Report: Clovis police have eyewitness in stabbing death

Clovis police have an eyewitness to the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Ariel Ulibarri.

One of two witnesses who reported the killing of Ulibarri told police he was crossing a fence at Goodwin Lake Trails park that morning and “heard wailing... (he) stated that he thought the sound may be from an animal being killed,” according to the Nov. 9 incident report released Monday by Clovis police.

The 24-page report, heavily redacted, was released in response to a public records request by the Clovis News Journal. It contains details not previously released by police, including one of the witnesses saying he saw at least part of the fatal knife attack on the young mother of two.

The witness told police he was walking his dog about 7:15 a.m. The report notes “he began to walk towards the area he believed the screaming to be coming from and observed a figure through a group of trees. (The witness) imitated the figure by making a stabbing motion downward with his right hand.”

The witness told police “he then observed ... (redacted) ... he had described run westbound towards the entrance of the park.”

The witness also said he saw Ulibarri’s 6-year-old son running toward the same park entrance. He told police he returned to his nearby home and grabbed his cell phone to call 911.

“(The witness) informed me there was approximately a 3 minute time delay from when he observed the subject to when he called 911.”

The witness gave police a description of the attacker, which police immediately provided dispatch to alert all other law enforcement, according to the report.

A second witness told police he was standing by his truck near a dumpster in the park’s parking lot when the boy ran up to him and said he wanted to go home. The witness said he asked him where is mother was and the boy “informed him she was back behind a tree.”

The second witness walked into the park and “stated he walked close enough to the victim to notice she had a blank stare.”

The report includes accounts from most of the 17 Clovis officers responding to the scene. It also notes the father of Ulibarri’s two children, Jorge Corona, showed up later in the day and gave police a statement.

Corona is the man who accused Officer Brent Aguilar of excessive force after he was slammed face down on the pavement in August during a traffic stop. Corona suffered a broken cheek in the incident that went public after video was posted on You Tube.

Officer Steven Wright noted Corona knocked on his patrol unit’s window on the afternoon of the homicide. Wright’s account spells Corona’s first name incorrectly as George, which is how Corona prefers it to be pronounced.

“George said his family told him not to come here, but he still did,” Wright wrote in his report. “George went on to say he could not believe what happened.”

Corona later agreed to go with officers to police headquarters to give a statement his attorney Dan Lindsey confirmed was given voluntarily.

The report indicates police fanned out and moved north in the park in a search for evidence but turned up little. They did recover Ulibarri’s bloody cell phone still playing music as described by one of the witnesses interviewed that morning.