Norteno gang member sentenced for 2015 Salinas homicide, body still missing
A known member of the Norteno gang has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for a 2015 homicide in Salinas.
It happened on December 12, 2015. The victim, 18-year-old Paulino Guzman III, was at a party at an apartment on North Main Street. 26-year-old Tai Agoun Cruz and others affiliated with the Norteno gang were there, and during that party some attendees were cleaning their guns.
Guzman was holding and looking at a gun when Cruz took it from his hands and shot Guzman once. Everyone at the party then left and Guzman’s friend made an anonymous report of gunshots in the apartment.
The next day Cruz and several others went back to the apartment and cleaned up the scene before he and two others took Guzman’s body and drove it away. Investigators still have not found it.
Later the landlord visited the apartment and found cleaning supplies and torn up carpet. Detectives with Salinas police found blood under the floorboards that matched Guzman.
On February 20, 2019, Cruz pled guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and personal use of firearm enhancements.
During the sentencing hearing, Guzman’s step-mother pleaded for Cruz to tell the family where Guzman’s body was, but Cruz responded, “no comment.”
If you have information about where Guzman’s body may be, you’re asked to call District Attorney Investigator John Coletti at 831-759-6774 or Salinas Police at 831-758-7226.
