Santana Row stabbing: Judge denies release for man charged in gang attack that ended with teen’s death

SAN JOSE — After an emotional bail hearing Friday, a Santa Clara County judge denied pretrial release for the lone adult charged in a notorious gang assault at Santana Row last year that ended with the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy out on a Valentine’s Day date.

Emanuel Sanchez-Damian’s defense attorney lobbied for the 19-year-old to be placed in a faith-based rehab program, citing his troubled and neglected childhood that made him susceptible to gang recruitment.

While Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon acknowledged “intellectual, emotional and psychological” issues affecting Damian-Sanchez, he ultimately sided with calls to keep him in jail from the prosecution and family of victim David Gutierrez.

Ramon highlighted the viciousness and calculated nature of the alleged crimes — including Damian-Sanchez and his four underage companions wearing their rivals’ gang colors as “subterfuge” — and the group’s implication in another unprovoked attack less than an hour earlier at Westfield Valley Fair mall, leading him to rule that only jail custody was appropriate.

“The court is going to find by clear and convincing evidence that there are no less restrictive nonfinancial conditions to safeguard the community,” Ramon said at the end of the morning court hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.

According to investigators and witnesses and confirmed largely by security footage, David Gutierrez — a sophomore at Sequoia High School in Redwood City — was on a date with his girlfriend the evening of Feb. 14, 2025 and were awaiting a dinner reservation along the southern edge of Santana Row when he was approached by Damian-Sanchez, three then-16-year-old boys and one boy who was 13 at the time.

The group was dressed in red and allegedly called out David for his red jacket, which the boy was said to have been wearing to match the theme of Valentine’s Day. Moments later, the 13-year-old boy threw the first punch at David, then was joined by two of the boys and Damian-Sanchez in hitting and kicking him and bringing him to the ground.

A security guard eventually intervened and broke up the assault, but not before one of the charged assailants pulled David’s gold chain off his neck. As the participants scattered, David was said to have challenged the 13-year-old, now separated from his group, who initially declined; when pressed, however, he stabbed David three times.

Damian-Sanchez was charged with robbery and felony assault for the Valley Fair and Santana Row attacks, as were the three 16-year-olds. A Juvenile Court judge affirmed last summer that two of the 16-year-olds participated in both assaults; one was sanctioned to two years in Juvenile Hall custody, while the other was sent to a county youth ranch for six to eight months.

A third 16-year-old was found to have participated in the Valley Fair attack but was only a bystander in the attack that preceded David’s death. The homicide case for the then-13-year-old boy charged with fatally stabbing David is still ongoing.

At the Friday hearing, Deputy District Attorney Anne Seery emphasized a witness account that the 13-year-old actually had the knife out, behind his back, before the attack on David, suggesting potentially deadly intentions by the group.

Seery also cited how the defendants were charged with assaulting a man about 40 minutes earlier at nearby Valley Fair, in a manner reminiscent of the attack on David. She highlighted how Damian-Sanchez was alleged to have held up the earlier victim’s shoe up as a trophy after the assault.

Attorney Renee Hessling petitioned to get Damian-Sanchez transferred from county jail to the custody of Victory Outreach in San Jose and its recovery program, aimed at rehabilitating men suffering from addiction and other “life-controlling habits” that have damaged their lives. She cited the program accepting her client as the legal grounds for Ramon to revisit his initial denial of bail.

Hessling reinforced testimony from a program coordinator at Victory Outreach in arguing that it provided a structured environment that would help Damian-Sanchez stay out of trouble and begin working past a traumatic childhood — which included having an abusive stepfather — that led him into gang life.

“If Mr. Damian-Sanchez has that, then the public is not at risk … He understands that one even minor hiccup and he’s right back to custody. (He knows) he has to walk a very fine line,” Hessling said. “He will be armed with the ability to make better choices, therefore making the community safer too.”

Those arguments got no traction with David’s mother, Veronica Gutierrez, who told Ramon in court Friday how she is haunted by the memory of a previous visit with her son to Santana Row to scout out a potential location for his Valentine’s Day date. The mother and son ultimately decided it was sufficiently safe in light of the abundance of families and security guards.

“I truly believed I was leaving my son and his girlfriend to enjoy a beautiful day, a special Valentine’s Day, until my world was destroyed,” Gutierrez said. “It is something I will never forget. No one in the community is safe if Emanuel Sanchez is free. He is a dangerous and violent gang member.”

David’s aunt, Diana Gutierrez, also spoke in court to object to Damian-Sanchez’s release to the Victory Outreach program.

“They didn’t even bother to cover their faces,” she said. “It’s terrifying he did not care there was so much security around there. It’s very clear he’s a threat to our community … He still has a long road to show he is a fully rehabilitated person.”

In articulating his public safety reasoning, Ramon said he could not overlook Damian-Sanchez’s gang affiliation, and the dynamics of gang culture that demand members confront and fight their rivals at every opportunity. He also zeroed in on the group choosing to wear red — when their Sureño allegiance would dictate wearing blue — which he inferred meant they were trying to catch potential Norteño rivals off guard.

“There is a certain amount of subterfuge involved in these two incidents that suggest to this court surprise was an element of these offenses,” Ramon said, before concluding, “If Mr. Damian is released, there is a substantial likelihood someone in the community will suffer great bodily harm.”