Juvenile murder case ‘moving so slow’ as Reedley mom seeks justice in quad killing
After more than two years since a quadruple homicide in Reedley rocked the Fresno County community, a mother continues to wait to see if the teen accused of the violence will be tried as an adult.
Susan Grote said she has tried to be patient even as the hearings for the accused killer, who was 17 at the time, come and go about every other month with little detail.
Since the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office charged the teen, who is now at least 19, Grote has seen newer cases involving young offenders move along to the transfer hearing, where a judge rules whether the accused minor can be charged as an adult. Grote said she sympathizes with those cases, calling them “heartbreaking,” while she awaits progress in her family’s ordeal.
“It wasn’t like there was a barroom fight and somebody died. This was just cold-blooded, premeditated murder,” the 60-year-old said.
Grote’s son, Matt Bonds, 43, and daughter-in-law, Guadalupe Chavez Bonds, 44, were among four killed in a south Reedley neighborhood in January 2024. Bonds was found in a detached garage at the accused 17-year-old’s home, which was next door to where Bonds lived with his wife of 24 years and the two other victims in the case, Bonds’s father, Darrell Bonds, 61, and Bonds’s grandfather, Billy Bonds, 81, according to Reedley police.
Grote said she’s been cautioned about what she can say about the case involving an accused teen offender, because she wants to protect the investigation. She said she also only knows so much and few details have come out of court.
The information revealed during routine hearings can be sparse, but the hearings at the Fresno County Juvenile Justice Center are particularly closed-lipped because minors have more protections than accused adult offenders. In general, Grote’s situation is common for juvenile criminal cases in California as the changes to the laws are relatively new and there is no specific timetable.
Grote’s frustration with the legal system has been compounded by another high-profile local case that has moved much faster than the Reedley case. Caleb Quick was killed by two teenaged offenders, according to Clovis police, on April 23, 2025, about 15 months after the killing of the Bonds family members.
The teen girl charged in the Clovis case has already been through a transfer hearing, and a teen boy accused in the case could go through the same process in early June.
“It was three generations (of DNA) — my son, his father and his grandfather — so I don’t know if that makes it more difficult or not. We’re not really getting clear answers on why ours is moving so slow,” Grote said. “We have had a change in DAs, so that might even slow things down more, or it might speed it up. I don’t know. We’re hopeful.”
What is known about the Reedley quadruple homicide
A Fresno County judge has ordered the teen’s name to not be publicized outside the courtroom, only identifying him as R.I. when he first appeared in court.
Grote said she and other family members had not seen Matt Bonds or his wife the day before they were first discovered, and called police for a welfare check.
Reedley police said three bodies were discovered about 9 a.m. Jan. 6, 2024, in the Reedley home owned by Billy Bonds in the 1100 block of Church near Dinuba avenues. The grandfather was in a shallow grave and a tarp covered the others, police said.
The fourth body was found about 2:30 a.m. Jan. 9 in the garage of the home next door, according to police. The 17-year-old was arrested later that day, as was his 34-year-old mother. He’s been charged with the four murders.
R.I.’s mother was initially arrested on suspicion of accessory after the fact, but she has not been charged with any crimes related to the Reedley case, according to Taylor Long, spokesperson for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
Long noted Chief Deputy District Attorney Deborah Miller, who was prosecuting the case, recently retired. Long said that would likely mean the next hearing for R.I. — June 29 — would be continued as the new prosecutor gets caught up.
“Cases of this magnitude require extensive investigation and careful review to ensure the integrity of the process and that justice is pursued responsibly,” Long said. “While we are limited in what we can publicly discuss due to the ongoing investigation, our office remains committed to seeking justice for the victims and their families.”
She declined to discuss further why the Quick case in Clovis has moved along while the Bonds case in Reedley has lingered, citing a need to protect the investigation. The same goes for whether other people are still being investigated as potential conspirators.
Matt Bonds and the teen accused of the quadruple murder
Grote said her son had begun to interact with R.I. for three or four weeks before he was killed. Matt Bonds saw himself as something of a mentor to the young man, who was in need of jacket during the cold month, she said.
“I realized my son felt like he was his big brother and protective, because it was cold and he (Matt Bonds) went and bought him a jacket. He would bring him clothes and food, and you know, he just felt bad. It was a bad environment,” Grote said. “The day that this happened, they were all playing RC (remote control) cars together.”
The grandfather was known as “Banker Billy” to many in his circle, Grote said, because he had a tendency to loan out money.
Police said in the days after the killing that a safe in the home was empty and had been pried open. Neither police nor prosecutors have publicly discussed a potential motive other than to say the safe was known to hold money and guns.
“In a way we want to get it over with, but in a way we’re dreading it, because you saw what Stephen (Quick) had to go through and then for nothing,” Grote said.
Quick, the father of Caleb Quick in Clovis, was in the courtroom for several days of hearings to see the teen girl, Cassandra Michael, accused of being the getaway driver in the killing of the younger Quick remanded to the juvenile system by a Fresno judge, who denied the DA’s request to try the girl who was 16 on the day of the accused crime as an adult.
In the two years since the Reedley killings, Grote has become part of a network of families who lost loved ones to violence and are seeking justice. She said it began primarily with victims of young offenders, but has begun to expand.
A major focus of the group is the repeal of Prop 57, which was adopted by voters in 2016.
Advocates for Proposition 57 said it would amend the state constitution to allow parole consideration for nonviolent felons, and opponents argued it would endanger public safety through an early release of offenders convicted of violent crimes such as rape and assault with a deadly weapon.
It also changed the process for transferring a minor accused of a crime from juvenile court to an adult trial. Prior to Prop 57, a district attorney made the decision on whether to file an adult case, but now the DA must ask a judge to allow it. The judge must decide if the request meets a high standard.
Grote and many of the families in the support group, like Stephen Quick, have worked with area politicians to push first for reform of Prop 57, but now are calling for a repeal. Those area leaders include Republican Assembly members Alexandra Macedo of Tulare (District 33) and David Tangipa of Fresno (District 8).
Bonds’s mom said she supports the idea of rehabilitation, but she’s not convinced the state’s system has shown it can do so for a young offender who has committed a serious crime. She said she’d want R.I. to be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
“I feel in my heart, and it’s taken me a while, I’ve forgiven him because that’s what God wants me to do, and I want to do that,” she said. “But I still want him to pay for what he did to my child and the rest of his family, because it’s just not, it’s not right.”
