Man sentenced to probation for fatal stabbing at Santa Cruz County park

SANTA CRUZ — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Santa Cruz man convicted of involuntary manslaughter to two years of probation and jail time served.

Joseph Young pleaded no contest in September to fatally stabbing 44-year-old Todd Kolibas on April 19 in a DeLaveaga Park picnic area. As part of a plea deal struck with the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, charges were downgraded from murder, prior to a trial when new evidence came to light in the case, Assistant District Attorney Johanna Schonfield said at the time.

Outside the courtroom, a trio of Kolibas’ long-time friends wearing black sweatshirts with photos of Kolibas screen printed on the front and back, left the sentencing hearing with disappointment. Jeneen Slosson said she felt Santa Cruz had failed her friend who had once cared for her during her cancer treatment.

“To hear that his life was worth a $2,400 fine and 100 days in jail is just disgusting,” Slosson said of the sentencing.

Carla Melan’s 12-year-old daughter Siena Melan wrote a letter read aloud to the court and Judge Stephen Siegel in which she described Kolibas as having “given me knowledge needed in life that I wouldn’t be taught in schools.” Siena Melan wrote that she feared that she, too, could be hurt were she to look at a man like Young the wrong way while walking to and from school.

In a joint statement authored by Slosson and Carla Melan, read during the hearing, the women wrote of Kolibas’ compassion for his friends and ability to bring levity to even the most serious of occasions.

“He was a light in the lives of so many of us, a kind and gentle soul who went out of his way to make those around him feel seen and valued,” Slosson and Carla Melan wrote.

Kolibas was highly energetic, sometimes at the wrong times, and could be like a teenager you had to yell “stop it” to, the three friends said outside of court. The “good, bad and ugly” of Kolibas, however, was not worth the taking of his life, Melan said.

“They look at it like he was just some homeless drug addict and it didn’t matter if he died,” Slosson said. “But that’s not what it was. Todd was very loved.”

Schonfield provided her reasoning for offering the plea deal after a toxicology report showed Kolibas had a “significant” amount of methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death. He also had handled the weapons, including a knife and stun gun, used against him, according to DNA evidence. The information ran contrary to witness statements, she said. The two men had contentious altercations while working together at Santa Cruz’s peer-run Mental Health Client Action Network, the agency’s former director told the Sentinel.

Less than a month after Young was released from jail after his plea deal was struck, he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia. Young’s case in those matters remained pending arraignment as of Tuesday.