{"id":95519,"date":"2025-12-15T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/95519\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:18:09","slug":"eyewitness-describes-oakland-killing-that-centers-on-professional-car-thieves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/95519\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyewitness describes Oakland killing that centers on professional car thieves"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 An alleged operator of a large-scale chop shop<\/a> has been ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering an acquaintance as the victim sat in a stolen Lexus with his girlfriend, court records show.<\/p>\n

Juan Montiel, 35, was held to answer on charged of murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Dec. 30, 2024 killing of 25-year-old Kody Johnston. At the preliminary hearing last October, Johnston\u2019s girlfriend testified the two were watching Wild \u2018N Out on his phone while parked outside a friend\u2019s house on Fleming Avenue when a man she recognized as Montiel walked up and ordered Johnston out of the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cKody never had time to get out,\u201d she testified, adding that Montiel fired a shot a few moments later. \u201cWhen I heard the window crack, like break, I looked at him and said, \u2018Oh my God. Oh my God, Kody.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Montiel had pistol-whipped Johnston in an earlier incident, after Johnston offered to do a favor for Montiel\u2019s girlfriend, Natasha Simons, according to Johnston\u2019s girlfriend, who described Montiel was a \u201cbully\u201d within their friend \u201ccircle.\u201d The specifics of the favor weren\u2019t disclosed at the hearing.<\/p>\n

Days earlier, another acquaintance of the group, known as \u201cKiller,\u201d had stolen a truck belonging to Johnston and his girlfriend, and made up for it by giving them a Lexus that turned out to have been stolen in a carjacking, according to court records. Johnston\u2019s girlfriend \u2014 who has several prior arrests for car theft \u2014 said at the hearing she knew the Lexus didn\u2019t belong to \u201cKiller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we do. We all steal cars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Montiel was arrested about a month after Johnston\u2019s homicide, at a warehouse on the 800 block of 100th Avenue that police believe was being used to chop stolen cars<\/a> and trucks for parts. Also arrested were 47-year-old Andrew Trujillo and Montiel\u2019s girlfriend Simons. The three now face charges of possessing or receiving stolen property, and Trujillo has been charged with evading police, court records show.<\/p>\n

During the raid, the three refused to surrender so a sheriff\u2019s auto theft task force tear gassed them, according to court records. Inside, authorities say they found eight stolen vehicles \u2014 including a gas tanker truck \u2014 were discovered, along with body armor, weapons, and fake emergency lights that could be used to impersonate a police car. The investigation was one of several recent probes targeting chop shops<\/a>, vehicle identification number switchers, and online stolen car markets<\/a> around the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

Montiel and Trujillo are both behind bars at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, with Trujillo\u2019s bail set at $90,000 and Montiel being held without bail, records show. They\u2019re both next due in court in January. Montiel\u2019s trial date has not been set.<\/p>\n

At the preliminary hearing, Montiel\u2019s lawyer, Annie Beles, said that the prosecution was relying on a \u201chighly motivated biased witness\u201d with \u201cserious credibility issues\u201d who freely admitted that she \u201chates\u201d Montiel. Judge Armando Pastran Jr. said the woman was open about her feelings toward Montiel, her \u201cprobable\u201d methamphetamine use the day of the homicide, and her own criminal history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile she clearly has negative feelings toward the defendant, she as very candid in the way she testified,\u201d Pastran said. \u201cShe never even shied away from the fact that she had been arrested for driving stolen vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 An alleged operator of a large-scale chop shop has been ordered to stand trial on charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[861,52503,862,143,52502,32459,52501,145,144],"class_list":["post-95519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california-car-theft","tag-california-crime","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-auto-theft","tag-oakland-car-theft","tag-oakland-chop-shop","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95519","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=95519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}