Trigger Warning: This story contains content that some may find disturbing.
As she walked home one evening in 2014, Nadezda Rosenberg was mostly worried about her own safety: It was late, she had a camera around her neck, and her chest was exposed. She passed two young men outside a liquor store, decided they weren’t a threat, and kept walking toward her boyfriend’s home on the east side of the Mission District.
Moments later, she heard “confrontational” voices behind her, but didn’t turn around until she heard high-pitched cries for help — possibly a fellow woman in distress.
The sounds, which Rosenberg today described before a jury as an “animal cry for help,” were coming from the corner of 24th and Capp streets, where a brutal stabbing was taking place.
Rosenberg was one of several witnesses presented by prosecutors today to testify about the night in 2014 when Luis Gutierrez and his older brother, Javier Gutierrez, allegedly Tasered 20-year-old Ronnie Goodman, Jr. and stabbed him 39 times shortly before midnight.
Luis Gutierrez is on trial for Goodman’s murder. He was taken into police custody in October, 2014, shortly after the incident, and charged with murder, torture, and assault with a deadly weapon. He is now 29.
His brother, Javier, 34, has also been in jail since 2014, and faced additional charges, including involuntary manslaughter and assault with a Taser. He recently reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and will be sentenced next week.
Luis Gutierrez allegedly got into an altercation as he got off the bus at 24th and Mission streets on Sept. 9, 2014, District Attorney’s office spokesperson Robyn Burke told Mission Local today. He went home to tell his brother and, according to the prosecution, the two, armed with a knife and Taser, respectively, allegedly went out to find the offenders.
Burke said that when the Gutierrez brothers found Goodman with a friend at 24th and Capp, a fight broke out, which escalated to Goodman getting Tasered and stabbed. Twelve of Goodman’s stab wounds were in his face, neck, and eyes, Burke said.
“I saw two guys, punching movements and Tasing another guy — I don’t know for how long — until that person was on the ground,” Rosenberg said today. She was flown in from New York and subpoenaed to testify today by the District Attorney’s office.
Rosenberg said she soon realized the motions were stabbing motions, and described hearing the sounds of a knife entering the victim’s flesh “countless” times. The stockier of the two men was “managing the situation,” while the taller, thinner man was doing the violent “dirty work.”
Camera footage from a nearby liquor store, as well as footage from a passerby’s cell phone, were presented in court, and Rosenberg can be heard shouting to stop the attack.
Another witness, San Francisco State University creative writing teacher Junse Kim, peered out of his Capp Street window when he heard someone screaming for help that night.
“It sounded like a desperate plea,” Kim testified. Though he was used to fights breaking out on his block, he said that, this time, “it just kept on going on.” Kim’s testimony this afternoon generally corroborated Rosenberg’s account, though he was uncertain who had what he described as a “stun gun.” He also testified that he saw the victim being kicked.
Both Kim and Rosenberg heard and saw the electroshock weapon being used on a victim that neither of them saw fighting back. Both described the pair of assailants as one taller, thinner man and another shorter, stockier one.
The description fits the two men who were caught on surveillance video footage running down a nearby alley that night, and also fits the Gutierrez brothers at the time of the attack. The footage was released by police to the public to assist in locating the assailants.
Although police responded to the scene within minutes and attempted to save Goodman’s life, he was pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital later that night. Other witnesses who testified today included first responders, crime scene investigators and a nearby store owner.
“I honestly believed he was gonna be deceased,” said San Francisco EMT Paul Hobbs today. Hobbs arrived, along with other paramedics and EMTs, shortly after the call for help was received. Noting the amount of blood loss and the number of stab wounds, Hobbs said he assumed that Goodman had perforated lungs and possibly a perforated heart.
And the way Goodman was breathing, Hobbs said, “is what you do right before death.”
Goodman’s family members, who were present today in court, are hopeful they will get justice and closure from the trial.
“It’s been seven and a half long years trying to seek justice. But we finally made it here,” said Sherry Baltodano, Goodman’s mother. “The justice system really needs to step up these homicide cases instead of making them drag on for years and years and years. It’s not fair to the families.”
It is not immediately clear why this case, originally charged by former DA George Gascón, required nearly eight years to get to trial. Prosecutor Sean Connolly told reporters yesterday, “I can’t explain why a case takes this long to get to trial. There are too many factors, too many variables, but this case is a case that needs to be tried. It’s time for the victims’ families to get justice, for the victim to get justice. It’s time for there to be accountability.”
“There’s never closure for a mother. It’s always gonna be that open wound. I lost a son, and very violently,” Baltodano explained. But, she said, having the case closed once and for all will help.
WTF. It was not right that Ronnie was stabbed, but you can not just lock up Luis and his brother 4 7 years then give him more time. Luis was also probably facing other challenges such as hallucinations, and had no idea what was happening. he 4 sure felt scared when this happened and was not thinking straight. Also, It seems that he got his brother to,”talk about.” what had happened when they threw a bottle at them and it was then that he started to feel threatened and stabbed Ronnie.
Sounds like it’s motivated by some sort of revenge mentality. But what could’ve possibly taken place on MUNI bus to come to this gruesome ending?