SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — The San Jose Police Department declared a man missing since July 2021 dead and have filed homicide charges against a suspect already in custody.
SJPD officials told KRON4 that this is the first time homicide charges have been filed without a body since the murder of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar in 2017.
Police said the suspect, Ricardo Padilla, 34, killed victim Samuel Torres, 43, following a string of violent crimes allegedly committed by Padilla in 2021.
Torres’s alleged murder took place on July 4, 2021. The case was originally considered a missing person under suspicious circumstances, but officers later determined Padilla allegedly shot and killed Torres in the area of Coyote Creek and Wool Creek Drive.
On May 9, 2021, Padilla allegedly stabbed someone in the area of South 2nd Street and Margaret Street in San Jose. Two days later on May 11, 2021, Padilla allegedly assaulted a man outside a 7-Eleven unprovoked in the 600 block of Bird Avenue. He also allegedly stabbed another person near Coyote Creek that same day.
On May 31, 2021, Padilla allegedly shot and killed Thomas Calamia, 49, in the area of Prevost Street and West Virginia Street.
On June 4, 2021, Padilla allegedly purposefully hit a police officer’s motorcycle in Livermore while being stopped and then fled the city. He was charged with attempted murder. Then, on June 22, 2021, Padilla allegedly shot another victim on Berkeley Way. The victim survived and identified Padilla as the suspect, according to officials.
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On July 4, 2021, officers said they confronted Padilla in the area of Coyote Creek and that Padilla tried to get rid of a gun. He was arrested that day and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail where he remains in custody.
This alleged homicide brings 2021’s homicide count to 32, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The San Jose Police Department will hold a news conference discussing the case at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Vallejo #3810 or Detective Harrington #4365 of the San José Police Department’s Homicide Unit via email: 3810@sanjoseca.gov and/or 4365@sanjoseca.gov or at 408-277-5283.
