SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) -- Prosecutors charged two young women with murdering a Hayward college football player who was stabbed to death outside a popular downtown San Jose nightclub. Mercedes Bette Rosales, 20, and her friend, 18-year-old Micaela Van, are facing first-degree murder charges for the death of Raymond Orozco.
Orozco did not know his killers, according to investigators. The women and Orozco were with separate groups of friends who crossed paths outside San Jose's hot spot for nightlife just before 1 a.m. on July 20, court documents obtained by KRON4 show.
The court documents also reveal a motive behind why two women allegedly murdered a football player whom they had never met before.
Raymond Orozco (Image courtesy GoFundMe)Detectives said Van pulled a knife out of her shoe, handed it to Rosales, and Rosales stabbed Orozco deep into his stomach on 2nd Street and San Fernando Avenue, outside the Loft nightclub.
In a dying declaration, 22-year-old Orozco told officers that he was stabbed by a woman. He was pronounced deceased at a hospital. His killers fled from the scene before police officers arrived.
"The area where the (homicide) occurred was in a busy entertainment zone, where several bars and nightclubs are located," San Jose Police Department Detective Michael Harrington wrote in a police report.
Mercedes Rosales, left, and Micaela Van, right, are seen in mugshots released by SJPD.Suspected motive behind homicide
Witnesses told police that the victim was from Castro Valley, and he went to downtown San Jose with five friends. When his group arrived, they noticed that a "dispute" had broken out in front of the Loft. Orozco and one of his friends "began recording the dispute with their cellphones," Harrington wrote.
The recordings began to "agitate" people in Rosales and Van's group who didn't like being recorded, the detective wrote. Rosales and Van's group "initiated a physical confrontation with a female in (Orozco's) group. Females in both groups joined the confrontation," Harrington wrote.
Orozco's family and friends said he died while trying to protect a woman who was being attacked.
Detectives found surveillance and cellphone videos from bystanders and victims that recorded the fight and killing, the police report states. "During the review of the videos, I saw that after the fight began between females, the victim attempted to intervene and stop the fight by pulling people apart," Harrington wrote.
Raymond Orozco (Photo courtesy of GoFundMe.)As he was trying to break up the fight, the football player allegedly punched Rosales. After she was punched, Rosales "calmly" walked 10 feet away from the fight and stood next to Van, the police report states.
Van pulled out a knife that was hidden in her shoe and handed it to Rosales, the police report states. Orozco was still attempting to separate people in the fight when Rosales "walks directly toward the victim and stabs him in the torso," the detective wrote.
Distinctive hand tattoo
Orozco played football at Chabot College in Hayward, he was an avid body builder, and he was training to become a firefighter, a friend told KRON4.
Rosales weighs 100 pounds and stands less than 5'5" tall. In surveillance videos, detectives noticed the killer's slight height and thin build, as well as parts of her outfit -- a San Jose Sharks hockey sweatshirt and black and white Jordan sneakers.
The killer also had a "distinctive tattoo on her hand," Harrington wrote.
Mercedes Rosales is seen in an August 2025 mugshot released by the San Jose Police Department.As Orozco was dying outside the Loft, the two women fled in two Toyota sedans with license plates visible to nearby surveillance cameras. "We were able to identify nearly all members of the suspect group," the police report states.
Surveillance images show what happened before Santana Row Valentine’s Day killingBoth women have associations to criminal street gangs, according to the police report. Harrington noted that some gangs use their younger, teenaged members to hold weapons on behalf of other gang members to "minimize risk of arrest for weapons possession."
At the time of the killing, Rosales was already charged in three other criminal cases and she was out of jail on supervised release, police said.
Unlike Orozco, Rosales and Van live in San Jose. On August 5, the SJPD's Homicide Unit Detectives, Covert Response Unit, and Violent Crimes Enforcement Team, found and apprehended the duo. Van is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in the Hall of Justice. Rosales made her first court appearance Friday and she did not enter a plea.
Hence then, the article about motive behind san jose nightclub homicide revealed was published today ( ) and is available on KRON4 ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Motive behind San Jose nightclub homicide revealed )
Also on site :