It has been 41 years since Joseph Rocha was gunned down for refusing to sell a pair of men a 6-pack of beer at his bar on East Highway 120 between Manteca and Escalon.
But last month the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office finally arrested the second man that they believe was in the South County bar on the day that Rocha – the owner of Rocha’s 120 several miles outside of Manteca’s city limits – was shot and killed.
Jesus Emilio Baraza Valdez, 75, was arrested in December in Southern California more than four decades after Rocha was killed. Valdez, who authorities believe pulled the trigger in the shooting, ended up fleeing the country after Rocha’s death when his accomplice – Joe Perez of Riverbank, who was 26 in 1979 – was arrested and charged.
Valdez is believed to have changed his name to avoid detection.
The arrest last month is a win for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit which was formed after Sheriff Pat Withrow was elected in 2018 – fulfilling a campaign pledge to create a unit specifically to look at and clear old cases that have been sitting for sometimes decades.
Withrow assigned Detective Sergeant Linda Jimenez and Detective Irene Shelvay to lead the investigation into some of the more than 200 unsolved homicides that are currently on the books. They pull in additional resources as necessary to investigate and build cases with state-of-the-art technologies that were not available at the time that the cases were new.
According to a release published almost a year ago, the unit has been focusing on unsolved homicides, missing persons cases, and sexual assault cases that initially went unsolved.
Because of the massive amount of work involved in finding leads in the old cases, it has taken some time for the unit to start making headway on the backlog.
“Our first priority is to reach out to victim’s families and determine what involvement they still want in the case,” said an announcement last year on the progress of the unit. “Some may have found peace and being part of the investigation will open old wounds. Others are desperately seeking answers and we want to do everything we can to provide those answers.
“We want to establish a point of contact with the families – one person to keep open the line of communication between them and us.”
Valdez is currently being held in the San Joaquin County Jail on $3 million bond on two charges of felony murder. He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 4.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
