Crime & Safety
Justice Could Come in 1985 Murder Case
A man was scheduled to be arraigned Monday for an alleged murder committed almost 20 years ago in Garden Grove.

A 60-year-old man was scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges of murdering a young man in the mid-1980s in Garden Grove.
Jesus Menchaca was charged last month with the Dec. 19, 1985, murder of 20-year-old Scott Raymond Hall, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin.
Hall was stabbed to death in the 12600 block of Sunswept Avenue during a drug deal gone bad, according to Garden Grove police Lt. Bob Bogue.
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Menchaca was charged with killing Hall in 1992, but the case could not go forward for lack of evidence. The investigation was revived recently and, “with the help of modern technology and forensics, we were able to bring the case to a place where we can prove the murder beyond a reasonable doubt,” Yellin said.
Investigators have DNA evidence, obtained this year, that allegedly links Menchaca to the killing, Yellin said. There is other forensic evidence also tying him to the crime, the prosecutor alleged.
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A message left with Menchaca’s attorney, Jacqueline Goodman, was not immediately returned.
Menchaca was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
-City News Service
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