Death after care home assault ruled a homicide
SAN JOSE — The December death of a care home worker, who collapsed after helping subdue an intruder at a West San Jose assisted-living facility, has recently been deemed a homicide by the coroner’s office, authorities said.
San Jose police announced the news Wednesday regarding the Dec. 11 encounter at the Villa Fontana retirement community on Prospect Road west of Lawrence Expressway. According to police, Alex Albetria was an employee, working at the facility that morning when he helped hold down a man who trespassed on the property and assaulted staff there.
After police officers arrived to arrest the man, Albetria, 63, “collapsed from the physical exertion of restraining” the man, and he died soon after at a hospital, police said.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office decided late last month to classify Albetria’s death as a homicide, police said. His cause of death is officially listed as “physical/mental exertion” that compounded existing hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Police did not publicly name the man arrested after the reported assault, and at the time he was booked on suspicion of assault and burglary. Authorities did say they presented the new homicide declaration to the county district attorney’s office for review for additional charges.
Though Albetria died last year, the timing of the homicide declaration has prompted the police department to count his death as the city’s 11th homicide of 2023.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Rafael Varela at 3638@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Jose Montoya at 3644@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be submitted with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.
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