Brothers Suspected Of Fatal Stabbing In Target Store Charged With Murder
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Two brothers were charged with murder Wednesday for the fatal stabbing of a 36-year-old man inside a Target store in Hayward on Christmas Eve, prosecutors said.
Jesse Archuleta, 25, and Frankie Archuleta, 22, both of Hayward, were charged in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland Wednesday afternoon for the death of Tyrone Griffin and are scheduled to return to court on Thursday to be assigned attorneys and possibly enter pleas.
Griffin, a Hayward man, was stabbed inside the Target store at 2499 Whipple Road at about 8 p.m. on Saturday and was taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he was pronounced dead more than two half hours later, according to police.
Nicole Simmons, the victim's wife, said her husband was inside the store, doing some last minute shopping with the couple's two children when the unthinkable happened.
A witness said Griffin asked the suspects to turn down some inappropriate music they were playing on their cell phones in front of his children in the toy section.
Hayward police Officer Justin Green wrote in a probable cause statement that Griffin got into an argument with the Archuleta brothers inside the store and at some point it turned into a physical altercation in which Griffin pulled a wine bottle off of a shelf and hit Frankie Archuleta with it.
Green said Jesse Archuleta then stabbed Griffin three times in his upper torso and once in his left arm. Griffin died at the hospital.
He said the Archuleta brothers fled the scene on foot but were later arrested by officers who found them hiding nearby behind a dumpster at the Motel 6 at 30155 Industrial Parkway Southwest.
Green wrote that the Archuleta brothers were both positively identified as the suspects in the altercation with Griffin and that as Jessie Archuleta was being taken into custody he told police that he had carried out the stabbing and was defending himself.
Green said a pocket knife was later found by a police dog along the path that the Archuleta brothers used to flee from the scene.
In addition to murder, Jesse Archuleta is charged with a use of a deadly weapon enhancement for allegedly using a knife to kill Griffin.
Prosecutors said Frankie Archuleta was convicted of felony grand theft of personal property in Alameda County last year.
Nicole Simmons said Christmas was her husband's favorite time of year, but that now it will never be the same.
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