Santiago Mantar Gustine: What Happened at the Dairy Farm Murder on April 20, 2020

What happened to Santiago Mantar near Gustine?

On April 20, 2020, Merced County deputies responded to a dairy in the area of Ingomar Grade and Bunker Road, south of Gustine, for a reported robbery. When deputies arrived, they found what investigators believed was a homicide. Local reporting later identified the victim as Santiago Perez Mantar, a dairy worker who had been stabbed to death.

Who was charged in the Santiago Mantar case?

A Merced County jury later convicted Hector DeLaCruz of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and other felony charges tied to a series of violent attacks on dairy workers in the Gustine area. Merced Sun-Star reported that prosecutors said DeLaCruz killed Santiago Mantar on April 20, 2020, and had also attacked other workers just five days earlier.

What prosecutors said happened

According to the conviction and sentencing coverage, prosecutors said DeLaCruz targeted dairy workers in the Gustine area during mid-April 2020. On April 15, 2020, he allegedly robbed and severely injured one worker and robbed two others while threatening them with a knife. On April 20, 2020, prosecutors said he carried out another similar attack and murdered Santiago Mantar. A DA-linked sentencing release said the jury also found true multiple weapon-use and great-bodily-injury enhancements.

What happened in court?

Merced Sun-Star reported that a jury convicted DeLaCruz on March 30, 2021. The outlet said the conviction included first-degree murder, attempted murder, robbery, assault, and firearm-related charges. At sentencing in May 2021, Judge Ronald Hansen gave DeLaCruz 147 years to life plus 41 years.

What we know about Santiago Mantar

The clearest personal detail I found came from the sentencing coverage. Merced Sun-Star reported that Santiago Perez Mantar was a native of Guatemala who immigrated to the United States in 2015 for work. The same report said his family returned his body to Guatemala for burial and that his brother, Herminio Perez Mantar, spoke emotionally at sentencing, saying Santiago was killed simply because he had a job and the attacker wanted to rob him.

What the surviving victim said

At sentencing, another victim, Francisco Lopez, also spoke in court. According to Merced Sun-Star, Lopez said his wife still needed medication for anxiety and post-traumatic stress, and that after surgeries and therapy he could no longer do several jobs he had once done. That detail gives the case a broader impact than a single homicide because prosecutors tied it to a pattern of attacks on workers in the area.

Background on Hector DeLaCruz

Local coverage said DeLaCruz had a significant criminal background before the Santiago Mantar murder. Merced Sun-Star reported that he had faced earlier trials that ended in mistrials, later pleaded no contest in a 2019 assault case, was arrested for probation violations in late 2019, and was released early shortly before the April 2020 attacks. The article says prosecutors used physical evidence, including DNA and photos taken by DeLaCruz, to connect him to the crimes.

Why this case still stands out

The Santiago Mantar case stands out because it was not presented as an isolated argument or personal dispute. According to the sentencing coverage, prosecutors framed it as a targeted robbery-driven attack on vulnerable dairy workers, followed by another violent assault just days earlier. That makes it highly relevant for readers searching for Gustine dairy farm murder, Santiago Mantar Gustine, or April 20 2020 Merced County homicide. That last SEO point is an inference about search intent, not a measured keyword report.

Confirmed facts

• Santiago Perez Mantar was killed at a dairy near Gustine on April 20, 2020.
• Hector DeLaCruz was later convicted of first-degree murder and other felonies.
• DeLaCruz was sentenced to 147 years to life plus 41 years in May 2021.
• Mantar was a Guatemalan immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2015 for work.

What I could not verify

I did not find a trustworthy public victim portrait of Santiago Mantar in the sources I reviewed. I also did not find a separate official DA page directly open on the county site in this pass, though multiple reports quote or summarize the DA’s release.