Dennis James Baltierra was 49 years old when he died on Sunday, March 29, 2015, after being stabbed in South El Monte, in the San Gabriel Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide. It is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case handled by the department's Homicide Bureau.
Dennis lived in Upland. According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, he was found at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, in the yard of a home in the 11200 block of Broadmead Street "with a stab wound to his neck." He died at a hospital. His sister, Vicky Baltierra, told the paper that he had gone to the house on Friday because a friend was having surgery. "He was going there to see how the surgery was going," she said.
He called their mother on Saturday morning to say he had stayed at a family friend's home and would be home later.
His sister said she believed whoever attacked him also slashed a front tire of his truck. "He pounded on the window of the house for help," she said. She told the paper that he had been in and out of prison, but that after his release the year before he worked construction, took a job at a Home Depot, bought a Ford F-150 and was taking online classes because he wanted to become a fitness trainer. "I think he was on the right track. His heart was in the right place," she said.
The next day a sheriff's SWAT team searched the Broadmead Street home, recovered evidence and detained several people as possible witnesses. In June 2015, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a man and a woman from El Monte were arrested and charged with murder. Authorities alleged they stabbed Dennis during an argument while all three were at the home of a mutual friend. But in May 2016, after the pair had spent 11 months in jail, a Superior Court judge in Pomona dismissed the case at a preliminary hearing, the stage at which a judge decides whether there is enough evidence for a trial. Both were released. A dismissal is not a finding of guilt or innocence.
South El Monte is a small, largely industrial and working-class city in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, with neighborhoods of modest homes set among warehouses and auto businesses. It contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No conviction connected to the death of Dennis James Baltierra could be found in news archives or public records, and no later charge against anyone has been reported. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was at or near the Broadmead Street home on the night of March 28, 2015, or who heard what the argument was about, may hold information that could help detectives. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
