A man has been accused of committing murder with a hatchet, rattling a quiet California town with its first murder in 20 years.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco suburb of Lafayette was left in shock when 34-year-old Christopher Jaber was found dead on Saturday, March 21. The affluent town is known for its top-tier schools and multi million-dollar homes and has avoided grisly crimes in the past two decades.<\/p>\n
The Contra Costa County District Attorney\u2019s Office confirmed in a statement<\/a> that David Swank Prince was charged with Jaber\u2019s murder. Authorities said that it was a targeted attack that involved a hatchet, as well as a digital paper trail connecting Prince, 35, to the crime.<\/p>\n Police became aware of the murder when a relative of Jaber called 911 around 11:30 a.m. to report that a suspicious man armed with a hatchet was lurking in the backyard of their property.<\/p>\n Man Arrested in 1997 Murder of 84-Year-Old Woman Found Stabbed at Her California Home, Police Say<\/a><\/p>\n The relative told dispatchers that the man was breaking into an accessory dwelling unit that Jaber lived in.<\/p>\n When they arrived, officers found Jaber dead. Meanwhile, Prince was found walking, just a short distance away from the home. Prince was taken into custody and charged with murder, while he was also hit with an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n \u201cPrince unlawfully and with malice aforethought took the life of Jaber with the use of a hatchet,\u201d the DA\u2019s office said in the press release shared on Tuesday, March 24.<\/p>\n The DA\u2019s office added that the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n After Prince was arrested, local news outlets reported about a disturbing post from a Facebook page that apparently came from Prince\u2019s account. The post, which was shared in February, specifically threatened Jaber by name.<\/p>\n Suspect Arrested and Charged With Capital Murder in Connection to 1990 Cold Case<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf you need the chaos of the supernatural to end Chris Jaber 34 aka the eye resides at 5 westminster pl lafayette ca,\u201d the post read, according to NBC Bay Area<\/a>, KRON4<\/a> and SFGATE<\/a>. \u201cGo with god.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince also allegedly wrote in the comments section, \u201cCan someone please kill this man.\u201d<\/p>\n It is not currently clear how Prince and Jaber knew each other before the killing.<\/p>\n Prince is currently being held at the Martinez Detention Facility, and his bail has been set at $1 million.<\/p>\n It is not currently clear if Prince has retained legal representation or entered a plea in light of his arrest. The Contra Costa County District Attorney\u2019s Office did not immediately respond to Us Weekly\u2019s request for comment regarding the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been accused of committing murder with a hatchet, rattling a quiet California town with its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,108086,108085,108084,74155,108083],"class_list":["post-240322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-town","tag-chris-jaber","tag-christopher-jaber","tag-contra-costa-county-district-attorney","tag-contra-costa-county-district-attorneys-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240322","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=240322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}