Man pleads not guilty to murder in 1992 Rancho Cucamonga killing

PICTURED (top to bottom): Alleged killer identified by detectives as Freddy Najarro, the cold-case playing card, and the 1992 Sheriff's Department flier.

NOTE: The playing card inaccurately states Dennis Winston Smalling's race, age and the date of the stabbing. He was black, 19 years old, and was stabbed on May 15, 1992.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A man arrested Friday and charged with murder in a 1992 Rancho Cucamonga cold-case killing pleaded not guilty to the charge this morning in West Valley Superior Court.

Freddy Najarro, 35, is accused of stabbing a Riverside man at least nine times following a verbal argument at an illegal warehouse party on May 15, 1992 at 12027 Arrow Highway.

After he was stabbed, Dennis Winston Smalling, 19, was driven by friends to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana and pronounced dead, according to sheriff's reports attached to Najarro's court file.

An image of the suspect captured by a partygoer's video camera -- a man now believed to be Najarro -- was the key piece of evidence in solving the case.

A flier about the incident that contained the image of the suspect was distributed by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department in the wake of the killing, but it failed to lead to an arrest.

In January, an image of the suspect was included in a deck of cold-case playing cards produced by the Sheriff's Department's cold-case squad.

A person browsing the images on the Web site of the Daily Bulletin's sister paper, the San Bernardino County Sun, recognized the man pictured as Najarro and in July contacted the Sheriff's Department.

Najarro was recently released from prison after serving 10 years for a voluntary manslaughter conviction stemming out of a 1996 Fontana beating death.

Sheriff's detectives located Najarro in Bloomington on Friday and arrested him on suspicion of murder for Smalling's 1992 killing.

Najarro was in custody in lieu of $1 million mail when he appeared in court this morning for an arraignment hearing.

Najarro pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, and was appointed the public defender's office to represent him. He was told to return to court Monday for a routine pre-preliminary hearing.

On May 15, 1992, a Friday, Smalling and three friends decided to attend an underground party that Smalling had a flier for, one of Smalling's friends told sheriff's investigators after the killing.

The flier directed the group to a fast-food restaurant in Chino for additional information about the party, one of Smalling's friends told sheriff's investigators, according to reports contained in Najarro's court file.

When they arrived at the restaurant that night, the group received directions to an empty warehouse in Rancho Cucamonga, where they paid $4 or $5 admission, the friends told detectives.

Smalling's friends told detectives that the group walked around the warehouse and looked at other people when they entered the party.

In one of the corners of the warehouse, a sound system and light system had been set up, and partygoers were dancing in the area, Smalling's friends told detectives.

When Smalling and his friends walked past the area, a man who had been dancing with a young woman -- possibly his girlfriend -- began to stare down Smalling, his friends told detectives.

Smalling and the man -- believed to be Najarro, who was then 18 -- exchanged words.

The suspect used a racial epithet during the argument with Smalling, who was black, said one of Smalling's friends. The two men apparently had never met.

The suspect then attacked Smalling, stabbing him at least nine times in the chest and back.

Smalling's friends, also from the Riverside area, had to ask other partygoers where the closest hospital was.

Smalling was in full cardiac arrest by the time the group reached Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana.

Staff Writer Stacia Glenn contributed to this report.

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