Placer County father and son indicted in deadly Rocklin road rage incident
A Placer County criminal grand jury indicted a father and his adult son who are accused in the death of a man during a suspected road rage incident two months ago in Rocklin.
Anthony David Rakela Jr., 60, and his son Blake Anthony Rakela, 20, were formally charged in the March 15 incident that resulted in the death of 55-year-old Jeremy Styles. Blake Rakela has been charged with murder with an enhancement that alleges he used deadly weapon in the crime, according to the indictment filed Thursday in Placer Superior Court.
Court records show Anthony Rakela faces two felony charges: assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and assault with a deadly weapon with force likely to cause great bodily injury.
On Friday afternoon, Blake Rakela remained in custody at the Placer County Jail. He is scheduled to appear for his arraignment hearing Monday afternoon.
Jail records showed Anthony Rakela was booked at the jail Thursday night but was released Friday. His bail amount was not available. The court had not yet scheduled an arraignment for the father.
The indictment means the criminal case against the Rakelas skips the preliminary hearing phase to determine whether there’s sufficient evidence and moves straight to trial. The court can schedule a trial after the Rakelas are both arraigned.
The Rakelas, both of Rocklin, were initially arrested shortly after the March 15 incident on suspicion of homicide and criminal conspiracy in Styles’ death, the Rocklin Police Department announced at the time in a news release.
The arrested father and son remained in custody until their March 18 arraignment hearing, when the judge ordered them released after prosecutors informed the court they would not be filing charges against the Rakelas at that time.
After the arraignment, prosecutors said in a written statement that “additional time is needed to ensure that the charges brought, if any, are supported by the facts and the law.”
Prosecutors said their initial review of the gathered evidence included witness statements, audio recordings and video, and additional time was needed to “shed light on the physical confrontation that led to the Mr. Style’s death.” They also said their investigation would continue until all available evidence was collected and submitted to the District Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the Rakelas were arrested on court-issued bench warrant. But the prosecutors declined to discuss any details about the filed indictment against the Rakelas.
“The court has ordered all information relating to this case sealed,” prosecutors said in the statement. “Pursuant to the court’s order, we cannot discuss anything related to this arrest until after the arraignment in this matter.”
Styles died in the incident reported about 8:45 p.m. March 15 at the intersection of Whitney Ranch Parkway and Whitney Oaks Drive in a residential neighborhood just southwest of McCormick Park.
The Police Department was investigating Styles’ death as a fatal road rage incident, which escalated to a fight in the intersection. Officers arrived at the scene and found Styles on the ground and unresponsive, police said at the time. Officers began life-saving efforts until medics arrived. Styles was pronounced dead at the scene.
