A month ago Clayton Garzon copped to a plea in the case that arose out of his actions back in March when he severely beat Mikey Partida while yelling anti-gay epithets. Mr. Garzon pled to battery causing serious bodily injury, and the hate crime enhancement. He received what many believed to be a light sentence of five years local time, meaning he would be released in 2.5 years assuming good behavior – with no further supervision.
At the time, not only were we worried about the lack of equal justice in that sentencing, but also the lack of mandatory services that Mr. Garzon would be required to receive.
Perhaps the community and the district attorney’s office will luck out here. Last week, a week before sentencing, Mr. Garzon was taken back into custody by the Yolo County Probation Department, which had been in charge of supervising Mr. Garzon since his release on bail. The stated reason was a series of violations involving his GPS monitoring system, as well as behavioral issues that concerned the department overall.
The violations regarding his GPS monitoring system were classified as technical – he failed to charge his GPS battery as required and therefore the department was unable to track his whereabouts.
While this first happened a few weeks ago, it happened again last week – for eight hours.
These are, again, classified as technical violations and his attorney attempted to dismiss the issues as her client being under stress.
However, the behavioral issues, which the probation department declined to comment on, were enough for probation to revoke his release on bail.
The DA’s office, for their part, noted that they would all revisit the plea agreement during sentencing on October 30.
However, this brings us right back to our initial concern about the original plea agreement.
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, 2012, stabbings in Dixon, in Solano County.
Mr. Partida had attended a party at his cousin’s apartment in downtown Davis 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 had 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 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 treatment. He suffered fractures to his skull, as stated above, and to his rib cage during the beating, and underwent surgery to remove from his right eye socket a nearly two-inch-long piece of wood.
The beating was severe and Mr. Partida was fortunate to make a relatively quick recovery. However, Mr. Garzon engaged in two very violent incidents within a short period of time. In addition, he was said to have violent and angry tendencies when drinking.
The plea agreement for five years would have been up potentially within 2.5 years, and it would be a straight sentencing, meaning once he was released from custody he would no longer be under supervision.
While there is no evidence that Mr. Garzon has committed an additional offense, the fact that probation was concerned enough to place him back in custody and Commissioner Janene Beronio left him in custody has to be a matter of concern – in light of the reduced sentence.
The DA may want to revisit the plea agreement but there is only so far they can go without undoing the agreement and pushing the matter back to a trial.
As we noted at the time, from what we can tell, Clayton Garzon will not have to attend AA, even though he has acknowledged a drinking problem and violent tendencies stemming from his drinking. He will not have to attend anger management.
So, basically, the man who comes out of local custody after two and a half years will have a minimal level of court-mandated treatment – just whatever services are currently available in local custody.
He will come out having been hardened in custody and without having dealt with the core issues. This is a violent person who beat Mr. Partida nearly to death. He is a dangerous person, and nothing will change that in the next two and a half years.
There is a lot that Mr. Garzon must now do in order to get his life back on track. We just do not have any reason to believe he can do it in 2.5 years, given the limited resources and time at his disposal.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Mr. Garzon will leave county in worse shape than when he he arrived there. County does not rehabilitate people, it punishes them. He will have the same, if not worse, anger problems when he leaves there. Sigh.
This seems like an individual the three strikes law was made for. Now if only the court will stop calling balls.
He takes a strike in the plea deal and Solano County dropped the charges so you can’t really use that as a justification for judicial actions against him.
David wrote:
> he failed to charge his GPS battery as required
> and therefore the department was unable to track
> his whereabouts.
If we don’t instantly put EVERYONE that “forgets” to charge their GPS device back in jail we are going to have a lot more people “forgetting” to charge them…
The Yolo County Jail does in fact have the following programs. Drug and Alcohol program (contracted instructors from Yolo County Mental Health), Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Anger Management classes, Relaxation classes, and Psychological counseling among others. If you are convinced that you do not have much of a problem, as Garzon and his team team apparently believes considering that alcohol/anger mgt treatment do not appear to be a part of the plea agreement, then treatment is not going to be very effective.
“He takes a strike in the plea deal and Solano County dropped the charges so you can’t really use that as a justification for judicial actions against him. “
he takes a strike in the plea deal where he actually committed two strikable offenses. the real question is why is he getting this kind of treatment, particularly given the gravity of the base offense here, when others are not? and now he’s showing that he’s not being cooperative.
this whole think stinks to high heaven.
I’m not defending the guy but Solano County dropped the charges so you can’t really use that against him.
He let the battery run down in a twice in a short period. For a guy that gets bailed out of everything probation is sending the message that he can no longer get away with things by having his family constantly bail him out.
“If we don’t instantly put EVERYONE that “forgets” to charge their GPS device back in jail we are going to have a lot more people “forgetting” to charge them…”
i agree with. gps is away to be held accountable without custody. if you can’t be held accountable, then you lose your freedom.
“I’m not defending the guy but Solano County dropped the charges so you can’t really use that against him. “
of course you can use it against him. the courts can as well. it was a plea agreement. if the plea agreement is voided, then the charges could be reinstated.
” it was a plea agreement. if the plea agreement is voided, then the charges could be reinstated.”
It is not clear that the dropping of the Solano County charges is part of the plea deal or if they didn’t feel they had a good case. If the plea deal is not accepted it is unclear if Solano would reinstate the charges in that case.
Young men (and women, for that matter) will test boundaries. This is no different. He tested the boundary and gets a time out. However, the time out for him is jail. Time to grow up, Garzon. No one is buying your excuses anymore. Probation and Judge Rosenberg were spot on in sending him back to jail. He should have started his incarceration immediately upon making the deal.
Mr. Toad: When the plea agreement was announced in court, Jonathan Raven indicated to Judge Rosenberg that the charges in Solano County had been dropped with a Harvey Waiver as a condition of the plea agreement. That was negotiated by Mr. Raven with the authorities in Solano County. By the way, Mr. Toad, under the Harvey Waiver, the court can consider dismissed charges for the purposes of sentencing.
“The Yolo County Jail does in fact have the following programs. Drug and Alcohol program (contracted instructors from Yolo County Mental Health), Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Anger Management classes, Relaxation classes, and Psychological counseling among others.”
I’ve visited people in county. Most of the non-violent, low income people who have the misfortune of being there, due to their economic status and the color of their skin, and want to improve their lot in life, are not like Mr. Garzon. They want to get over their addiction and/or their anger problems.
The ones that do not want to heal will be worse off when they exit. That’s the only point I was trying to make. Take a spoiled rich kid who thinks it’s okay to beat a gay man who was minding his own business. A short stay in county will not improve a violent person like Mr. Garzon. It may punish him for a short time, but he probably (not definitely) will leave county in worse shape than when he arrived there.
One point that I have not yet seen addressed in the preceeding comments is an advantage in terms of making significant progress that Mr.Garzon has. That is his relative youth. Because the brains of adolescents are much more plastic in nature, two + years might be exactly what is needed as well as help with substance abuse, anger management and impulse control. If all are adequately addressed, I see no reason that
Mr. Garzon would not have a good chance at building a productive, constructive life for himself.
You had me at,
[quote]he failed to charge his GPS battery as required[/quote]
That’s how our system works? That’s all it takes, potential felons are self-required to charge an electronic device every single time? That can’t go wrong.
The few people I’ve personally known with GPS devices around their ankle have had very interesting experiences with those devices, at least around the time period of, say, 2006 through 2008. I wonder if anyone in local law enforcement would like to tell Vanguard readers a really, painfully honest, assessment of those devices? No bull. Be honest.
The technology has gotten better, GPS has improved over the last few years to where one can track their little cell phones, find stolen laptops, dogs, keys, ….well anything, with little problem and no pain or injury.
Requiring violent felons, who are extended the privilege of waiting at home, to charge their GPS battery every day is not too much to ask. People seem to have no problem charging their cell phones, so why is this considered too hard. If they can’t remember to do it, especially after a warning and reminder, well, then they can wait in jail.
I bet when they picked him up his cell phone and/or Ipod was charged up. Can these GPS devices be charged up while one sleeps?
“That’s how our system works? That’s all it takes, potential felons are self-required to charge an electronic device every single time? That can’t go wrong.”
i think its the second time that was the problem.
I’m surprised the ankle GPS device doesn’t have a bigger battery (ones that last a week shouldn’t be too big). I think Garzon may be learning that money can help give you an edge on the system (which is really for the plebes and suckers), but you can’t always beat the system with money alone. To do that, he’ll need to join up with the Big Boys on Wall Street!
Alan Miller:
“That’s how our system works? That’s all it takes, potential felons are self-required to charge an electronic device every single time? That can’t go wrong.”
I think Mr. Garzon is a self-avowed felon, not only a potential felon.
Jimmy’s Daughter:
“The few people I’ve personally known with GPS devices around their ankle have had very interesting experiences with those devices, at least around the time period of, say, 2006 through 2008. I wonder if anyone in local law enforcement would like to tell Vanguard readers a really, painfully honest, assessment of those devices? No bull. Be honest.”
Ms. Daughter, would you care to elaborate? You seem to have some knowledge.
“If all are adequately addressed, I see no reason that
Mr. Garzon would not have a good chance at building a productive, constructive life for himself. ” medwoman-I have read this article and your comment over a number of times to see if I had missed something. There is no reason to believe this violent felon will will take any steps toward socialisation unless compelled to do so, and even then, without his personal commitment, prospects seem marginal. My 2p-The interest of the community is best served by incarcerating this and other violent individuals for as long a term as may be imposed, and trusting in destiny and law enforcement that he’ll be re-incarcerated very shortly thereafter.
Biddlin ;>)/
Biddlin
You left out what I consider to be the key part of my post. Neuroscience is gradually uncovering more and more about fundamental differences in the functioning of adolescent vs fully mature brains especially in terms of impulse control. The major point of my post was that with further maturation, along with all the help available, I feel that the prognosis could be significantly better than what was being indicated.
In my teenage years I am sorry to say that I sometimes engaged in behavior that if I had been caught doing as an adult I surely would have ended up in jail if not more. The one thing my friends and I all knew was than once you turn 18, the games are over, and consequences are serious and will stay with you for the rest of your life. As juveniles we knew that we had a free ride and would get a slap on the wrist for almost anything we did. As a result, when we turned 18, our behavior changed. It is absurd to say that because we now think that maybe the brain is not fully matured until say 25, that any criminal behavior until that time should be excused with a slap on the wrist. A 12 yr old knows that you do not not beat someone nearly to death. Garzon’s case is a classic example of how there are one set consequences for those who have the resources to hire a great legal team with lots of expert witnesses, and another set of consequences for those who do not have those resources and get a public defender who is being stretched pretty thin. The one common thread in the prison population is that they are all pretty much exclusively from the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder.
“along with all the help available, “
In his case, that help has always been available. Why hasn’t he availed himself of it? How much more collateral damage should society bear, waiting for such miscreants to mature?
Biddlin ;>)/
G”arzon’s case is a classic example of how there are one set consequences for those who have the resources to hire a great legal team with lots of expert witnesses, and another set of consequences for those who do not have those resources and get a public defender who is being stretched pretty thin.”
Well said. And I agree, I have seen a big change with many 18 year olds. Most of them get it. The ones who don’t- we need to rehabilitate them.
BRAIN SCANS: It seems clear there’s something not quite right with Garzon’s brain. He reacts too quickly, he’s way too angry.
He does not appear to be a happy person.
When a person does unhappy things that are not in their own self-interest, something is seriously wrong. He doesn’t seem to think before he acts.
Those groups at the county jail are not going to be of much help to Garzon or anyone with serious problems.
“Those groups at the county jail are not going to be of much help to Garzon or anyone with serious problems.”
I agree.