1 dead, 3 arrested in Healdsburg homicide

Three men were arrested and charged with murder Sunday morning
after Sonoma County Sheriff’s detectives found Gabino Lopez
Santiago, 46, with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest and head on
Mill Creek Road in Healdsburg.
One of the three suspects was Santiago’s brother-in-law.
The Sheriff’s office received the first call of gunshots at 2:14
a.m. Sunday morning in the 4000 block of Chemise Road. Detectives
responded to the area and found evidence of a possible crime scene,
but no victim.
Later that morning, Santiago’s brother-in-law, Ramon Velasco
Lopez, 28, reported the crime to the Healdsburg Police Department.
According to Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department Violent Crimes Sgt.
Carlos Basurto, Lopez was present when Santiago was shot and
killed, but did not deliver the fatal gunshots.
“He’s just as culpable,” Sgt. Basurto said.
Police found Santiago’s body Sunday morning in the 5900 block of
Mill Creek Road. Detectives determined that the victim had been
shot on Chemise Road and transported to Mill Creek Road, where his
body was dumped on the side of the road in an attempt to hide
it.
The victim, Santiago, is from Mexico and had been living in
Healdsburg. 
According to Sgt. Basurto, the four men had been hanging out at
a marijuana garden located on a private property on Chemise
Road.
“It wasn’t very large,” he said of the garden. “The marijuana
had already been harvested and was dried. There was a good amount
of marijuana.”
Basurto said Santiago was not involved in tending to the
marijuana garden and the reason for the shooting was still under
investigation.
The two suspects who reportedly shot Santiago, each with their
own gun, are Sidonio Santos Cruz, 35, and Agustin Zepeda-Onofre,
23, who were found near the crime scene on Chemise Road. Both
suspects were arrested and charged with murder, conspiracy,
accessory to a crime, cultivation of marijuana and destroying or
concealing evidence. Santiago’s brother-in-law, Lopez, was located
in Healdsburg and booked into the Sonoma County Jail on the same
charges. All suspects are originally from Mexico. Cruz was residing
in Santa Rosa, Zepeda-Onofre in Windsor and Lopez in
Healdsburg. 
Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office Violent Crimes Unit are
investigating the case.
Kerrie Lindecker can be reached at
[email protected].