Joe M. Stewart, 18, of Lathrop has been arrested by Manteca Police for the Sept. 1, 2014 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Marcos Garcia in Doxey Park located in the 1300 Block of Northgate Drive, west of North Union Road.

Stewart had been booked into San Joaquin County Jail last Sunday on unrelated charges including unlawful sexual intercourse, resisting arrest or obstructing a police officer and inflicting corporal injury to a spouse/cohabitant/parent of a child.  He was being held this week in lieu of $253,000 bail.  Stewart is still in custody but the new charges have changed his status to “no bail.”

When police responded to the scene last year at 1 a.m. on Sept. 14 on a “shots fired” call they reportedly found Garcia and a 19-year-old African American male victim with gunshot wounds. The second victim, who was located a short distance from the park, sustained non-life threatening injuries and was treated on the scene by emergency medical personnel.

Garcia was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.  The park is adjacent to George McParland Elementary School.

Several nearby neighbors had reported hearing nearly a dozen shots being fired and one woman had come forward to say she had witnessed the killing in the northeast corner of the park at Doxey Drive and Higton Street.

She said she hadn’t been able to sleep and had gone outside to have a cigarette when she overheard an argument inside the park followed by the gunfire.  “I just knew there was a kid dying in the park and I was too scared to look, but I did call 911,” she recalled.

Police spokesman at the time, Sgt. Jodie Estarziau, said it did not appear to have been a random act and one of the charges today was for “lying in wait,” for the victims.

Stewart is charged with felony murder, special circumstance included in the murder charge for lying in wait, attempted premeditated murder, attempted second degree robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and intentional and personal discharge of a firearm along with special circumstances with the robbery charge.

Stewart is scheduled to appear at the Stockton Courthouse of the San Joaquin County Superior Court, Department 35, today, Oct. 15, at 1:25 p.m.