Suspect Jailed on Burglary, Drug Charges

A convicted felon from Sacramento was arrested early Saturday after an apparent drug-induced rage led him to crash into several parked cars, assault an eyewitness with a tire iron, break into a home and threaten to kill its inhabitants, sheriff’s deputies said.

Ismael Baca, 37, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and driving under the influence of drugs, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Van Herpe, from the Lost Hills Division.

He was being held at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in lieu of $20,000 bail. According to Van Herpe, Baca served six years in state prison for manslaughter.

Another man was in the car Saturday with Baca but was not arrested, sheriff’s reports show.

The two men were in a moving van when they began to argue about 1 a.m., authorities said. Baca, the driver, stopped the van and the two men continued their argument outside the vehicle. The van was still in gear and it rolled down a slight incline, smacking into a car parked on the 3200 block of Waterside Lane.

The two men got back into the van with Baca driving, and, trying to flee, hit four more cars, then crossed a small field next to a house and knocked over trees and a fire hydrant, Van Herpe said.

When eyewitnesses tried to stop them from running away, Baca allegedly hit one man with a tire iron before running across the street and kicking open the locked front door of a house.

Baca ran upstairs, saw a woman and said, “I won’t hurt you,” as he approached her, according to sheriff’s reports. She locked herself in a bathroom as her husband was awakening. Baca allegedly told the husband, “You’re going to die first and then you’re wife.” The two men struggled, authorities said, and Baca fled. He was arrested a short time later.

“It was quite a bad situation,” said Van Herpe. “[Baca] said the devil was chasing him.”

Van Herpe said the deputies believe the two men were high on methamphetamine at the time.