Thread: Former NPC USA champion was beaten to death

Former NPC USA champion was beaten to death

R.I.P (Patrick Matsuda was a NPC USA competitor and he won the 2001 USA middle-weight title)

Man beaten, stabbed to death outside home | KGET TV 17

Questions cloud beating death - Bakersfield.com


Police are still looking for suspects -- and answers -- as they try to understand what went wrong early Sunday morning in a southwest Bakersfield neighborhood when a simple argument turned into the beating and stabbing death of local resident Patrick Shinge Matsuda.

Among the questions: Why did Patrick Matsuda punch a man and woman at a party across the street from Matsuda's home? Matsuda apparently crossed the street in an attempt to quiet the party, which he felt was too rowdy and loud. In addition, why did Matsuda grab a baseball bat instead of retreating into his house when he was outnumbered and pursued back across the street after the initial confrontation?

The 40-year-old, who won a national bodybuilding competition in 2001, was outnumbered at the time he picked up the bat, police said.

Police said Monday they arrested a 19-year-old neighbor on murder charges and announced they are looking for at least one more suspect.

The final moments were witnessed by his 29-year-old wife, Annette, who said in an interview Monday that she screamed repeatedly to the attackers, "Stop, you're killing him."

But Matsuda's wife and the mother of three of his four children said they didn't stop until he stopped moving and was gasping for air. The group of about 15 men and women around him scattered after she yelled the police were on the way.

She said she tried to stop the bleeding in the arms of her sweater, but neither that nor an attempt by a police officer to administer CPR could save his life. He died on the way to the hospital, she said.

Police said they are looking for a second man who struck Matsuda on the back of his head with a bat, causing Matsuda to fall.

He's described as a white or Hispanic man, early 20s, 5-foot-10, 160 pounds, short dark hair, possibly a goatee, with tattoos on his arms and the lower part of the back of his neck.

Police reported they arrested Blayne Allen Clifford, 19, a neighbor from across the street from the Matsuda home in the 4300 block of Whitegate Avenue, just west of Stonecreek Park.

The incident began about 2:20 a.m. Sunday as Matsuda went up to talk to a man and a woman in front of Clifford's house about a loud party there.

Mrs. Matsuda said that home has been a frequent problem, with an unkempt appearance and loud parties, in the upper middle class neighborhood. Despite that, she said, she would sometimes care for a 5-year-old girl who lived there.

Bakersfield police went to that home four times in the last year for reports of loud parties, underage drinking, peace disturbances and drug use, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary DeGeare confirmed.

Several windows of the house were boarded up Monday and a city sign on the front said it was uninhabitable. Mrs. Matsuda said Clifford's family lived there about two years.

Police gave the following description of what happened: Matsuda argued with a man and struck him in the face. The woman intervened as the man went for help. Matsuda assaulted the woman.

Several party goers, including Clifford, ran from the house toward Matsuda as he retreated into his own driveway. Matsuda grabbed a bat from his garage.

Clifford ran back and got two bats from his house. Matsuda chased the party goers back across the street, striking the first woman on the arm with a bat.

Clifford gave a bat to the other suspect, who struck Matsuda in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Clifford hit Matsuda as he was on the round. Others joined in hitting and kicking Matsuda as he was on the ground.

Mrs. Matsuda, the victim's wife of seven years, said she was awakened by the commotion and she came out to see her husband knocked to the ground and surrounded by about 15 males and females.

She said she dialed 911 and screamed to the crowd to stop hurting her husband. She yelled she was on the phone with police.

"Even when he wasn't moving they were beating him," she said.

An autopsy showed Matsuda died from the beating and puncture wounds, police said.

Matsuda was described by his wife as quiet and introverted. He put her and her children first, she said. He participated in the soccer and wrestling activities of his children, and loved to take them camping in Cambria and Three Rivers, teaching them how to fish.

She said she was attracted to "his kindness," and he was "real sweet, generous and caring."

Matsuda, a 1993 graduate of Cal State Bakersfield in physical education, worked as a health, safety and environment representative for Helmerich and Payne drilling company.

His boss, Jesse Pierce, described him as "extremely dedicated and loyal. If you give him a task, there was absolutely no doubt it would get done." He called the killing "senseless" and that his life was "stolen from his kids that he loved so much."

Matsuda, who won a national bodybuilding competition in 2001, leaves behind three daughters, ages 5, 7 and 13, and a son, 12.

He was born in Hawaii and graduated from high school in Mililani on Oahu. He came to Bakersfield to wrestle for CSUB.

"I hope justice is served," Pierce said.

2 sentenced in bodybuilder's beating death | Local & Regional News | Bakersfield Now - News, Weather and Sports