Accused Roxy Theater assailant pleads not guilty at hearing

A 23-year-old homeless man charged with the attempted murder of a moviegoer who was stabbed at the Roxy Theater in downtown Santa Rosa pleaded not guilty Friday in a Sonoma County courtroom.

Police arrested Delonte Hart shortly after witnesses said he ran out of the darkened movie theater on June 29, leaving behind a man bleeding from knife wounds.

Adam Lucero, 21, was stabbed in the neck and arm, with additional wounds inflicted by a large chef’s knife, as he fought the stranger who sat behind him at a sparsely attended weekday afternoon showing of “The Shallows.”

Hart is also the only “person of interest” named by police in the brutal killing of a Santa Rosa man, 32-year-old Cirak Tesfazgi, who was killed two days before the movie theater attack. Tesfazgi was stabbed more than 50 times in a downtown doorway where police said he had settled on the ground to rest for the night.

Deputy District Attorney Mark Urioste declined to comment after the hearing about whether his office was still evaluating whether to charge Hart with Tesfazgi’s murder.

In Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite’s courtroom Friday, Urioste asked Thistlethwaite for a second time to double Hart’s bail to $2 million “based on the callous nature of the crime and the randomness of the crime” and because Hart has no known connections to Sonoma County.

Police have said Hart is originally from the Baltimore area and appeared to have arrived in Santa Rosa about four months before the stabbing.

Public Defender Tyler Hicks argued against the bail increase because Hart has a minimal criminal record.

Thistlethwaite set bail at $1.1 million.

After the arraignment, Lucero’s mother, Debra Lucero, said she felt numb when she saw for the first time the man accused of stabbing her son.

But Lucero’s girlfriend, Sharayah Gastellum, 20, of Tuscon, Ariz., was angry at the sight of Hart.

“I’ve seen the process of Adam not being able to breathe on his own, of him trying to walk,” said Gastellum.

The day of the attack, Lucero had gone bowling with a friend who lives in Santa Rosa, and then went to the late afternoon movie on his own. He was supposed to drive to San Francisco that night to look at a potential apartment in the city, where he was to start a new job this month.

Debra Lucero said her son punched Hart, yelled “I’ve been stabbed,” and, after Hart ran out of the theater, took off his own T-shirt and held it to his bleeding neck.

Lucero’s mother, who is a nurse, said she was proud of his bravery. She hopes her son’s strength will eventually conquer the nightmares he’s enduring on top of the severe injuries that impede his ability to breathe, swallow and walk.

“He has trouble walking with a walker, he is very unsteady, and this is an athletic young man,” Debra Lucero said. She said her son attended Cal Poly on a running scholarship. He graduated in June.

Thistlethwaite originally agreed to allow a Press Democrat photographer to document the hearing, but rescinded permission for photography after the public defender filed a motion against it. Thistlethwaite indicated in court that a possible lineup of suspects in the stabbing was one of the considerations that caused her to rescind permission.

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