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A 20-year-old Hollister resident has pleaded not guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge stemming from a March 28 incident in which he is accused of running over another man.
The suspect, who is free on $100,000 bail, will appear for a preliminary hearing on April 23 at 10 a.m. in San Benito County Superior Court.
According to police, officers responded to a collision involving a person trapped beneath a vehicle on Poplar Court in Hollister. First responders extracted 21-year-old Erik Orozco of San Jose from under the car and, following a series of life-saving measures, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the charges, the killing was done without malice “upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.”
According to a person with knowledge of the incident, Mendez and Orozco were at a gathering in San Jose and Mendez gave Orozco’s girlfriend a ride home. Orozco, after finding out his girlfriend left without notifying him, drove to Hollister in search of his girlfriend and Mendez, the source said.
San Benito County District Attorney Joel Buckingham said Mendez did not register for alcohol on a breathalyzer test. He added that investigators are awaiting the autopsy results to identify if there was alcohol in Orozco’s system.
Police said Mendez and Orozco were known to each other.
Buckingham said there were two other witnesses to the incident and they provided statements. Asked what led to Orozco ending up underneath Mendez’s vehicle, he said he could not provide additional information on the record because of “professional responsibility rules.”
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