Garcia-Cabazos gets 5 years over bar fight death
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008
Garcia-Cabazos
A former Springdale man agreed to serve five years in prison for involvement in the death of a man who tried to break up a fight at a Springdale bar.
Jesus Gerardo Garcia-Cabazos, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of accomplice to manslaughter in the death of Ricarti Bayona. He was sentenced to 10 years — five years in the Department of Correction and five years suspended.
He received credit for serving 97 days in the Washington County Detention Center and was also ordered to pay fines and costs.
Bayona, 48, died after being struck in the face while trying to break up a fight between patrons on Sept. 13, 2007, at the Sunset Saloon in Springdale. Bayona, his brother and several other real estate agents were preparing to leave when the fight broke out, according to police reports.
Garcia-Cabazos and Roberto Carlos Garcia-Vasquez, 36, are accused of striking Bayona in the face after he tried to break up the fight. Bayona fell to the floor and fractured his skull. He died on Sept. 19, 2007, after several days of treatment in the intensive care unit at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale.
Garcia-Cabazos quit his job and apparently fled to Mexico after learning that police were looking for him in connection with Bayona’s death. He was arrested in late June at a border crossing near Brownsville, Texas, as he was trying to re-enter the United States from Mexico.
Garcia-Vasquez pleaded guilty on Feb. 5 to accomplice to manslaughter and two counts of fleeing. He was sentenced to 16 years — eight years in the Department of Correction and eight years suspended.
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