DUBLIN — A Hayward man has been sentenced to six years in state prison for killing his neighbor at the apartment complex where both men lived, court records show.
Randall “Bubba” Stoops, 35, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of 39-year-old Jose “Ox” Quevedo. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a manslaughter charge against Stoops.
On Aug. 23, 2024, Stoops stabbed Quevedo and Quevedo’s girlfriend during a heated argument that started when the couple allegedly witnessed Stoops dragging his teenage nephew into his home for breaking curfew. As the two lay on the ground bleeding, Quevedo told his girlfriend he loved her, then died a few moments later, police said.
The stabbing occurred on the 24000 block of Silva Avenue in Hayward, authorities said.
At Stoops’ preliminary hearing last February, a judge upheld the murder charge in Quevedo’s death, but reduced an attempted murder charge to assault in the stabbing of Quevedo’s girlfriend.
“Just (expletive) horrible. He was covered in blood, sitting up on that tree,” Quevedo’s girlfriend recalled from the witness stand. “It was like he couldn’t try — he was trying to, like, breathe and just blood everywhere, covered.”
At the change-of-plea hearing last August, Stoops’ lawyer, Annie Beles, indicated there was a chance she could have won an acquittal at trial.
“I feel that we are making this decision together despite having a potential defense of self-defense,” Beles said.