Still attired in his standard work clothes, tee-shirt and jeans, he was stabbed once, fatally, in the upper left chest area.
Excited witnesses, speaking Spanish, told police the victim was robbed, and they described the assailant as a bulky man wearing a white shirt and shorts.
Found by police lying on the sidewalk, the victim was breathing heavily, unevenly and was not responding to rescue efforts.
Culver City Fire Dept. medics rushed to the scene about 7:45 p.m. After attempting to revive Mr. Fernandez, they drove him to the UCLA Medical Center where he later was pronounced dead, a killing the newspaper reported last Thursday ( Its Unbelievable How Police Handled the Crime Scene, Says Murder Victims Brother, Sept. 6).
The homicide was Culver Citys second in a week and a half.
Last Minutes a Riddle
Police theorize that Mr. Fernandez, a late-30s day laborer with no known address, and his companion were approached by a prospective holdup man as they strode through a residential neighborhood that is no stranger to crime.
Or Mr. Fernandez and his killer may have become embroiled in a personal dispute of unknown origin.
It is not yet clear.
Strolling north on Wade Street, dotted with affordable apartments accommodating numerous Hispanic families, Mr. Fernandez and his friend nearly had reached the Washington Boulevard.
Safety Zone?
Washington is one of Culver Citys widest and busiest streets .
They might have been safe if they had made the intersection. The heavily traveled corner may have protected the doomed man under the cover of pedestrians and vehicle traffic.
Why Mr. Fernandez?
If it was, indeed, a stickup, almost anyone else who ventured out on Wade Street that night would have been a more ripe target.
He seems to have been randomly chosen.
Exact Sequence Unknown
As far as the police, and his family, know, Mr. Fernandez barely kept himself going, with only meager meals and no sign of permanent shelter.
Still sorting out what happened at the crime scene, Culver City police later arrested a short and stocky Santa Monica resident, 41-year-old Daniel Castenada Molano Sr., who lives in the Pico neighborhood.
Mr. Molano today has been charged with first-degree murder in a case that remains surrounded by tall question marks. A charge of attempted robbery also has been filed.
Wade and an Anniversary
Wade Street may sound familiar to Culver City residents.
One semi-tidy block long, Wade leads directly to a gentle-looking public park that was the scene of the communitys most spectacular double homicide of the century.
Four years ago almost to the week, the youthful Bosh brothers, Michael, 20, and Timothy, 21, were gunned down, allegedly by a gang member. When attacked, they were reclining with a beer on the late evening of Saturday, Sept. 28, minutes after Culver West Parks 10:30 closing time.
