{"id":130988,"date":"2026-01-13T01:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/130988\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T01:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:41:07","slug":"man-charged-in-killing-of-garden-grove-woman-who-had-obtained-a-restraining-order-against-the-suspect-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/130988\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in killing of Garden Grove woman who had obtained a restraining order against the suspect \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

GARDEN GROVE \u2014 A 32-year-old man with an extensive criminal history of domestic violence<\/a> was charged Monday with killing a woman in Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

Rafael Arechiga was charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. He is accused of killing 37-year-old Gabriela M. Molina Cervantes of Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

It was not clear if the two were married, but they were in relationship.<\/p>\n

Arechiga was arrested following a traffic stop at about 12:40 a.m. Thursday at Brookhurst Street and Chapman Avenue, Garden Grove Police Department Sgt. Nick Jensen said.<\/p>\n

Santa Ana police working a missing person case contacted Garden Grove officers at about 8 p.m. Wednesday to request a welfare check after the woman failed to show up for work, Jensen said.<\/p>\n

Minutes later, Garden Grove police dispatchers received a call from the same apartment complex officers were preparing to check. A caller, who had been asked by the woman\u2019s family to check on her, found her body in an apartment in the 10400 block of Lampson Avenue, according to Jensen.<\/p>\n

The victim had a restraining order against Arechiga, Jensen said.<\/p>\n

Arechiga has an extensive criminal history of domestic violence against the victim, according to court records. Despite that, in July, Molina Cervantes requested dismissal of the restraining order against him, according to court records.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to remove the restraining order, to give another opportunity to my husband,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t want him being arrested no more. I\u2019m tired of living in fear that he gets arrested. I love him and I just want peace in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arechiga pleaded guilty on Sept. 26, 2024, to domestic battery causing injury with a prior conviction for violence, disobeying a domestic relations court order and petty theft, all misdemeanors, as well as a felony count of contempt of a domestic violence court order with a prior.<\/p>\n

He admitted in court papers attacking his spouse \u201cby punching her with my fist\u201d and violating a prior protective order and taking her purse.<\/p>\n

According to a probation violation request, the victim sustained \u201cvisible injuries including bruising contusion along her right temple and right cheek, a bruise forming on her right triceps, an abrasion on her right elbow, and a circular scrape along her hairline and temple\u201d and required hospital care.<\/p>\n

Arechiga\u2019s mother had also filed a restraining order against her son due to threats, but it was later dropped when no one showed up in court for the follow-up hearing on the request, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Arechiga was also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in December alleging he had strangled a quadriplegic patient at MainPlace Post Acute, at 1835 W. La Veta Ave. in Orange, while working there in July 2024. The patient \u2014 Darryl Robinson \u2014 died on June 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s brother, Tony Robinson, sued the company in December. The lawsuit alleges Darryl Robinson suffered injuries that led to his death 11 months later.<\/p>\n

Police in Orange booked Arechiga, but prosecutors did not immediately charge the defendant in connection with the alleged attack, asking for further investigation, according to Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Arechiga did not enter a plea at his arraignment Monday in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana. His bail was set at $2 million, but a judge will reconsider a request from prosecutors to hold the defendant without bail at his arraignment Feb. 2 in the West Justice Center in Westminster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GARDEN GROVE \u2014 A 32-year-old man with an extensive criminal history of domestic violence was charged Monday with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,138,11078,134,100,611,136],"class_list":["post-130988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-garden-grove","tag-homicide","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}