Backyard Shooting Brings Stockton Homicide Count To 44

STOCKTON (CBS13) - Stockton police are searching for a murder suspect, as the victim's mother is begging for justice.

She says the man who pulled the trigger was her son's friend who is still at large.

"My son, in the backyard, he died in front of me. That coward ran," said Ramona Cobairubis, the victim's mother.

Cobairubis says she was there when her son, 68-year-old Jessie Jimenez, was shot and killed in her own backyard at a family barbeque Friday night.

"A killer comes in, and kills a man that had been his friend, that had been ill, for years for no reason," said Cobairubis.

Police say 44-year-old James Morales is the man behind the trigger.

According to Cobairubis, Morales is a long-time family friend. Friday night her son, who suffered from cancer, got upset with Morales.

"My son just told him, 'don't go to my home again with bad people with guns,'" said Cobairubis. "That's all, and he had to come and kill him?"

"We heard something like popping, and we saw a guy running in front of my house and went towards the park," said neighbor Mandi Lopes.

However, police have yet to catch up with Morales.

"Right now our officers are actively trying to apprehend him, because he is armed and dangerous," said Officer Joe Silva, Stockton Police Department.

"He's hiding. I told them to check the airport," said Cobairubis.

While neighbors in the well-kept neighborhood are left on edge, an elderly mother is wanting justice for her ill older son.

"I want him to get a taste of his own medicine," said Cobairubis. "I'm not going to see my son dead so he can get out someday."

This marks the 44th homicide in Stockton this year, which is up from 26 this time last year.