Suspect Sought in Slaying of Corona Man

Corona police issued a composite drawing Monday of a suspect in the weekend stabbing death of 19-year-old Filiberto Rojas of Corona.

Rojas was fatally wounded after he and two friends got into an argument with two other men last Friday night that escalated into a fight, Corona Police Lt. Roy VanderKallen said. Rojas was stabbed in the abdomen in an alley near 6th Street and Ramona Avenue in central Corona.

Friends drove Rojas to Corona Community Hospital, where he died on the operating table early Saturday morning, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County coroner said.

An autopsy found the cause of his death to be a “massive internal hemorrhage due to laceration (of the) aorta due to (a) stab wound to (the) abdomen,” she said.

The fight apparently began over a minor traffic dispute, said Corona Police Lt. Fred Biggs, commander of detectives. Rojas was a passenger in one of the cars involved, he said.

“Both vehicles stopped, everybody got out, and the verbal dispute escalated into a physical altercation,” Biggs said Monday. The killer first punched one of Rojas’ friends, “then Rojas and he went toe-to-toe. Rojas swung at him a couple of times, and the (killer) stabbed him a couple of times.”

After the stabbing, the fight broke up and everyone left the scene, Biggs said.

The killer was described by witnesses as a Latino in his early 20s, about 6-foot-3 and 160 pounds, with dark hair marked by a reddish-blond streak in the front. Police also are looking for his companion, a Latino in his early 20s, who is about 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, with black hair.