One arrested, one still at large in Santa Rosa parking lot stabbing

Santa Rosa police Thursday released the photo of a man wanted in connection with a brazen daytime stabbing in a parking lot outside a Santa Rosa strip mall.

Detectives suspect Gerald Hess Jr., and a fellow gang associate, who turned himself in earlier this week, attacked a man whose car door accidentally hit their vehicle in the crowded Mendocino Avenue parking lot.

Hess, 34, was described as a white man with brown hair and blue eyes, 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 190 pounds. Police said he has a tattoo reading “CALIF PRIDE” across his left shoulder.

Witnesses to the April 7 attack took cellphone video of Hess and Adam Thomas, 30, of Santa Rosa fighting with the stabbing victim, an 18-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student, Sgt. John Cregan said.

The student, who police said has no gang ties, was punched, stabbed in the abdomen and repeatedly kicked in the face, Cregan said. His attackers then left in a black Dodge Charger.

The cellphone video captured the license plate of the Charger, which was registered to Thomas, police said.

The car was later found abandoned in Vallejo.

The court issued arrest warrants for Thomas and Hess on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and related gang enhancement charges, Cregan said.

Thomas turned himself in this week and was being held without bail at the Sonoma County Jail. He was on felony probation for a prior conviction for transporting marijuana.

A $500 reward was being offered by the Sonoma County Alliance’s “Take Back Our Community Program” for information leading to Hess’s arrest.

Cregan urged any additional witnesses to the assault to come forward. Anyone with information about the case can call the gang crimes team at 543-3670.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.