Juan Fernando Rios, who earlier this year was arrested in connection with a fatal State Street stabbing but was ultimately cleared of murder charges, was taken into custody Friday on a new set of alleged gun and drug offenses.
The Sheriff’s Office said that around 12:20 a.m., a deputy pulled over 28-year-old Rios near the intersection of Las Positas Road and Rebecca Lane after observing him make an unsafe turn with an unsecured load.
During the stop, “Deputies determined that Rios was a convicted felon and was carrying a loaded firearm that was not registered to him,” officials said. “He was also found in possession of methamphetamine, cocaine, and drug paraphernalia,” and was driving on a suspended license due to a prior DUI.
While Rios was not prosecuted for the State Street stabbing ― officials had determined that he and a friend were acting in self-defense when they killed 30-year-old Anthony Bisquera Hartley in August ― two previous felony convictions prohibited him from possessing a gun.
In 2018, following a jury trial, Rios was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon after he and a co-defendant named Daniel Medina stabbed three people downtown. According to reporting at the time, Rio and Medina had gotten into an argument with a man and his niece when the men followed the pair and punched the woman in the face, knocking her to the ground, before stabbing her uncle and two Good Samaritans who tried to intervene. Rios was sentenced to four years in prison and was required to register as a gang member upon his release.
Five years earlier, in 2013, Rios pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a criminal street gang for a retaliatory attack on rival gang members. Earlier that day, two juvenile males and two men had jumped a 17-year-old near the Westside Boys & Girls Club, sending the victim to the hospital with multiple stab wounds. Rios was sentenced to a year in prison and three years of probation.
Rios is currently in custody at Santa Barbara County Jail on $50,000 bail.
