Matthew Cintas, 41, was a Hispanic/Latino man from Santa Clara whose death became San Jose, California’s second homicide of 2019. In the early morning hours of January 13, Cintas went to a friend’s apartment, where Ramon Fletes and several other people were present. Later court records described Cintas as being under the influence of methamphetamine and PCP when a physical fight broke out inside the apartment involving Cintas, Fletes, and others.
Cintas was forced out of the apartment, and the court record states that he then fired a gunshot at the closed front door.
A few minutes later, Cintas and Fletes encountered one another outside. According to the appellate record, Fletes shot Cintas multiple times and then fled the area. Cintas was armed at the time, and investigators found his firearm tucked into the waistband of his pants. The precise circumstances of the final confrontation remained disputed, particularly the question of whether either participant acted in self-defense. The sentencing court later acknowledged that the complete truth about what happened outside could not be established with certainty from the evidence and competing accounts.
At about 1:16 a.m., San Jose police responded to a report of a shooting in the area of Parkmoor Avenue and Race Street. Officers found Cintas suffering from gunshot injuries and had him transported to a hospital, where he died a short time later. Early reporting noted that he had been a member of Ironworkers Local 377 for roughly two years and that family and friends mourned his death, including people who spoke of the loss experienced by his children and relatives. At that stage of the investigation, police had not publicly identified a suspect.
The investigation eventually focused on Ramon Fletes, a San Jose resident. Police took Fletes into custody in early February 2019 on suspicion of murder and booked him in connection with Cintas’s shooting. On February 8, prosecutors formally charged Fletes by complaint with murder. The arrest transformed the case from an initially unexplained fatal shooting into a prosecution centered on the confrontation between Cintas and Fletes and the disputed events immediately preceding the gunfire.
The case did not ultimately proceed to a murder conviction. On November 18, 2020, prosecutors amended the charge from murder to voluntary manslaughter and alleged that Fletes personally used a firearm during the offense. Under a written plea agreement, Fletes entered a no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for an agreed sentencing range of three to six years in prison. The resolution reflected the uncertainty surrounding the confrontation and the competing claims about the violence that occurred before the shooting.
On April 2, 2021, the court sentenced Fletes to six years in prison. He received 906 days of custody credit, and the court struck the additional punishment associated with the firearm enhancement. The firearm involved in the case was ordered destroyed, and Fletes was also ordered to pay $2,531.90 in restitution for funeral expenses, along with statutory restitution-related fines. Fletes subsequently appealed the judgment, but the California Court of Appeal reviewed the record and found no arguable error that would produce a more favorable result for him. On April 18, 2022, the appellate court affirmed the judgment, leaving the voluntary manslaughter conviction and sentence in place.
