Gruesome killing, nearby stabbing shock neighbors

Skid marks tracing the route where a man was dragged beneath a pickup truck - face down to his death early Saturday - end at a sign that reads “Drug Free Zone.”

Neighbors on Casita Drive in Yuba City laughed bitterly Sunday at that posting - a weak and meaningless gesture, they said, given the severity of recent violent crimes in the neighborhood.

Two blocks away on Melton Drive, small children pointed to a spot on the sidewalk where they said police bleached away blood stains from a stabbing incident Saturday night.

In the case of the dragging death, Aaron Richard Ouelette, 21, and Michael Angelo Sanudo, 20, both of Yuba City, were arrested on Shasta Street later Saturday and charged with murder, robbery, gang affiliation and parole violation. The suspects are being held without bail, according to Sutter County Sheriff’s Department records.

The victim, described by Yuba City Police as a black man in his 30s, has not been identified. Police said they had not ruled out race as a factor in the attack, which is under investigation.

According to written reports from Yuba City police, Ouelette and Sanudo beat and kicked the victim first and stole some property from him, then got into the pickup and ran over him at least twice. The victim was then “dragged a considerable distance.”

“I heard tires screeching,” said a woman who identified herself as T. Perico, 37. She dialed 911 at about 12:40 Saturday morning, after witnessing part of the incident. She then ran outside to see if she could help the victim.

The screeching, she said, “must have been when they were running over him.”

This took place, witnesses said, in the alley that runs between Casita Drive and Melton Drive, known as La Colina Lane, and in the carport belonging to one of the homes on Casita Drive.

Wooden privacy fences for several apartment buildings and houses on Melton Drive line La Colina, opposite the carports and garages.

When Perico first looked into that alley to see what was happening, she said, the truck’s passenger had gotten out and was looking to see if the victim was still underneath the truck.

She could see the victim’s head sticking out from beneath the front of the vehicle, as it headed east toward Gray Avenue, she said.

Neighbors screamed to one another that the truck had turned out of the alley and onto Casita, so Perico ran out onto that street.

The truck, according to witnesses, swerved to the curb halfway down the street and stopped.

The suspects in the truck got out and fled, Perico said.

“We ran to see if there was anything we could do” to help the man trapped beneath the truck, Perico said. “One woman was trying to push the truck,” in an effort to get it off the man’s body, she said.

On the front side of the Melton Drive apartment complexes that back up to the alley, neighbors provided graphic details about a man who had been stabbed multiple times Saturday night on a sidewalk near Highway 99.

Yuba City Police Department officials would provide no details Sunday.

Sabrina Baker, 14, said that in the four years her family has lived on Casita, “this is the biggest thing that’s happened.”

“Most of the time, it’s just fights between drunk people,” she said, peering out of her doorway with her mother and sister.

Tina Wilson, 33, said she had been asleep in her house on Casita when one of her children woke her up with news about police activity in the street.

“I went out there and asked, ‘Do I need to get my kids out of here?’”

Wilson said she believes it’s difficult to escape violent crime anywhere in the Yuba-Sutter area.

“It happens in rich neighborhoods, too,” she said.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack can be reached at 749-4712. You may e-mail her at npasternack@ appeal-democrat.com