.
I’m taken aback at the difference in reactions to the case involving this young man and the young man accused of brutally murdering the Davis couple just in the news over the weekend. Besides a couple of years in age, what are the relevant differences? Did not both young men do horrible things? And do not both young men deserve help and care instead of epithets and derision? I say they both do. I do not want to call anyone a “monster, why do that? What cause does it advance?
Was there a civil settlement as well to pay for the victims pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages? Were there any punitive damages?
Does it count as a strike. Its a little shocking that when he gets out there will be no probation. Someone who gets that violent when drinking needs to be under some type of supervision upon release.
Agree Nora with your post, however, for me the thought of Mr Garzon being released in 2.5yrs with this type of history of violence is scary. Don’t think we would consider Mr Marsh ready to be released in 2.5 yrs. Both need help. Not sure either will benefit from imprisonment but not sure I want either walking around.
nora: while i respect your opinion here, one difference is that garzon is out in 2.5 years without treatment and marsh will get a minimum of 50 years.
“Was there a civil settlement as well to pay for the victims pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages? Were there any punitive damages?”
from the article: “The DA is still calculating restitution amounts from hospital bills and lost work.”
If he is convicted of charges in the Dixon incident, then his next offense with be a third violent offense. Does that mean life or is the three strikes law for violent offenders no longer in effect?
Also, I share the natural urge that we are all trained to feel for vengeance and punishment. Punishment will not make him a better boy. We can only hope that his privileged background will help him come out of this differently than most for whom jail time just makes things worse.
What outcome other than straight punishment could this community tolerate or devise? I’d rather see him working in some kind of social environment under close supervision for 2.5 years; but that might not satisfy our collective urge to punish…
Some very hateful things have been said here, but we really don’t know very much at all about Garzon. It may be that he is now on some
medications, that he was found to have a brain abnormality, that he was drinking to self medicate and won’t need or want to drink in the future.
I hope Marsh’s situation has a similarly good outcome.
I also hope Partida learned a lesson, not to aggravate people.
[quote]I also hope Partida learned a lesson, not to aggravate people. [/quote]
Really? I don’t know what Partida could’ve said or did to justify someone almost beating him to death. Whatever Garzon gets he deserves.
“If he is convicted of charges in the Dixon incident, then his next offense with be a third violent offense.”
those charges were dropped in this agreement.
“I also hope Partida learned a lesson, not to aggravate people. “
what?
“I hope Marsh’s situation has a similarly good outcome. “
it won’t
I need to clarify this – the Solano Charges are now gone. That was part of the plea agreement (and the Harvey Waiver).
Aslong as Garzon says he’s sorry, pays restitution to Partida, and Partida is involved with the process the sentence is in line with restorative justice.
If that were to happen, I think it could be something that is a positive for everyone involved.
I see the concern, anger and frustration reflected in the comments here and I want to say that I think we DO have an opportunity to change the way cases such as this one are dealt with going forward. All of the following have been or are being discussed by proponents of restorative justice within Yolo County and, in two cases, with County officials:
1. It is possible to develop a program within our county jail (one such is under consideration) that would put those convicted of crimes like the one Mr Garzon committed, in facilitated sessions with surrogate victims. The purpose of such encounters is to enable offenders to understand more directly the effect of their crime on people. Such processes can lead to additional actions to be taken by offenders (even if voluntary), to make harms right. The aim of such processes is to challenge offenders to understand the impact of their choices on actual victims and make things as right as possible.
2. There is no reason that the DA could not offer a similar post conviction conference between an offender and the actual victim [b]if the victim desired it[/b]. Such conferences must be carefully prepared and facilitated but they are happening in various cases across the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Such conferences could lead to additional actions required by offenders to make things right.
3. Neighborhood Courts–which we already have in Davis–could be an additional venue in which offenders would meet with community members (panelists) to discuss the harms to the community of such violent acts and the, once again facilitated, conference could yield additional steps to be taken to make things right AND discuss steps needed to assure that such actions will not be repeated.
We are standing on the threshold of novel ways of dealing with even violent crime restoratively. The simple fact is, a person who has been sentenced for a violent crime WILL be out and back in our community in a few years. As a community we certainly can ask for more direct engagement so that the harms done to our community can be made right and relationships can be restored.
Such processes avoid merely dumping offenders back into communities after they have paid their “debt” to a disembodied state, but seek to restore them in a way that creates accountability so that they will be less likely to repeat violent acts.
We can achieve these things and all it takes is community and political will.
From what has been published, I am amazed that anyone sees these two persons as remotely equivalent.
One beat the hell out someone he was acquainted with (could have killed them) after excessive drinking.
The other had homicidal thoughts for years that he recently acted on, killing two random victims by sneaking into their home through a window, then continued to stab them after death, and days later wandered the streets of Davis looking to kill someone with a baseball bat.
Picture this: you are walking the streets of Davis about 11:00pm on a Wednesday night, passing through (one of the many) areas with a streetlight out. In the shadows coming towards you is one of the two individuals described above, and you are about to brush shoulders with this individual on the sidewalk in the dark.
Which individual would you rather this be?
People were upset and complaining about the photo in The Davis Enterprise showing Marsh in restraints. Today we have on The Vanguard an explicit photo of a victim beaten half to death and another fictitious photo of a guy getting threatened with a billy club to extract a confession (I guess). Both are using visuals to further their goals of circulation or readership.
[quote]If that were to happen, I think it could be something that is a positive for everyone involved. [/quote]
David, I’m sure Mr. O was pulling your chain. The way I see it since Garzon has been involved in two bad crimes some jail time is needed. He needs to be taught a lesson and pay the price, if he got away with just paying restitution and saying he was sorry I think he’d be back at it in no time.
As bad as it is Garzon didn’t kill anyone. It makes a difference. You can be all about trying to help both perps if you like but I’m more concerned with protecting innocent people from deranged psychopaths.
Since we concluded long ago–shortly after the arrest, as I remember–that Clayton Garzon was guilty of all charges here as well as others for which he hadn’t yet been tried either, I guess this plea agreement should please most. We got our insight from the one-sided police reports published the Vanguard before all the evidence was presented and befor the defense was provided its opportunity to poke holes in the prosecution’s case.
Your point is well taken, Skip, and this photograph has appeared here repeatedly. I await medwoman’s evaluation about what why it was needed any of the time and how it’s prejudicial effect might have compared with the shot of that sweet-looking Marsh youngster.
Neither one, Alan. These kinds of incidents strike fear and make people reluctant to be out at 11 p.m. on Wednesday nights or to feel completely safe in our own homes. There must be all kinds of dark equivalences in these souls. Will we ever know?
This seems like a perfect case for which Yolo County restorative justice could be given a trial run on a crime of violence. Garzon owes Mr. Pardita far more justice than this penalty provides. If both parties can bring themselves to participate in the way Robb suggests, what an advance we’d all get to see happen.
I’m with SODA about misgivings about ending Garzon’s debt in 2.5 years. Restorative justice must work better when a criminal isn’t forced to participate, but a lengthy probationary period sure seems like it would be needed to assure that someone with this history has moved beyond whatever drove him to such horrible acts.
As i have been thinking about this my guess is that Garzon has no money but his family has some. So it actually gave him some leverage with making restitution that would never otherwise get paid in exchange for this plea deal. It sucks but it helps Partida move forward with his life.
“I also hope Partida learned a lesson, not to aggravate people.”
Does that mean anyone who you aggravated by posting this comment is justified in being the crap out of you?
“As long as Garzon says he’s sorry, pays restitution to Partida, and Partida is involved with the process the sentence is in line with restorative justice.”
Was Partida involved in the process?
B Nice – This is a tricky question. I would say that it is very doubtful that Mr Partida was offered the opportunity to be involved in a process that would have brought him face to face with the offender. Had he been he may have chosen not to take it because of the trauma it might cause.
Could such a process happen post conviction? Yes, in theory. Such things are happening around the country and they focus on victims needs, offenders hearing the harms their actions caused and both determining what steps could be taken to address the harms. Mr Partida should have the opportunity to do this if he would like and such a process should be carefully prepared and facilitated. Of course at this point I would doubt that Mr Garzon could be compelled to participate but perhaps with some support he would come to a point that he would willingly do so.
If Mr Partida wanted this at some point now or in the future what would be the harm in exploring it?
I said “in theory” as if it might be a distant hope but I did not mean that. I said “in theory” because we have no systems in place that easily allow for such things to happen. Still…
2.5 years is a long time to sit in the County Jail…
There ARE experienced local mediators/facilitators who could help both parties prepare for a victim/offender conference…
If Mr Partida wanted it and Mr Garzon could be made aware of that wish then I think we could help make it happen.
It would not be easy but more challenging cases (including murder and sibling rape) have used restorative processes.
Robb-I was reading the story and comments on my cell phone so I think I misunderstood your quote. My question was actually in regards to wether Partida was involved in the plea agreement that Garzon took. It looks like from his Facebook Page this was done with his and his families knowledge and consent.
[quote]If Mr Partida wanted this at some point now or in the future what would be the harm in exploring it?[/quote]
If he was willing and able…not sure I’d be up for it, but he has already proved to me he is a stronger person then I.
B Nice – You were not quoting me but I picked up on it anyway. Sorry for the confusion. RJ is victim-centered and all I am really suggesting here is that we allow victims to seek to engage it if they would like: now or later.
[quote]RJ is victim-centered and all I am really suggesting here is that we allow victims to seek to engage it if they would like: now or later.[/quote]
It sounds like a great program, thanks for educating people about it.
[quote]He needs to be taught a lesson and pay the price, if he got away with just paying restitution and saying he was sorry I think he’d be back at it in no time.[/quote]
Using the California recidivism rate as a marker, I sincerely doubt that incarceration teaches any significant desirable lesson. As for “paying the price”, I think that our “prices” have very little to do with protecting the public or improving the chances that the convicted will be less likely to commit more crimes once released given the difficulties they find re adjusting to a society in which they obviously were not doing optimally prior to be branded as a convict.
JustSaying
[quote]I await medwoman’s evaluation about what why it was needed any of the time and how it’s prejudicial effect might have compared with the shot of that sweet-looking Marsh youngster. [/quote]
Other than for the fun of jerking my chain, why would you assume that I like the use of this photo any better than the picture of Mr. Marsh. Other folks had already commented on the unnecessary presence of this picture when it was first posted and David is not in the habit of running his photos’s past me prior to publication any more than is Debbie Davis. However, I do think there is a distinction to be made between a blog photo where one has to actively seek out the site on the computer, and a picture than lands in your driveway where any child may encounter it in going about their usual business.
[quote] I do think there is a distinction to be made between a blog photo where one has to actively seek out the site on the computer, and a picture than lands in your driveway where any child may encounter it in going about their usual business.[/quote]
Or plastered all over town in newspaper vending machines (is that what those things are called?). Another distinction to consider is that Marsh is a minor.
B.Nice re Partida: Its just not nice, and not safe, to aggravate someone unnecessarily. Partida approached Garzon knowing he was very upset, and Partida had earlier aggravated Garzon. These weren’t smart things to do. Could anyone disagree, seeing his photo, that Partida would have been smart to do things differently?
Eagle Eye: “Its just not nice, and not safe, to aggravate someone unnecessarily.”
Your right, a person is to blame for getting violently assaulted because they aggravated someone, I don’t know what I was thinking….
Yeah he was asking for it. As every woman knows if you are going to dress that way its your fault if you get assaulted. Oh wait we haven’t done it that way in 40 years.
Everyone has things that push their buttons. Seeing Marsh, the 16 year old youth, kid, minor, child, (terms used to minimize the heinous acts he allegedly committed) being shackled had quite less of a negative impact on me than seeing the below the fold photo of an elderly couple that had been allegedly mutilated by the person above the fold. A couple that only had the misfortune of being at home asleep with the window open.
Medwoman said kids could see the photo from the paper on the driveway and B. Nice mentioned the news stand machine. I never see kids taking the paper off the driveway, removing the rubber band, unfolding the paper to be traumatized by a photo. Maybe there are tons of news stands where B. Nice lives but I can’t remember seeing more than a few all around town.
My point is, that seeing the pictures that Vanguard posts which a board member and a frequent poster sees as benign but one in The Davis Enterprise as provocative is just disingenuous. I see their motives being the same.
It seems a bit odd that the incarceration won’t be followed up by probation–a 2.5 year probationary period might be about right. In light of the stabbing allegations (odd that he was able to plea out of these charges, perhaps self-defense was plausible? I don’t know details of this); perhaps mandated anger/rage management? How about joining the armed forces and doing some time on the front-line to vent some physically aggressive tendencies?
SH
“Seeing Marsh, the 16 year old youth, kid, minor, child, (terms used to minimize the heinous acts he allegedly committed)”
I will not speak for others, but when I use the terms “youth, minor, kid ,or child” it is not to “minimize the heinous acts he allegedly committed”
But rather to emphasize the neurological immaturity that is inherent in his chronological age. As a society, we have acknowledged the differences in the adolescent from the adult brain long before the neuroscience began to supply answers for why this is the case. This is the reason that we have laws that designate how old one must be to vote, or join the military, or get married without parental consent. If we recognize immaturity as a restriction from certain kinds of activities, certainly it should also follow that we take it into account when judging and sentencing.
Jimt
“How about joining the armed forces and doing some time on the front-line to vent some physically aggressive tendencies?”
I suppose it might work out that way. However could it not also cause a person with anger management issues and violent tendencies to come back with PTSD and even more angry, alienated and willing to lash out than when he left with the major difference being that now he is thoroughly trained as a multi modal killer ?
jimt: Prison isn’t followed by probation, it’s sometimes followed by parole.
“How about joining the armed forces and doing some time on the front-line to vent some physically aggressive tendencies? “
How about not dishonouring the brave men and women who serve our country by staining them with this trash?
“…marsh will get a minimum of 50 years. “
Really ? My scenario goes like this: Marsh’s attorney makes a deal for two counts manslaughter, he gets sentenced to 7-12 years on each, served concurrently, he’s out in 5 years.
Biddlin ;>)/
I’d be surprised.
biddlin
[quote][quote]How about not dishonoring the brave men and women who serve our country by staining them with this trash? [/quote][/quote]
How about not dishonoring us all by using such dehumanizing terms as “trash” when referring to another human being ?
Could it not be the same process of dehumanization that allows one human to savagely attack another ?
Labeling, name calling, stigmatizing allow us to decide that we are superior to another. It is a small step from this to the decision that we have the right to in some way whether direct, or indirect cause injury to
the so defined “inferior being”.
“Maybe there are tons of news stands where B. Nice lives but I can’t remember seeing more than a few all around town. “
Maybe they are all located at the places I frequently visit, outside the Starbucks downtown, the Peets downtown, and the yogurt place by Nugget. Plus newspapers sit in stacks at grocery stores and shops all over town. I wasn’t actually that bothered by the picture of Marsh and probably wouldn’t have thought much of it until I read others concerns. Upon reflection I do think it was a bad call to post a picture of a shackled minor (who has not been found guilty yet) in such a highly visible way.
“How about not dishonoring us all by using such dehumanizing terms as “trash” when referring to another human being ? “
Would you want him serving with your son or daughter ?
biddlin
[quote]Would you want him serving with your son or daughter ?[/quote]
No. But that does not mean that I think he is “trash”. I believe that he has, for what ever reason, failed to master some skills necessary to peaceful existence within our community. What I hope for him is that he will get whatever help is needed to master those skills and be able to turn his life around into one that is productive and constructive. Labeling someone as “trash” is hardly conducive to that goal.
Sorry medwoman, I find no excuse for such behaviour and am quite willing to toss such defective individuals on the scrap heap. There are too many decent hardworking people who need society’s attention to waste resources on such a losing proposition. I find it particularly offensive when some suggests using the US military as a reform school. I realise that in inclusive Davis, some feel the need to accommodate everyone, including the homicidal and sociopathic, I guess I’m just not that open-minded.
Biddlin ;>)/
medwoman, I was struggling to understand how you could have been so offended by the juxtaposition of the two photos. I wasn’t trying to pull your chain, just figure out what was so troubling since I saw it as so routine and harmless.
You’ve provided a half dozen reasons, not one of which makes sense on the surface to me. The most understandable is that it troubled your friend’s son, but it seems that came after your initial upset.
I tied you in to David’s complete 180 degree turnabout with respect to his “standards” and how he applied them to the two cases (now a third case–with a reminder, of just how the Vanguard waited for all the evidence to be presented in court in the Garzon case.)
Now, I realize that you were focused on the photos and cellphone kind of details, rather than David’s “go slow” appeal. So, I shouldn’t have put you in the same irony pot just because you’d complimented him on his patently hypocritical second story.
I agree that Internet blogs get to have different photo standards than newspapers, although I’ll point out that the bloody face closeup is the most grotesque illustration (repeated, yet again, above) I’ve ever seen in a news setting.
I disagree with those who attributed its use to a “sell newspaper” mentality on David’s part. I thought from the beginning that it was a effort to shock the community conscience and influence prosecution of Mr. Garzon from the first time it appeared. And, now, suspicions confirmed with today’s Garzon commentary.
[quote]Sorry medwoman, I find no excuse for such behaviour and am quite willing to toss such defective individuals on the scrap heap[/quote]
I don’t think anyone is trying to excuse the behavior, but if he could be rehabilitated, and become a productive member of society, instead of one fly’s into violent rages resulting in innocent people being beat up, I’d go for that option over the scrap heap.
So many comments….some with valid points, some,pure hateful…but what disturbs me with great insult is not once does anyone mention “God,” and His point of view/objective…..it saddens me. We only spend time/energy in arguing our selfish HUMAN wisdom.
Shame on us…
I suppose if we are not withstanding to criticism, we ought not to write for the Vanguard…
“but what disturbs me with great insult is not once does anyone mention “God,” and His point of view/objective…..it saddens me. We only spend time/energy in arguing our selfish HUMAN wisdom. “
Since I don’t have a direct line to God I’m not sure of his point of view/objective, and thus am unable to blog about it. Alas I’m left to argue my selfish human and often lacking wisdom.
Biddlin,
I had no intention to diss the armed services with my suggestion.
I’ve had relatives (and have an old friend) in the armed forces; it used to be that many recruits would come in with little personal discipline; and one of the first things that is taught is discipline and self-control (getting ‘straightened out’)–they don’t put up with lousy bullying behavior (it used to be that way; hope it still is; maybe discipline standards are loosening, I’ve heard they are starting to have some problems with gang members in the armed services).
Having said that; I acknowledge I may be completely off in the specific case of Garzon.
During the Viet Nam War era, an infinitesimal percentage of those hooligans, drunkards and child molesters, given the option by a lazy judge, of serving jail time or enlisting in the military may have been reformed by the experience. The overwhelming majority continued to offend, bringing their sorry morale, drug addiction a plague of thievery, sexual assault and worse to the decent service members. It is a terrible idea that is an insult to the fine young men and women who serve our country.
Biddlin ;>)/