A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 26 for a Beloit man wanted for attempted murder in California and charged with fleeing from police in Elkhorn.
Brian Zuniga, 21, was charged July 8 in Walworth County Circuit Court with attempting to flee or elude a traffic officer, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and obstructing an officer.
According to the criminal complaint, a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy pulled over a car on Highway 12 that had been travelling 90 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 43 in the Town of Delavan on July 1. When the car’s registration came back to a different vehicle, and the driver provided a questionable name, date of birth and proof of vehicle purchase, the driver was asked to get out of the car, according to the complaint.
At that point, the driver sped away in the car traveling 100 to 120 mph on Highway 12 toward Lake Geneva. The car weaved through the traffic light on Highway 12, exited onto Highway 120, deviated from its lane of traffic, ran through a stop sign and nearly collided with a Lake Geneva police officer on a motorcycle, according to the complaint.
As the car headed toward downtown Lake Geneva, a passenger fell out of the car, and a deputy provided medical attention to the passenger, who was identified as Aaron D. Delaney. Delaney was taken to Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center in Janesville with a brain bleed.
Deputies and Lake Geneva police officer found the empty car, and located the driver and Mariah Flecha, a backseat passenger in the car, in a private detached garage, according to the complaint.
The driver identified himself as Kevin Hernandez, 21, which was a different name and date of birth than he gave earlier during the traffic stop. The driver was arrested and booked into the Walworth County Jail under the name of Kevin Hernandez. On July 3, the sheriff’s department received information from Monterey County, Calif., that the driver’s fingerprints matched those of Brian Zuniga, who has been charged with attempted homicide in California, and an extraditable warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to the complaint.
According to an online news report, King City, Calif., police issued a warrant last month for the arrest of Zuniga, who was reported as being 20 years old, for shooting a 20-year-old Hispanic man multiple times June 7. The victim, who was not identified in the report, was stabilized at the scene of the shooting at San Antonio and Amherst drives in King City, Calif., and was in stable condition at a local hospital as of June 10.
