Case Update: Deadly Healdsburg Hotel Fight

The Press Democrat has an update on the shocking death in town last summer of Abel Garza, a 41-year-old father of three from Santa Rosa who police say attacked a group of hotel staffers in the pool area at Hotel Healdsburg earlier that day. One of the staffers, 34-year-old Santa Rosa resident Romario Morga Cisneros, was later charged with involuntary manslaughter — seeing as Garza was found dead in a parking lot off Matheson Street, near Williamson Wines, after the staffer allegedly fought back with his attacker’s own weapon, a metal object resembling a gardening stake. Now, the hotel staffer’s attorney, Charles Dresow, has asked the judge to dismiss the case entirely — arguing that his client acted in self-defense. From the PD: “A judge is set to consider Dresow’s motion on June 26. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed its response. … After a preliminary hearing in February, a judge upheld the existing charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon and said there is enough evidence to send this case to trial. Dresow continues to disagree. ‘Mr. Cisneros and his coworkers were just trying to do their jobs to support their families,’ Dresow told The Press Democrat on Friday. ‘They did not ask for or deserve the violent onslaught that they were subjected to. The situation was not of their making.’ Autopsy results found that Garza was under the influence of alcohol, fentanyl and methamphetamine when he twice came to the hotel and threatened staff. During one of the confrontations, authorities said, Garza was armed with a hammer and a 4-foot metal object, which has been described in various witness accounts as either a metal rebar, a pole, a bar, a rod or a landscaping stake. Staff took it from Garza, and Cisneros is accused of killing him with it. Dresow calls Garza the ‘architect of his own demise,’ noting that he brought the items with him to the hotel.” Still, Garza’s sister has filed an additional civil suit against Cisneros and the owners of Hotel Healdsburg, accusing them of “general negligence and negligent hiring supervision,” according to the PD. That case will reportedly begin to air out in August. (Source: Press Democrat & Healdsburg Tribune)