Fresno murder suspect released from jail, rearrested for repeat crime

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno family facing fear as the man accused of killing a 15-year-old boy was freed from prison. But now, the suspect is under arrest again for repeating the same crime that got him locked up.

Ricardo Rosas has never been charged with murder, but he does have a long list of convictions and a new case that's landed him back in jail.

Action News has been following Rosas for a couple years now, since police named him as the one and only suspect in the murder of 15-year-old Steven Humphrey. At the time, Rosas was in prison, but he got out a little less than three months ago. Now, he may already be headed back.

Tattoos cover his arms and his neck, the only portions of Ricardo Rosas we're allowed to show you from his court appearance Wednesday. The symbols outline some of the 25-year-old's history, his gang associations in particular. The markings in front of his family home in southeast Fresno tell a different piece of his history. A cross and flowers serve as a memorial to Steven Humphrey. In April 2013, police dug up the teenager's body in Rosas' backyard. But the Rosas family didn't build the memorial, and they can frequently be found right on top of the burial site.

"What I can't see is how they can put their table right there where they dug Steven up and sit there every day," said the teen's grandmother, Dorothy Essman, who lives just down the block from the Rosas house.

Police found Humphrey's body thanks to a tip from a man who said he helped Ricardo Rosas bury it. He also said Rosas confessed to killing the boy, saying the Mexican mafia forced him to do it. Prosecutors never filed murder charges, but they've filed several cases against Rosas.

In 2008, he was convicted of domestic violence against his girlfriend at the time -- Steven Humphrey's sister, Jessica. A couple months later, he violated a protective order in the case, and he was later convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the Humphrey house in March 2009. Steven Humphrey had disappeared in January of the same year and he was found four years later. By the time police found his body, Rosas had already committed domestic violence against another woman. He served prison time on that case, but got out this February. Two months later, police say he went to the second victim's house late at night with a toolbox and rang the doorbell. When the woman called 911, he ran away, but police say he assaulted someone else that night and they arrested him a while later. Steven Humphrey's family says, whenever Rosas is out of custody, the entire community is in danger.

"I want him skinned, strung out like a rug," said the murder victim's father, David Essman before his mother spoke over him.

"Well, he needs to be tried and put where he belongs before he hurts somebody else because he will eventually," said Dorothy Essman.

Rosas is facing two new criminal cases now and he's due back in court Friday. Prosecutors can file murder charges against him at any time, if they feel they have enough evidence.