A California murder suspect who is charged with slashing a man to death outside a bar was let out of jail on a “mental health diversion program” despite previous arrests for violent robberies, according to authorities.
The killing of 40-year-old Carlos Romero of Roseville on Sunday is now being called a “preventable” tragedy.
Jordan Murray, 25, is charged for stabbing Romero to death near Sacramento, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Murray had been locked up for two violent robberies, but he was sprung last November after courts granted him a “mental health diversion.”
“Only six months after his release from jail, Murray committed this completely preventable murder,” the sheriff’s office said.
Cops said the Romero, who appeared to be homeless and under the influence of something, was killed after being kicked out of a local bar, ABC 10 reported.
Deputies responded to a report of an assault and found Romero in the bar’s parking lot with multiple stab wounds. Life-saving measures were attempted, but he died at the scene.
Murray and others had been involved in a fight involving the victim earlier that day, investigators found.
He allegedly ran into the victim that night, pulled a knife, and slashed him in the chest, and left him to die, police said.
Before his allegedly gruesome slashing, Murray robbed a Dollar Tree in May 2024 and another business in Fair Oaks in June 2024, police alleged.
During both robberies, Murray allegedly sprayed an employee in the face with an “unknown caustic chemical” before fleeing, authorities said.
The court later granted him a “mental health diversion,” a measure the state adopted in 2018 to “connect people with mental health needs to community-based treatment and services as an alternative to incarceration,” according to the Council of State Governments.
One study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice found that mental health diversion can be an “effective strategy” in some cases, but there isn’t enough data to show how effective such programs are overall.
Jail records show he is charged with murder and felony robbery, on top of the previous two robbery charges he previously faced. He is set to appear in court on Thursday.
