Suspect Arrested In Saratoga Murder, Home Invasion Case

Juan Cortinas, already in custody for an unrelated homicide case, was arrested on separate homicide charges for a 2009 home invasion and murder case that resulted in another suspect being shot and killed by police in Cupertino in March 2010.

Cortinas, 33, will be arraigned in Santa Clara County courts Wednesday in the 2009 death of Charles Maridon of Saratoga, Santa Clara County sheriff's officials said Tuesday.

Cortinas has always been a suspect, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Troy Smith said, but detectives are reluctant to release details of the case that led to the arrest prior to his Wednesday arraignment. Cortinas is a former co-worker of another suspect, Sonny Lopez, who was shot and killed by a Fremont police SWAT team at an apartment complex on Richwood Court in Cupertino on March 7, 2010.

Lopez was being investigated on yet another homicide case when he fled in the area of Richwood Court, off Miller Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard. He was armed with a handgun and subsequently fatally shot by officers, police said.

Maridon, 96, died several days after he and his then 64-year-old daughter, Carol, were beaten in their hilltop home on Wardell Road in Saratoga on Dec. 3, 2009. The victims reported two masked men entering their home around 11 p.m. and beating them in the head and face.

Lopez and Cortinas were the only suspects in the Maridon case, police said.