Judge orders Fresno County man to stand trial in neighbor’s shooting death

A Fresno County judge found enough evidence on Tuesday to send 74-year-old John Gentry to trial in the killing of his neighbor, Mark Tarasevic, after hearing the victim’s widow describe a wall-pounding dispute that ended with a gunshot minutes later. The ruling keeps the case moving toward a full murder trial in Fresno Superior Court and leaves Gentry jailed on $1.5 million bail until his next court date on July 30.

The judge’s decision came after a preliminary hearing, the step felony cases take after a not-guilty plea, where the prosecution must show probable cause rather than prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Tarasevic’s widow was the only witness for the prosecution. She testified that banging on a shared wall escalated into a sharp argument and then gunfire, and told the court that Tarasevic was unarmed and had been kind to Gentry for years. That testimony was enough to persuade the court to hold Gentry to answer on the murder charge.

The shooting happened near Clinton Avenue and Bond Street in Fresno, where police responded around 6:15 to 6:17 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2025, after reports of a gunshot during a neighbor disturbance. Officers found Tarasevic, who was 64, with a gunshot wound to the upper body. He later died at Community Regional Medical Center. Police said Gentry, who lived next door, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting and that detectives recovered the murder weapon.

Gentry was arraigned on Dec. 29, 2025, and pleaded not guilty. At the time of the original police response, the killing was described as Fresno’s 22nd murder of 2025, underscoring how quickly a residential dispute on a neighborhood block turned into a homicide case.

The ruling also keeps pressure on the prosecution to turn the widow’s account and the physical evidence into a case that can withstand a full trial. Tarasevic’s family has said in a public fundraising post that they had been seeking help since April 2025 because of the neighbor’s aggression and violence, suggesting the fatal confrontation followed months of worsening conflict. Gentry remains in the Fresno County Jail as the case moves back to court later this month.