OAKLAND — One of two defendants in the killing of a local maintenance man has already pleaded no contest, and the other is headed to trial.
In an August court hearing, 38-year-old Nai Saechao pleaded no contest to second degree murder in the death of Julio Chavez-Montoya, whose skeleton was found wrapped around a tree in the Oakland Hills months after he was murdered in the downtown high rise where he lived and worked. Saechao’s co-defendant, Matias Simi, was held to answer at an April preliminary hearing and remains jailed awaiting trial, court records show.
Saechao’s sentencing date has been tentatively set for November, records show. Much of the case against Simi is based on Saechao’s statement to Oakland police, according to testimony at Simi’s hearing.
Chavez-Montoya was a maintenance man at a high rise on the 400 block of 14th Street in Oakland, a short distance from the Tribune Tower. Simi used to be a security guard in the same building, but the two butted heads, and Simi ended up getting fired weeks before Chavez-Montoya’s death, for allegedly sneaking Saechao into the building and stealing a master key ring.
Chavez-Montoya disappeared in late January, and surveillance cameras at the building caught Saechao and Simi leaving the area pushing a large garbage can on wheels. Saechao later gave a police interview in which he admitted Chavez-Montoya’s body was inside the can and that they loaded it into Simi’s car.
When police interviewed Saechao in March 2023, he admitted that he and Simi had illegally entered the high rise and that Chavez-Montoya confronted them, Oakland police Sgt. Wenceslao Garcia testified at Simi’s preliminary hearing. He also told them the location of Chavez-Montoya’s body but search teams were initially unable to find it, Garcia said.
“Simi punched him once, Julio went down, and Simi began punching him four to five additional times while he was on the ground,” Garcia said on the stand. “(Saechao) said something to the effect of, ‘I didn’t think he was dead.’”
Simi’s ex-wife, arrested on suspicion of accessory, also told police that Simi had confessed to her that he got into a fight with a man and “had to slam him down and that he killed him,” Garcia testified.
Chavez-Montoya’s skeleton was eventually discovered down a ravine, near a creek bed off Elysian Fields Drive and Golf Links Road. It appeared that someone had pushed his body down the embankment in the remote area, according to authorities. After his identity was confirmed, prosecutors charged Simi and Saechao with murder.
Before Chavez-Montoya’s skeleton was discovered, authorities say friends and family members received calls demanding a ransom for his safe return, with one caller saying they would “cut him to pieces” if $8,000 wasn’t received. The calls were allegedly made from Chavez-Montoya’s cellphone, which bounced off a tower near Simi’s San Leandro home, authorities said.