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A 30-year-old Honduran citizen, Alfonso Inestroza AKA Franquin Inestroza-Martinez, is now in custody in Santa Clara County as a suspect facing murder charges in New Jersey and California.
Inestroza, who was arrested in Hollister on March 5, is accused of allegedly fatally shooting a man inside a Trenton, New Jersey home in 2025, and allegedly serving as the triggerman in the ambush killing of a young woman last January in Sunnyvale, California.
Inestroza was residing in a two-story home along Hemlock Court, in Sunnyslope Village, on the eastern side of Hollister. He was arrested by officers of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.
The Trenton Killing: March 17, 2025
The first known incident happened on the evening of March 17, 2025, at approximately 9:30 p.m., in a working-class neighborhood of New Jersey’s state capital, according to the Mercer County Homicide Task Force (MCHTF).
Following weeks of investigations, the MCHTF publicly named Inestroza as the suspect and formally issued an arrest warrant. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office released a photo of Inestroza along with the following statement:
“The Mercer County Homicide Task Force (MCHTF) is asking for the public’s assistance in locating Alfonso Inestroza AKA Franquin Inestroza-Martinez. Inestroza is charged with a shooting homicide that occurred in Trenton in March of this year [2025]. At approximately 9:30 p.m. on March 17, Trenton police responded to a call from the 300 block of Dayton Street reporting multiple bullet holes in the residence that came from the attached house. Responding officers entered the Dayton Street home for a welfare check and located the victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. The victim, identified as Esteban Vicente Sacalxot, 55, of Trenton, was pronounced dead at the scene. During the investigation, Alfonso Inestroza was identified as the suspect, and warrants for his arrest were issued.”
U.S. Marshals from New York and New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force were activated to continue the investigation and locate Inestroza. Authorities said he was not a U.S. citizen and described him as a Honduran citizen standing 5’3”, weighing between 135 and 160 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Honduran media sources only identified him as Honduran and did not identify which city he was from. Investigators warned that Inestroza was known to carry handguns and should be considered armed and dangerous.
The Sunnyvale Killing: January 7, 2026
The shooting of Kembery Chirinos-Flores, 24, of Mountain View, as previously reported at BenitoLink, occurred the night of January 7 on Vienna Drive in Sunnyvale’s Plaza Del Rey community. Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety (SDPS) officers arrived to find her dead in her Jeep Patriot with gunshot wounds. Investigators determined that Chirinos-Flores had traveled to the complex to pick up the 5-year-old son she shared with 32-year-old Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia. The suspects fled before officers arrived.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Sunnyvale Detective Eugene Rosette, surveillance footage captured at the site showed a man whose face was concealed by a neck gaiter lying in wait near a vehicle registered to Chirinos-Munguia. When the victim parked, the shooter approached the driver’s side window and fired two shotgun rounds into the vehicle. An audible racking sound consistent with the cycling of a pump-action shotgun was captured between shots. The shooter then fled the scene. Investigators eventually identified Inestroza as the shooter and Chirinos-Munguia as the orchestrator.
On March 5, 2026, law enforcement executed coordinated arrests across two counties. SDPS’s SWAT/K9 teams responded to an address on Hemlock Court in Hollister, where they arrested Alfonso Inestroza without incident. Simultaneously, Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia was taken into custody in Sunnyvale. A shotgun believed to be the murder weapon was also recovered during the arrests. Both men were booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of homicide.
A criminal complaint later revealed a third man not initially announced at a March 9 press conference — 30-year-old Jorge Bolaños Guerra — was accused of aiding and abetting in the killing. All three men were charged with murder and conspiracy. A warrant was sought for Bolaños, who was not listed in jail custody as of the time of the filing.
SDPS Chief Dan Pistor announced the arrests during the press conference: “These arrests represent an important step toward justice for Kembery and her family. I want to commend our detectives for their relentless work and dedication in this investigation. The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety will never stop pursuing justice for victims of violent crime in our community, and we remain committed to holding offenders fully accountable.”
He continued: “I can only imagine the profound pain Kembery’s family is experiencing during this difficult time. Kembery was in the prime of her life. She was working two jobs to make ends meet, and she was a loving mother of a five-year-old son. This was a tragic and senseless act of violence that is fortunately extremely rare in our city.”
The investigation involved the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the Hollister Police Department, the San Benito County Criminal Apprehension Suppression and Prevention Response Unit, and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
Alfonso Inestroza
Inestroza is a 30-year-old Honduran citizen and is not a U.S. citizen. Public records and press releases from both the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the SDPS identified him as a foreign national. He was most recently residing in Hollister before his March 2026 arrest, but had previously been known to live in the Trenton, New Jersey area at the time of the 2025 homicide. No public information has been released by authorities, U.S. or Honduran media regarding his specific city of origin, the circumstances of his entry into the United States, or his immigration status at the time of either alleged crime.
Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia
The co-defendant in the Sunnyvale case, Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia, is identified as the father of Chirinos-Flores’s young child, according to the Los Altos Town Crier. Chirinos-Flores and Chirinos-Munguia had previously been in a dating relationship. Court records confirmed a family violence case from 2018 involving Chirinos-Munguia and a different partner, and showed he was on probation at the time of his arrest. Authorities have not publicly explained the nature of the relationship between Inestroza and Chirinos-Munguia, citing the ongoing investigation.
A Pattern of Violence Across State Lines
What makes the Inestroza case particularly alarming to law enforcement is the geographic arc of the alleged crimes, according to the East Bay Times. After allegedly shooting Esteban Vicente Sacalxot to death in a Trenton in March 2025, Inestroza evaded both the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and the U.S. Marshals for months, eventually resurfacing nearly three thousand miles away in Hollister, where authorities allege, he became involved in what investigators describe as a premeditated ambush of a young mother during what should have been a routine custody exchange.
Somehow, whether on his own or with help from others, Inestroza was able to remain at large for a year despite having an active federal fugitive warrant for the alleged murder in New Jersey.
When asked if the Hollister Police Department would be investigating who may have harbored him, Terra Casarez, speaking for the department, said she was not aware of any investigation into who may have hidden Inestroza.
“Sunnyvale Police Department was responsible for the arrest, we provided assistance,” she said in an email statement. “Due to the crime happening in Sunnyvale, they would be the department that handled the investigation and would have the answers to your questions.”
BenitoLink contacted SDPS and was referred to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office, who did not respond before publication.
According to reports from the Silicon Valley Voice and KTVU, Inestroza was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on murder charges and also has an outstanding murder warrant in New Jersey. Authorities have not announced any extradition timeline or future court proceedings.
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