Incident Happened At Local Boulder Creek Restaurant
BOULDER CREEK—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has made arrests in the Sunday night stabbing incident at a restaurant in Boulder Creek. Deputies arrested a couple from San Mateo for their part in the potentially deadly assault. Boulder Creek is a small town in the wooded hills north of Felton and Santa Cruz, in the San Lorenzo Valley.
On Sunday night, September 13 at around 9:22 pm, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to Scopazzi’s Restaurant, at 13300 Big Basin Highway in Boulder Creek, on a report of a dispute that turned into a stabbing in the parking lot. A waiter and a restaurant patron, who had confronted a couple when they left without paying their bill, were both stabbed by the man. The 24-year-old waiter was stabbed in the neck, and the 68-year-old man was hit twice in the abdomen, according to a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
The stabbing occurred in the parking lot of Scopazzi’s Restaurant.
Deputies responded to the area but did not find the suspects. They interviewed several witnesses at the restaurant, and obtained information regarding the suspects and their vehicle, which had hurriedly fled the scene shortly after the incident.
With the information obtained from witnesses, which included the vehicle’s license plate number, deputies were able to identify the suspects. Once the two were identified, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Detectives issued arrest warrants for them.
This Tuesday, about a week after the incident, detectives went to the suspect’s residence in the Shoreview area of San Mateo and arrested them without incident. 32-year-old Kyle Shields was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm. His bail has been set at 200,000.00 dollars. His accomplice, Sonia Dawn Jepson, was arrested and charged with battery on a person. Her bail has been set at 200,000.00 dollars as well. She had just turned 41 on the night of the stabbing.
The two were transported and booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail.
Update: On September 25, District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell announced that charges have been filed against Shields and Jepson in the assault. Shields will be prosecuted on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, and Jepson will be facing battery on an elder adult. They are both currently in custody at the Santa Cruz County Jail on $200,000 bail for Shields and $25,000 for Jepson.
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is encouraged to call Assistant D.A. Alexander Byers at 831-454-3181, or the Sheriff’s Office.
Read More: The Santa Cruz Sentinel
