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Uploaded: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 6:16 AM
Updated: Thursday, December 1, 2011, 7:17 AM
New charge added against teen arrested in double stabbing
Remains held on $260,000 bail
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by Glenn Wohltmann
Pleasanton Weekly Staff
The teen charged in a September double stabbing near Village High School now faces an attempted murder charge.
Victor Garcia, 16, was originally charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbing of Cameron "CamCam" Gipson and Dawayne Barnes.
The two were stabbed with a knife from Village's home economics class in a confrontation that grew out of an earlier dispute between others at the school that led to Gipson's girlfriend being suspended.
The attempted murder charge, in the stabbing of Gipson, was added Monday during a second day of Garcia's preliminary hearing in Alameda County Superior Court in Pleasanton.
"The location of the injury shows he was aiming for a vital organ of Mr. Gipson," prosecutor Connie Campbell told Judge Jacob Blea III. "I believe it has been proven more likely than not that is what the defendant wanted."
Defense attorney Thomas Knutsen said there was no proof that Garcia had armed himself that day.
"They're asking you to speculate that knives were available that date and that Mr. Garcia had access to them on that date," Knutsen told the judge.
However, Campbell said Garcia had been told by Village Principal Greg Giglio to leave directly after school, and that the teen had a home economics class after that meeting. Campbell said it was unlikely that Garcia had been carrying a knife he'd previously taken from the school and was bringing with him every day.
Blea recessed the court for about 20 minutes to consider Campbell's request to add the charge before ruling in favor of the prosecution. He then ruled there was probable cause for a trial to be held and sent the case to Superior Court in Hayward, which handles felony prosecutions.
The new attempted murder charge carries a maximum penalty of life with the possibility of parole. Garcia is also charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, each of which can carry a sentence of up to four years in state prison. He is also charged with inflicting great bodily injury, which could carry an additional sentence of three years, of committing a violent felony, which could add another three years, and under a state statute that prohibits plea bargaining in some violent crimes.
Gipson's father Byron has been lobbying for the additional charges since the Sept. 15 stabbing.
"Cam is damaged for life and this guy may go to prison for a long time," Byron Gipson said Tuesday in an interview. "I'm not the kind of person that wants to ruin a person's life. God said to forgive."
"I think we need to send a message to these kids that you can ruin your life by bad decisions," he added. "Cam made a bad decision by going up there and (Garcia) made a bad decision by stabbing him."
Byron Gipson is also worried about his son's continued safety. He said a member of the South Side Riders gang -- the same gang that his son testified had threatened him at Amador Valley High School -- attended the preliminary hearing. He also said his son had been threatened near his home and that he is dealing with anxiety as well as medical issues.
Monday's hearing was complicated by several sidebars and off-the-record discussions in Blea's chambers after Knutsen asked to cross-examine Barnes.
"Self defense is the issue to be addressed here," Knutsen told the judge.
Blea, however, invoked a trial rule, deciding that Knutsen was not legally allowed to use Barnes' testimony for to gain information to bolster his defense, even though Barnes refused to speak to a defense investigator.
Garcia remains held on $260,000 bail. He was dressed in a blue Alameda County jail sweatshirt and tan slacks with a shackle chained to his waist.
The 16-year-old said little during his appearance, but was patted on the shoulder by Knutsen before being led back to jail.
Garcia has been scheduled for a Dec. 12 hearing at the Hayward Hall of Justice.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Kathleen Ruegsegger, a resident of the Vintage Hills Elementary School neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2011 at 9:29 am You cannot blame the school for the actions of one person. It is a great school and has saved many kids from dropping out (and maybe causing more mayhem). And it's not just troubled kids; it's kids who just couldn't connect or succeed on the much larger campuses at Foothill and Amador. You should visit this group of dedicated teachers and see what they are accomplishing.
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Posted by anonymous, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2011 at 5:39 pm Village is known as the 'drop out' school of Pleasanton. Yes, there are some students who attend Village that are actually trying to get a better life, but the majority are kids who just couldn't cut it because they refused to.
Also, I think the schools need to enforce that they're going to a school in PLEASANTON for a reason.
And these guys that were involved in this..they think they're tough...I knew who they were and I wasn't surprised this happened. They think that just because they come from some ghetto area that they should just bring it here because everyone is too racist. There's racism for a reason...it's because things like this happen. And then there's those followers...the ones who post stuff like "Free Vic" on facebook. Seriously guys...it's PLEASANTON.
People may call me a hypocrite, but I know what opportunities I had when I moved to Pleasanton..I embraced it. I erased my past and I'm on the right track now. Maybe the schools should help these kids more...
Gosh Victor...really?
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Posted by parent, a resident of the Downtown neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2011 at 8:28 pm Thank you, Kathleen.
Thank you, Kathleen.
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Posted by Giving Kids a Second Chance, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Dec 1, 2011 at 10:17 am A few bad kids do not make the whole school bad. I too know some of the teachers and kids at Village, and the majority are trying to straighten up their lives. The teachers are very involved and dedicated to these students. One young man I know couldn't handle Amador because of his home life, but excelled at Village, got a scholarship to Los Positas, transfered to CSUEB and has just started his Master's in Social Work so he can help others like him. Village gives students a chance to succeed.
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Posted by anonie, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 9:27 pm This incident has NOTHING to do with Village HS or its students or staff. I don't know much about this school, but I do know it has earned itself as a Distinguished school in California. To me that means the teachers / staff there must be doing something right at this school.
Most students are there for a variety of reasons and we cannot judge them for their reasons. This stabbing could have occurred anywhere. It's Victor Garcia who is the criminal punk thug who took a weapon to a fist fight. Victor Garcia is the focus here, NOT Village HS. It sounds like Victor and these two others had previous beef with each other so this stabbing could have occurred anywhere they happened to cross paths, just happened to occur after school near the campus. Leave Village out of this.
I also don't buy that the victims are true victims in such a definition of the word. This would have been a mutual fist fight like so many that occur, and would have never been news worthy, except the thug Victor used a knife to stab the others (bad mistake of judgement there Victor - now you sit in jail)
I'm glad the D.A. went for the attempted murder charge, our D.A. does a good job (most of the time) sending a strong message to criminals to not act so stupid, at least not in this county.
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Posted by crz, a resident of the Civic Square neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2011 at 6:53 pm FREE VICTOR. camron and dawayne want to act soo innocent but theyre not . ! they were going to kill victor he was just defending hisself they are the ones who should be in jail !
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Posted by Cathy, a resident of the Civic Square neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2012 at 1:26 am When is the trial?
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Posted by Cathy, a resident of the Civic Square neighborhood, on Nov 30, 2012 at 1:27 am When is the trial?
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