Prosecutors charged a 42-year-old with murder this week in the killing of a man found buried in an Oakland homeless encampment earlier this year.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office filed murder charges Thursday against Sergio Omar Flores, who was arrested Wednesday morning and is being held in Santa Rita Jail without bail.
On June 9, investigators with the Oakland Police Department found the decomposed body at the camp located in the 500 block of 34th Street, near Telegraph Avenue and below Interstate 580. Prosecutors said police found the victim with duct tape over his mouth.
According to the East Bay Times, the man killed was identified as 43-year-old Gaspar Sanchez, who did not live at the encampment but was a "frequent visitor." Flores, a resident of the encampment, allegedly beat Sanchez to death after a dispute over a woman they both knew.
Police believe the killing occurred sometime between April 9 and June 3, the East Bay Times reported Friday.
County records show Flores was convicted in 2025 of second-degree burglary, in 2023 of wilfull discharge of a firearm in a negligent manner and in 2020 of evading police.
"I commend the Oakland Police Department's homicide investigators for their diligent work in identifying and apprehending the defendant in this horrific crime," Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson said in a statement Friday.
There's more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at 42-year-old facing murder charge after man found buried in Oakland.