Over the weekend, a fundraiser was conducted by Larry Gonzales’ friends.
His assailant, Shane Jonathan Hocog, 22, appeared in Superior Court on Friday and Assistant Attorney General George Hasselback moved that a murder charge be filed against the defendant.
The Department of Public Safety arrested Hocog on Thursday, at about 10:15 p.m. on the charge of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and battery, and assault and battery.
Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo set a $100,000 bail for Hocog who was the remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections.
Assistant Public Defender Richard Miller represented Hocog.
Govendo set Hocog’s preliminary hearing for March 15, and his arraignment for March 22.
In his affidavit of probable cause, Detective Simon T. Manacop said DPS responded to a disturbance report on Monday, at about 5:35 p.m. at the Luyi’s Computer and Repair Shop in Kagman III, just south of Kagman High School.
Manacop said Officer Joseph Magofna learned at the scene that a juvenile had witnessed the incident and knew the assailant.
Follow-up investigation by the police indicated that Hocog and Gonzales, 37, were former boyfriends of a 17-year-old KagHS student. She witnessed the incident.
She told police that she broke up with Hocog five months ago, and became Gonzales’s girlfriend, but she broke off with him a month ago.
“[She] said she did not expect to see Gonzales and Hocog at Luyi’s on the day of the incident and that she was surprised to see both of them there,” Manacop stated in his affidavit.
“[She] added that the possible reason why Hocog punched Gonzales was because [the defendant] was jealous and accused her of cheating on him with Gonzales,” the affidavit stated.
The girl told police that she heard Gonzales ask Hocog for the defendant’s watch that Hocog took the watch off from his wrist and gave it to Gonzales.
As Gonzales was taking the watch, Hocog punched him on the face causing the victim to fall on a concrete pavement, police said.
The girl said Gonzales passed out and Hocog fled the scene.
But Gonzales’ friends said he was hit on the head by a hard object before Hocog punched and kicked him.
Gonzales declined to be brought to the Commonwealth Health Center by the first responders. He told them his head was hurting and that he wanted to stay inside his car “until the pain goes away.”
Gonzales also told police that he could not remember what had happened.
The owner of Luyi’s computer called the police again after noticing that Gonzales was already unconscious inside his car some four hours after the incident.
The victim was then rushed to CHC.
Manacop said the victim sustained a serious head injury and suffered from intracerebral hemorrhage — there was swelling and bleeding inside of his head.
Gonzales was hooked to a life support machine until he died at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday.
