MESA, Ariz. — For the second time, a Gilbert man has been arrested in connection with the November 2022 murder of 18-year-old Stephen Jacobo from Mesa.
Jacobo was shot and killed while at a party with friends at an apartment near 1700 West Emelita Avenue in Mesa on Nov. 6, 2022. Witnesses at the party identified then-20-year-old Joe Rim, who is from Gilbert, as the shooter. He was arrested and booked for second-degree murder but was released and was never officially charged.
In June 2023, Mesa police submitted a report for formal charges to be made against Rim to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, but it was denied once again.
Now, Rim has officially been charged with second-degree murder in the case.
Rim, who is now 21 years old, was arrested Friday night and appeared in court Saturday afternoon. Jacobo's father, Mark, and his mother, Alma Antolin, both spoke during the hearing, asking the judge to keep Rim in jail.
"(Rim) doesn't belong on the streets," Mark Jacobo said. "He doesn't belong to be released. He shouldn’t get bond for the impact that he’s caused my family. My son and even all the people (who) were there who got to witness what they saw, with the amount of gun violence that has been everywhere daily, he doesn’t belong on the streets. He doesn’t belong. It’s been very set in stone that he has committed this crime and he needs to pay the price."
"He doesn’t need to be out with the public and be out with the community and do what he did to us to anybody else’s family," Antolin, who was emotional, said. "I don’t want anybody to go through what we are going through right now. I want him to be behind bars as long as possible so he doesn’t hurt anybody else."
After hearing from a state prosecutor, Jacobo's parents and Rim's attorney, the judge set a $750,000 secured appearance bond.
After Rim's appearance in court, 12News spoke with Jacobo's parents, who were relieved that a suspect has been charged after 14 months of waiting.
"Finally, finally, unfortunately it had to take, I believe, a lot more, other violence in our state to bring more awareness that it's happening daily to our kids and to be honest, I think it had to with other cases in other cities to raise awareness and finally the City of Mesa cracked the whip," Mark Jacobo said.
"Knowing that he is behind bars and knowing that what we fought for so hard is finally paying off, I know it's a long road ahead and we've got a lot of disheartening days, but I know my son will get his justice and I know God will answer our prayers," Antolin said.
Antolin added that the last 14 months waiting for an arrest have been horrible for her family.
"There isn't a day that goes by that we don't think about our son," Antolin said. "Life is never going to be the same."
The family hopes that by spreading a message of love and caring for one another, inspired by Stephen, they can help prevent further gun violence.
"There's so many families that are losing their kids every day," Antolin said. "Gun violence has to stop. Just violence in general has to stop. We're losing too many of our kids to gun violence every day and it's not right."
Rim will next be in court on Jan. 25 for a status conference and will have a preliminary hearing on Jan. 29. Both hearings will be at 8:30 a.m. at the Maricopa County Superior Courthouse in downtown Phoenix.
This is a developing story. More details will be added as they are made available.
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