Rito Samuel Tejeda Charged with Murder of Frederick Sledge in Surf City Apartment: Update

See Update No. 2 at the bottom of the next page on the murder charges against Rito Samuel Tejeda and the I.D. of the victim. Update No. 1 was on Tejeda's arrest.

ORIGINAL POST, OCT. 24, 6 A.M.: Someone saw a man covered in blood walking down the street near Nashville Avenue and Delaware Street in Huntington Beach Wednesday and–that apparently being an unusual sight in that section of Surf City–police were called around 11 a.m.

The fellow was taken to a hospital and questioning of him led cops to an apartment at 1411 Delaware St., where a dead man was found.

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As this was going up, homicide investigators were unsure if the first man was a victim or a suspect.

They obviously know the answer when it comes to the second guy.

“We're pretty confident it's a homicide,” HBPD Lt. Mitch O'Brien told City News Service.

UPDATE NO. 1, OCT. 24, 11:43 A.M.: Police announced that Rito Samuel Tejeda, a 22-year-old from Santa Ana found walking near Delaware Street covered in blood Wednesday, was booked into the city's jail on suspicion of murder.

Court records indicate Tejeda has been previously convicted for domestic abuse, child abuse, loitering in public to sell illegal drugs and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia.

Neighbors tell KTLA/Channel 5 that two men lived in the Delaware Street apartment where the unidentified dead man was found slain. Police have not revealed whether he or Tejeda resided there or how the deceased met his end.

UPDATE NO. 2, OCT. 25, 3:41 P.M.: Rito Samuel Tejeda, 22, of Santa Ana, was charged today with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon and faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison if convicted, according to prosecutors.

Tejeda, who is being held on $1 million bail, has a continued arraignment hearing scheduled for Nov. 22 in Westminster.

He is accused of murdering Frederick Sledge the morning of Oct. 23 by stabbing the 51-year-old repeatedly in a Huntington Beach apartment.

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