{"id":249558,"date":"2026-04-03T04:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249558\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T04:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:19:53","slug":"man-sentenced-to-5-years-in-fatal-east-bakersfield-stabbing-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249558\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to 5 years in fatal east Bakersfield stabbing: Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Matthew Chavez was sentenced to five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the death of <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<\/a> in January 2025, according to the Kern County court website.<\/p>\n<p>Mena, of Bakersfield, was found on Jan. 20, 2025, at around 2 a.m. in the 3100 block of Pioneer Drive with stab wounds. He later died at Kern Medical.<\/p>\n<p>PREVIOUS REPORTING: <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\">3 accused in fatal east Bakersfield stabbing plead not guilty, trial set for February<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On March 5, 2026, Matthew accepted a plea deal after the murder charges against him were dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Records indicate that two enhancement charges against Matthew were upheld, relating to the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon and circumstances of aggravation involving significant violence or bodily harm.<\/p>\n<p>Court records show that co-defendants Larry Chavez and Michelle Ballantine had their charges dismissed in March 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Matthew Chavez was sentenced to five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the death&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-249558","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\/249558","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=249558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}