Sonny Carrillo was headed to a friend’s birthday dinner, dressed up and smelling of Acqua di Gio cologne. But first, the 20-year-old agreed to do a quick favor. A friend needed a ride.
He drove two female friends to a Lincoln Park apartment complex so one could drop off her child to the child’s father. As Carrillo waited in his BMW, someone — the child’s father, police believe — reached in and stabbed him in the chest.
Carrillo died at a hospital shortly after the attack on July 29, 2011. Police soon identified Julio Cesar Mendez as their suspect. But the then-21-year-old had fled.
On Wednesday, approaching 14 years since the fatal stabbing, police homicide Acting Lt. Joel Tien announced that Mendez has been arrested.
Tien said U.S. Marshals had found Mendez, now 35, in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was returned to the U.S. on Tuesday, when he was booked into San Diego Central Jail. Mendez remains held without bail as he awaits an arraignment slated for Friday. Tien declined to say how U.S. authorities knew where to find Mendez.
The slaying happened shortly before 11:30 p.m. at an apartment complex at 47th and Castana streets. Police said in 2011 that while exchanging the child, an altercation began between the father and one of Carrillo’s friends.
At one point, Mendez allegedly asked who was in the car, then approached and stabbed Carrillo, police said.
An arrest warrant for Mendez was issued about a month later.
Carrillo had graduated from Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, where he was in the ROTC, and later attended Grossmont College. He faithfully attended Lemon Grove Foursquare Church.
When he died, he was working as a parts-delivery employee at Frank Toyota in National City. He had been helping out with money for his mother, who had lost two husbands.
