Man Reportedly Names Killer Before Dying

SANTA ANA — Stabbed in the chest, Alvino Macedo died in his wife’s arms Saturday, but not before naming his attacker, she told police.

“Juan did it,” were Macedo’s last words, his wife, Araceli, told officers.

Suspect Juan Vargas Venegaf, 23, fled the scene, Police Lt. Bob Chavez said.

Alvino Macedo, 33, was dead when police officers arrived at his home at 5:15 a.m., Chavez said.

“Before he died, my husband told me he loved me and I should see that justice is served,” Araceli Macedo said, her voice thick with tears. Her four children and relatives were at her side.

She told police her husband and Venegaf had been drinking in the carport of the Macedos’ apartment in the 800 block of Fairview Street.

The two men then apparently got into an argument about a “minor” incident from the past and Alvino Macedo left to go back to his apartment, the 29-year-old widow said.

Her husband’s state of intoxication when he returned in the early-morning hours prompted her to complain about his drinking, Araceli Macedo said. So he grabbed a blanket and left to sleep in the car, she said.

Several minutes later, Araceli Macedo said, she heard a faint commotion coming from her door. She ran to open the door and her husband stumbled inside, his chest bleeding profusely.

“He said: ‘I’ve been stabbed, call the police,’ ” she recalled. “I asked him who did it and he said Juan. . . . I held him as he died.”

Her husband and the suspected killer were friends, Araceli Macedo told police. A year ago, she said, her husband lived at Venegaf’s home for three months.

The motive for the stabbing is unknown, police said.