KING CITY — King City Police announced the arrest of three suspects through the work of a multi-agency task force last Thursday.
New case developments in the 2016 murder of Martin Heredia and the 2017 murder of Hipolito Carreno caused officers to take action after years of investigation.
Kendricks Perez, 25, of Pine Canyon was arrested on two counts of homicide in connection with both cases. John Samuel Thomas Trivino, 25, of Greenfield was arrested on one count of homicide in connection to Heredia’s murder.
Antonio Damian Gonzalez, 22, of Pine Canyon was currently in custody in Monterey County Jail and will be booked on an additional charge of homicide for his involvement in the death of Carreno.
Sgt. Ryan Kenedy discussed Heredia’s murder, which took place June 7, 2016, in front of Heredia’s residence, and the resulting investigation. Sgt. Joshua Partida discussed Carreno’s murder on the 500 block of Lynn Street on March 4, 2016.
“Information developed in the past two years, in which detectives developed leads in the case and identified two suspects,” Kenedy said.
Chief of Police Keith Boyd said police informed both families of the arrests and advised the public who knows the families to respect their privacy.
Heredia’s sister and mother attended the press conference held at King City Police Department on May 27.
“I can’t start to describe how much our life has changed since that night and those events,” said Roxanna Heredia, sister to Martin Heredia. “Although nothing will bring my brother back and our lives will never be the same, this does start what I hope will be closure to our family.”
According to Boyd, the investigation included cooperation among multiple agencies, including KCPD, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Greenfield Police Department, Department of Homeland Security, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Salinas Police Department and Soledad Police Department.
“The operation was complex and involved a lot of coordination,” Boyd said. “What it shows is that this department, as all law enforcement, is dedicated to finding justice for those that have been the victims of crime, any crime. These crimes occurred four to five years ago. We never gave up and we’re never going to give up on any cases moving into the future.”
Operations occurred in three cities across the entire county beginning at 6 a.m. that day, with warrants served in Pine Canyon and Greenfield. Perez was taken into custody in King City and Trivino was arrested on Highway 101 heading toward Market Street in Salinas.
Boyd said the department is still working on both cases to gather more information.
“We’re going to dig because we want to solidify the case and there’s never enough,” he said. “We always want to get more.”
