A Las Vegas man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing to death an Orange man who had criticized his driving.
Arnulfo Gonzalez, 30, was found guilty in August of second-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for
use of a deadly weapon for the early morning, March 14, 2010, slaying of 35-year-old Samuel Valdivia.
Actually, Gonzalez had been a Las Vegas resident; he was living in his truck at the time of the murder.
]
He'd been out drinking at a bar with Valdivia when they decided to
return to the Orange man's apartment in the 800 block of North Olive
Street.
To get there, Gonzalez drove a mutual friend's car. Valdivia criticized
Gonzalez's driving once they arrived at the apartment. So Gonzalez
stabbed him to death. The knife was found in the apartment
complex courtyard, and Gonzalez was arrested hours later when
detectives spotted him near the Orange Police station.
It only took the deliberating jury 2 1/2 to
convict Gonzalez.
Previous coverage:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.