Man held to answer to murder charge in DeLaveaga Park-area stabbing

A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge ruled Friday that 31-year-old Joseph Young will face a murder trial for a fatal stabbing at George Washington Grove in the Delaveaga Park area in April.

According to a release from the Santa Cruz Police Department, first responders were called to the scene of what was reported as a “stabbing incident” around 11:56 a.m. April 19. The victim, 44-year-old Todd Kolibas, was taken to a trauma center, where he died.

Officers arrested Young hours after the stabbing. SCPD Deputy Chief Jon Bush previously told Lookout that Young had come to the police station to report the stabbing and give his version of events. He said that Young “admitted his involvement, but gave an account of the events that didn’t align with the evidence and witness statements that investigators uncovered,” which led to his arrest.

Young appeared in court Friday with his attorney, Thomas Brewer. 

Assistant District Attorney Ilia McKinney called SCPD Officer Dylan DeWees as her first witness. He was among the first to respond to the scene. He said that Kolibas was pale, not speaking, and did not appear to be breathing. There was a deep laceration in his left elbow and another wound in his left flank. 

DeWees said that he spoke with a witness named Melissa Angula, who told him that Kolibas had arrived in a red SUV, and shortly after, Young arrived in a black Land Rover. The two ended up in an altercation, and Kolibas threatened Young and his dog, DeWees told the court. Young and his dog were still in his car at that point, but soon after, they got out of the car and began to chase Kolibas.

SCPD Officer Jocelyn Mendoza said that a witness, Nicolette Anderson, told her Young had pinned Kolibas to a tree while holding a “revolver-style weapon.” She said that she heard a “pop” and saw smoke and some kind of projectile exit the weapon, striking Kolibas in his kidney area. She added that Young then stuck something into Kolibas’ neck. 

Anderson said that she felt that the men knew each other and “had prior beef” based on the interaction she saw, Mendoza testified. 

In an April 21 Facebook post, Sarah Leonard, executive director of the Mental Health Client Action Network of Santa Cruz, wrote that both men had worked at the organization. “A recently terminated disgruntled ex-employee of MHCAN, my workplace, fatally stabbed another worker from MHCAN in the park,” she wrote. 

The lone witness for the defense was SCPD Officer Armando Aguilar, who spoke with witnesses who also said that the two men had pre-existing issues with each other. Witness Paul Balesteri told Aguilar that in the days prior to Kolibas’ death, Kolibas had pulled a knife on Young and added that he remembers a prior incident in which Kolibas threatened people in the park with a hatchet.

Lead detective Robert Caposio said that after Young had turned himself in, officers found a dark blue Land Rover at the Marshalls parking lot off Soquel Drive in Live Oak matching the description of Young’s vehicle. Investigators found a taser and makeshift pistol in a compartment beneath the steering wheel, as well as a knife with what officers believe to be dried blood.

Brewer argued that Judge Stephen Siegel should change the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter, saying that the witnesses described Kolibas as the aggressor. McKinney, however, argued that there was insufficient evidence that showed Young was “acting under intense emotion that would have obscured his judgment.”

Siegel ruled that the evidence in front of him lead him to believe there was a strong suspicion of guilt and held Young to answer to the charge of murder.

Young is due back in court on May 24 at 8:15 a.m.

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