CHARGES FILED AGAINST WALNUT CREEK MAN ACCUSED IN FATAL STABBING
Roman Gokhman
San Jose Mercury News
Contra Costa Times
WALNUT CREEK – Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday against an
18-year-old Walnut Creek man who is accused of stabbing a 17-year-old
boy during a party last week.
Daniel Avanesyan remained at County Jail in Martinez on Tuesday on
$1 million bail.
He was arrested July 2 on suspicion of killing 17-year-old Rodeo
resident Jonart Suacillo Yambao after a fight at the party got out
of hand, Walnut Creek police Detective Steve Bertolozzi said.
The fight took place sometime before midnight near the corner of Clover
Lane and Nicholson Road. Bertolozzi said it began inside a home and
spilled out into the street. He did not say what caused the fight.
"It was a pointless confrontation," Bertolozzi said.
The victim’s family said Yambao did not start the fight but became
involved and was stabbed several times. He was dropped off at Kaiser
Medical Center by friends, where he later died. It was Walnut Creek’s
first homicide of the year.
Friends of Avanesyan and his family said the fight is out of character
for the suspect, who turned 18 in April and graduated from Las Lomas
High School last month. They hope prosecutors will treat this as a
self-defense case.
Aimee Sessions said Avanesyan and his parents have been close friends
for four years. She said the suspect is an immigrant from Armenia,
who spoke Russian and English, had good grades in school and worked
nearly full-time at Longs Drugs in Rossmoor to help his family.
He was attending classes at Diablo Valley College.
"I trusted him with my teenage daughter and my young son," Sessions
said. "He was teaching my son how to swim. When I heard about this,
my heart just dropped to the floor."