(Gridley, CA) – 32-year-old Hugo Cardenas of Gridley had his first court appearance yesterday and was formally charged with the murder of his mother, 55-year-old Veronica Avalosdecardenas, in her Obermeyer Avenue home early Monday evening.

The D.A. detailed in presenting charges, that she was found dead by first responders with “multiple stab wounds to her head and more than 20 stab wounds to her back.” Cardenas then allegedly left in his mother’s pickup truck. He was tracked to Stockton where police responded later that night to reports of a man with blood on his clothes, near a food truck, talking about how he had killed someone, and that he was “an angel and killed the devil,’ while making stabbing motions.

He was detained after a brief foot chase and tasing.

Cardenas is being held without bail and is due in court next week for further arraignment and entry of a plea.