{"id":206751,"date":"2026-03-06T04:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206751\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T04:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:09:06","slug":"man-pleads-no-contest-to-involuntary-manslaughter-in-deadly-east-bakersfield-stabbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206751\/","title":{"rendered":"Man pleads no contest to involuntary manslaughter in deadly east Bakersfield stabbing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A man accused of stabbing <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/man-fatally-stabbed-in-east-bakersfield-deputies-investigate-early-morning-attack-crime-pioneer-drive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">21-year-old Jason Raymond Mena, of Bakersfield<\/a>, to death in January 2025, pleaded no contest on Thursday, March 5, 2026, according to the Kern County court website.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Chavez pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, which dismissed a murder charge.<\/p>\n<p>Enhancement charges were admitted, including the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon and circumstances of aggravation involving great violence or bodily harm.<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 20, 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/3-accused-in-fatal-east-bakersfield-stabbing-plead-not-guilty-trial-set-for-february-court-crime-pionner-drive-oswell-street\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">at around 2 a.m., Kern County Sheriff&#8217;s deputies were called to the 3100 block of Pioneer Drive regarding a report of a person who was stabbed<\/a>. Jason Mena was found with stab wounds. He later died at the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Accessory charges were dismissed on Thursday against co-defendants Michelle Ballantine and Larry Chavez, court records show. <\/p>\n<p>Matthew, Larry and Ballantine initially pleaded not guilty in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on April 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A man accused of stabbing 21-year-old Jason Raymond Mena, of Bakersfield, to death in January&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-206751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206751","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=206751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}