The Fight Against Crime: Notes from the Front : Slaying Turns a Friend Into Murder Suspect

Roque Villalobos was killed the other day. Stabbed to death by a friend, police say. Apparently, it was one of his few friends, because police had a hard time finding either relatives or acquaintances to notify.

The killing didn’t get much attention. TV ignored it. So did radio. In fact, you probably didn’t hear about it at all unless you are in the habit of reading those three- or four-paragraph items tucked in the back of the newspaper.

With 1,058 homicides in the city last year, and 213 this year as of April 14, murder is not big news any more.

But every death has its story and every murder impacts those who witness it.

Police know little about Villalobos, but they know enough.

Some time after midnight on April 22, Villalobos and his friend, Joseph Garcia, 24, arrived at Garcia’s North Hollywood apartment after a night out.

The two-bedroom apartment housed Garcia, his girlfriend, Roxanne Carillo, the couple’s 3-month-old daughter, and Carillo’s two other children from a previous relationship.

Garcia had had a rough time of late, but appeared to be turning things around, said his landlord, Ardy Bojko. After months of unemployment, Garcia found a job working the night shift in a warehouse.

It is still unclear how it started, but, with Carillo apparently asleep in one bedroom, and the three children sleeping in the other, police say the two men began fighting about 6 a.m.

Villalobos ended up with several stab wounds in his chest. Garcia ran, leaving the apartment, his children and his girlfriend behind, according to police.

When detectives arrived, Villalobos was dead on the living room floor and Carillo and the children were frantic.

Blood was splattered about Apartment 17.

There was blood on the brown carpet. On the toilet seat and bathroom floor. On the wall behind the front door. A sliding glass door was broken, blood covering the edges of broken glass. On the wall, a decorative hanging read: “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails. Love always trusts.”

In the adults’ room lay a half-packed suitcase, a pair of blue jeans on top. In the kids’ room, two beds and a cradle. The kids had drawn on the walls. “Ohh,” groaned the apartment manager when he saw the mess. In the kitchen, a plastic bag of beer cans--Budweisers--sat on the floor ready to be recycled.

As the detectives investigated, Garcia called, knowing the police would be there. He hung up, then phoned from somewhere else. A couple hours later, Garcia phoned for the fourth time and told police where he was: a 7-Eleven convenience store about two miles away. He was arrested and has been charged with murder.

Yet, shielded from the blood-soaked apartment by two patrol officers, life went on in a relatively orderly way at the Kona Isle Apartments.

A roach exterminator came and sprayed several apartments, including the one next door.

“Yeah, we’ve had some roaches recently,” admitted one of the tenants whose apartment was infested. “I don’t know where they came from.”

Children played on bicycles out front.

Only one woman remembered hearing any of the violent exchange.

“There was this kind of ‘boom’ and then you could hear a window breaking,” said a woman who lives in the apartment downstairs. “Then there was a woman screaming ‘Help me! Help me!’ and a man came running out the door.”

As word of the death spread, residents gathered outside Apartment 17. Dolores King, a 22-year resident, was describing how it used to be at the Kona Isle Apartments.

It was, she said, a murder in a place that used to look like paradise: “The place looked like a Hawaiian village,” she said. “It was painted green and orange and yellow. And had totem poles. But they had to be taken out because kids used to swing on them.”

She looked at the building’s faded brown paint job. “Now it looks like dirt.”

“Earth colors,” Bojko said smiling.

Others described Garcia as a nice guy. He was always working on his car, a white Toyota. Always offered to help others when they had car trouble. Drank a lot of beer.

When the coroners came out, carrying the body wrapped in white, everyone got quiet.

Someone asked that the children’s eyes be shielded. “I can’t believe it,” someone else said. “It’s so sad,” said another.