No 2018 unsolved cases remain
Anaheim Police homicide detectives have arrested three suspects in connection with the September shooting death of a 36-year-old Placentia resident, clearing the city’s last 2018 unsolved homicide.
Around 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018, officers were dispatched to a cul-de-sac in the 1200 block of North Sunshine Way regarding a dead man found near a trash dumpster enclosure. The decedent, Julio Cesar Munoz, had a single gunshot wound to his head. Homicide detectives determined that the shooting had occurred just after midnight in the cul-de-sac during a “factory party.”
Factory parties are held at various locations throughout the region on a revolving basis and are often staged in industrial areas where guests park their cars and participate in illicit activities, including the inhalation of nitrous oxide, also known as “nos.”
Over the course of the past four months, detectives interviewed dozens of witnesses, reviewed video footage and authored approximately 20 search warrants before identifying Larry Robert Douglass II, 19, of Artesia, Johnathan Michael Rowe, 19, of Santa Ana, and Zachary Jay Goemaat, 19, of Santa Ana, as suspects in this case. Douglass and Rowe were arrested on Jan. 29 without incident. Goemaat was arrested on Jan. 30 without incident. All three suspects were booked into the Anaheim Detention Facility for murder before being transferred to Orange County Jail where they are being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Detectives are not releasing details about possible motives, but they do not believe the killing was gang motivated. The Orange County District Attorney’s office will review the investigation to determine what charges may be alleged.
The Anaheim Police Department investigated seven homicides in 2018, all of which have now been cleared by arrest.
“We treat every murder investigation with the same sense of duty and urgency,” APD homicide Sgt. Jeff Mundy said. “Our detectives doggedly work these cases until every lead is exhausted, regardless of how long it takes. We are happy to finally bring closure to Mr. Munoz’s family.”
