Two Plead Not Guilty in Cypress Avenue Homicide

The two men accused of killing 23-year-old Christopher Chastain pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday. 

Both appearing with their attorneys, Nicholas Vargas, 24, of San Bruno and Brandon Thompson, 26, of San Mateo were ordered back to court July 12 by a judge to set a date for the preliminary hearing. 

Vargas and Thompson, a parolee, have been on April 10 after a late-night argument at Vargas’s parent’s house on Cypress Avenue went horribly wrong. 

After putting a piece of plastic over Chastain’s face, striking him with a pipe wrench and stabbing him, the two assailants 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. But Chastain’s 6-foot-5 frame was too heavy for them, so they left him on the ground, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. Both men were later arrested. 

The two men remain in San Mateo County Jail without bail.