Novato Tie to Gang Killing Remains in Limbo

The Novato connection to one suspect in a Wednesday in San Rafael remains unclear two days after a man was stabbed to death.

A report from the San Rafael police department shortly after the incident included mention of a 17-year-old boy arrested as one of four suspects and said he attended . On Thursday night, the said the name provided to the school district by the San Rafael City Schools staff on Wednesday was not a Novato High student.

On Friday, the staff from Marin County Office of Education provided another name to the Novato school istrict and that student is indeed a Novato High student. Now, Novato officials are waiting for information from the San Rafael Police Department to verify details and facts related to the incident, the district said.

“I haven’t confirmed anything, and in fact I’m trying to confirm it as we speak,” Novato High Principal Rey Mayoral said Friday afternoon.

Carlos Gutierrez, 18, who is a man in gang fight on Wednesday, was to appear in Marin County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Just before 5 p.m. May 11, witnesses reported a group of men chasing after each other with sticks and baseball bats near the on B Street. The men then got into two cars, a red Ford Explorer and a white Pontiac Grand Am, and raced after each other down to Woods Street, where they fought and eventually fled.

Corte Madera resident Jeffrie Lee Olmstead, 21, was fatally stabbed it in the fight. Olmstead had a history of illegal activity involving drugs going back to 2007, according to the Marin County Superior Court database.

"He got involved with all this because of the law," Olmstead’s father figure Luis Campos told the Marin Independent Journal. "He got a DUI, he went to jail. And he got involved with the wrong people. ... From then on, he was in and out of jail, in and out of jail."

Two other males had minor injuries from the incident, according to police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher.

Highway Patrol officers stopped the Ford Explorer near Tamal Vista Boulevard about 20 minutes after the fight and took the driver into custody. Police spotted the unoccupied Grand Am on Front Street early Thursday morning.

Gutierrez was arrested at his Canal Street home on Thursday around 2 a.m. after several witnesses identified him and three juveniles, according to Rohrbacher. Gutierrez and the juveniles involved are known to have gang connections, she said.

Gutierrez was booked in Marin County Jail on charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a criminal street gang.