Crime & Safety

More Details in Cypress Avenue Slaying as Second Suspect Arrested

Police are still investigating the stabbing death of the 23-year-old Christopher Chastain. Two suspects have been charged with murder.

More details were revealed today about what led to Sunday’s , with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office saying that a second man has been implicated in the late night slaying.

Police arrested Brandon Thompson on Monday in connection with the slaying, and both he and Nicholas Vargas, 24, of San Bruno were charged with one count of murder at their arraignment today in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Police are still investigating the homicide, but information released today indicated that the death of 23-year-old Chastain—described by family members as a gentle, family-loving man who had a 3-year-old son—may have possibly not been a random act of violence.

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According to the district attorney’s office, Vargas, Thompson and Chastain were at Vargas’s parents’ home on Cypress Avenue on Sunday when an argument happened.

Vargas and Thompson then knocked Chastain down and allegedly put a piece of plastic over his face before Vargas struck Chastain several times with a pipe wrench and Thompson stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife.

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The two assailants then reportedly dragged Chastain outside of the house and tried to put him in the trunk of Vargas’s car, which was parked in the driveway, leaving a trail of blood along the way. However, Chastain’s 6-foot-5 frame was too heavy for them, so they left him on the ground, according to the district attorney’s office.

Thompson, 26, of San Mateo fled the scene while Vargas went back in the house to tell his father, who had been asleep, that “something was very wrong,” said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

When Vargas’s father went outside and saw Chastain’s body on the ground, he called police.

Officers said they found Chastain lying unresponsive on the ground and appearing to have sustained “traumatic injuries.” Chastain was pronounced dead at the scene.

Both men are now being held in custody without bail and are expected back in court to enter pleas on April 20.

Wagstaffe said investigators are still piecing together what could have happened on that night.

“We only know part of the story,” he said. “There is more of the story to be learned.”


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