Petaluma woman cuts deal in kidnapping charge over slain Santa Rosa man

Two Napa men will stand trial in the slaying of a Santa Rosa man who was beaten to death with rocks, while a Petaluma woman connected to the man’s kidnapping has accepted a plea agreement, according to the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

The court proceedings are the latest steps in a convoluted case involving the kidnapping and murder of Santa Rosa businessman Reynaldo Pacheco, 44. The March 24, 2014 slaying stemmed from what detectives believe was a bad business deal involving Pacheco owing money to Angela Martinez Arias, 41.

Arias, a Petaluma resident who also is owner of a Rohnert Park religious goods shop, last week pleaded no contest to robbery and carjacking in connection with the disappearance and violent death of Pacheco.

Arias, who entered the plea in court before Superior Court Judge Francisca Tisher, will be sentenced later in March. The agreement with prosecutors includes a 10-year prison sentence for the two felony counts and does not require her to testify, said Paul Gero, Napa County assistant district attorney.

Napa County sheriff’s detectives arrested her in January, almost nine months after Pacheco disappeared. They had arrested the two Napa men last spring, not long after Pacheco’s body was found bound near a creek by Lake Hennessy in eastern Napa County. He’d died from head wounds after being hit repeatedly with rocks, according to a Napa County coroner’s report.

Those men, Mauricio ?Tovar-Telles, 24 and Norberto Guerrero Gonzalez, 29, were in court last week to determine whether there was enough evidence for them to stand trial. After a two-day court hearing, Superior Court Judge Michael Williams determined Tovar-Telles should be tried on four felony counts, murder, robbery, carjacking and kidnapping, and that Gonzalez should go to trial on murder, robbery and kidnapping charges, Gero said.

Arias is due in court March 26 for sentencing. The men are due in Superior Court for arraignment on April 1.

Detectives suspect Pacheco convinced Arias to invest in what turned out to be a pyramid scheme. On March 24 last year, Pacheco and Arias drove in his Range Rover to Stage Gulch Road in southeastern Sonoma County, where they met up with two other men. Pacheco then was kidnapped and his Range Rover was carjacked as the group drove to Sonoma. In Sonoma, Arias got out of the vehicle, and at another stop in Napa, a third man - Gonzalez - was taken on.

The three men took Pacheco to private land near the small lake, where he was found dead, detectives have said.

One of the three suspects last spring died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a standoff with law enforcement at a Kenwood travel trailer. During negotiations with authorities who wanted him to give himself up, the man, Miguel Angel Garcia, 32, of Napa told officers that he’d participated in a slaying and where they could find Pacheco’s body. Then he shot himself and died.

That tip lead to the arrest of the two men and Arias and spurred several other investigations.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.ross?mann@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @rossmannreport.