UKIAH, CA., 9/8/26 — A 23-year-old man is in the Mendocino County Jail on $1,002,500 bail, accused of trying to kill a 53-year-old man in a stabbing Friday night at a Sunnycrest Drive property north of Ukiah where both men lived, the Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
Carlos Ortiz-Garcia was booked Saturday afternoon on suspicion of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, battery with serious injury, resisting an officer by force and using a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release and county jail booking records. He remained in custody Tuesday, the records show.
Deputies were sent to the 4000 block of Sunnycrest Drive about 9:19 p.m. Friday on a report of a disturbance involving a man covered in blood and armed with a knife, the release said. While they were on the way, dispatchers learned a second person at the house was hurt.
County dispatch radio traffic from that night had the suspect outside the house with a knife and one person still inside. By 9:31 p.m. units at the scene had radioed for a second ambulance, saying two people were wounded.
Deputies found Ortiz-Garcia outside, covered in blood and in a shouting match with another man, the release said. He was detained after a short struggle with deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, during which the Sheriff’s Office says he used force trying to get away. A deputy got minor cuts on his hand making the arrest and was treated for them. The Sheriff’s Office says that injury is the basis for the resisting charge.
The 53-year-old was found on the property with what deputies described as stab wounds. He was treated at the scene and taken to Adventist Health Ukiah Valley. The Sheriff’s Office listed him Tuesday in stable but critical condition and said he is expected to survive.
Ortiz-Garcia was treated at the same hospital for a serious arm injury, then moved to Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits for emergency surgery, according to the release.
Detectives got a search warrant for the property and called in criminalists from the state Department of Justice to help process the scene, which the release describes as the site of “a significantly violent attack.”
Ortiz-Garcia was also booked on a $2,500 misdemeanor warrant from Mendocino County Superior Court for falsely reporting a crime, which investigators turned up during the case, the release said.
Investigators determined both men lived at the Sunnycrest Drive property. The Sheriff’s Office didn’t say how they knew each other or what started the fight.
The 4000 block of Sunnycrest Drive is outside the Ukiah city limits, in an unincorporated area to the north of the city.
Anyone with information can call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-463-4086, option 1, or leave an anonymous tip at 707-234-2100.
I’m just glad no deputies were seriously injured