PLEASANT HILL — As 37-year-old Santiago Jacobo Sr. struggled to stay upright as he bled out on the curb next to his vehicle, he had one last thing to say to the man who’d stabbed him 22 times.
“You’re going to pay,” Jacobo called out to 31-year-old Pablo Gutierrez-Morales, who ran to a waiting vehicle, apparently holding onto the folly belief that his victim would live, according to court records.
A year-and-a-half after the February 2024 murder of Santiago, his final words to his killer came true. Gutierrez-Morales, a Concord resident, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and received a prison sentence of 16 years to life, court records show.
“I hope the people who did this get 942 years, because that’s how long I’ll be sad for,” Jacobo’s son, Santiago Jacobo Jr., said at his August sentencing hearing, the news site DanvilleSanRamon.com reported.
The story behind Santiago Jacobo Sr.’s murder was oft-referred to by news media and police as a “love triangle,” but court records describing the sage paint a more complex picture. It started with an affair between the married Jacobo, who lived in Pittsburg, and Vanessa Vera-Aguilar, his colleague at a senior care home called Watermark. It ended with Jacobo’s wife finding him dead in the gutter next to Pleasant Hill Park, at around 4:45 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2024. He’d suffered 22 stab wounds, including to his heart and liver.
Jacobo also worked as a custodian at the park, and stuck to a work routine that apparently made him easy to find. After he and Vera-Aguilar, 24, ended their relationship, she found a new boyfriend, Gutierrez-Morales. But according to court filings by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, Jacobo wasn’t ready for their relationship to be over. He allegedly bombarded her with calls, texts and video messages, almost all of which went unreturned.
Gutierrez-Morales later allegedly shared his displeasure about the situation with Vera-Aguilar. He discussed means of revenge — wanting to “beat up” Jacobo, cut the brake lines to his car, slash his tires, or kill him, authorities said. She’d later tell police that she believed he was joking or letting off steam, according to court records.
Vera-Aguilar allegedly met with Jacobo at the park three days before the murder, supposedly to discuss a loan agreement. On the night of Feb. 9, she returned to the park but this time went with Gutierrez-Morales and a friend, Jazmin Ruiz. But before they left they obtained a knife, which Vera-Aguilar later told police she believed would be used to cut the tires on Jacobo’s car. They were careful to avoid security cameras when they pulled up to the park around 11 p.m., according to court filings.
A motion by Gutierrez-Morales’ lawyer says that Gutierrez-Morales expected to talk to Jacobo “man to man” and tell him to stop “harassing” Vera-Aguilar, but he approached him with a tire iron as well as the knife. When he found Jacobo, Gutierrez-Morales allegedly flung open the door to his car, only to be kicked two to three times by the custodian. In the shoving match that ensued, Gutierrez-Morales allegedly went for the knife in his pocket. He’d later told police he couldn’t remember how many times he stabbed Jacobo, according to records.
As Gutierrez-Morales began to run away, Jacobo called out, telling Gutierrez-Morales he would pay. Gutierrez-Morales later told police that the fact that Jacobo was able to speak reinforced his belief that he’d recover from the stabbing. He left with Jacobo’s phone, then tossed it out of Vera-Aguilar’s moving car on Highway 242, according to court records. A passerby later found the phone near the Chili’s in Concord, court records show.
Jacobo’s wife went looking for him early the next morning, and called police when she discovered his body. The three defendants were arrested in May 2024.
In court, Vera-Aguilar and Ruiz, both Antioch residents, fared much better than Gutierrez-Morales, who was transferred on Aug. 11 to North Kern State Prison. Vera-Aguilar was sentenced to a year in jail for accessory to murder. Ruiz was given a 12-day sentence and a year of probation after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge, court records show.
On the day of sentencing, Jacobo’s family members called for harsher penalties against the trio.
“They stalked Santiago – it was premeditated, and it was well-organized, like cat and mouse,” says a statement submitted by Jacobo’s brother, Alonso Jacobo, DanvilleSanRamon.com reported.