Oroville man held over on Yuba City murder charge

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November 07, 2009 12:24:00 AM

Appeal-Democrat

An Oroville man was held to answer Friday on a first-degree murder charge in the April stabbing death of Gabriel Melendez-Huerta in his Yuba City home.

Sutter County Judge H. Ted Hansen set a Nov. 23 arraignment for Michael Ray Collier, 49, who is also charged with robbing the victim.

Hansen dismissed a charge of torture against Collier, who is believed to havedropped off another defendant, Dewayne Norman Carter, at Melendez-Huerta's house on Turin Drive. Carter is accused of torturing the victim and stabbed him multiple times.

Carter's preliminary hearing is scheduled Jan. 28.

Collier's arraignment was set following a preliminary hearing this week in which testimony from a sheriff's detective described a scene in which Melendez-Huerta was tortured with electricity and slowly bled to death.

"Everything was covered with blood," Yuba City police Detective Jason Parker testified.

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