Font ResizeAccording to an initial autopsy, the boy struck Dimitra Mantas "numerous times" with an aluminum baseball bat on her head, limbs and body. That was the cause of death.
Mantas will be arraigned in Superior Court in Martinez at 8:30 a.m. today, Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said.
"It's a vicious act," Danville Police Chief Chris Wenzel said. "It's very tragic."
Police were called at 1:22 a.m. Monday by one of the victim's neighbors at the California Blackhawk condominiums who heard a fight and screaming, Wenzel said.
Officers arrived a few minutes later to find the 43-year-old woman dead in her bedroom.
Danville Police, working with investigators from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, arrested Andrew Mantas at theBlackhawk Country Club at 4:50 a.m. without incident. He was booked into juvenile hall.
"(We) got calls of an individual in the country club," Wenzel said.
Wenzel said he would be guessing if he said why the suspect was at the country club.
"He could have been trying to contact friends," he said.
Dimitra Mantas was recently divorced and lived with her son and two teenage daughters. The girls were not in the home at the time of the murder, police said.
The victim and her ex-husband were fighting over custody of Andrew Mantas at the time,
"He talked to us about the incident," Wenzel said.
Wenzel said police were still unsure of a motive in the alleged murder, but Hewitt and Rev. Thomas Paris at Oakland's Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension said that a mental condition may have attributed to the crime. Paris said Monday that Andrew Mantas believed he may be demon-possessed.
Toxicology tests have been performed and results will be known in four to six weeks.
Police said previous incidents had involved Andrew Mantas.
"There has been police contact with this individual recently," Wenzel said.
On Oct. 29, a fight was reported at the parking lot at Safeway on Camino Tassajara in Danville.
The fight occurred at 6 p.m. and involved juveniles, according to police.
A person familiar with the incident confirmed that Mantas was involved and that police were called.
MediaNews reporter Scott Marshall contributed to this report.
Danville Sgt. Thomas Padilla said police were called to the scene and the investigation was forwarded to school resource Officer Daniel Sutherland.
Sutherland said he could not comment about his dealings with Andrew Mantas because they occurred on school property.
Padilla said that in the seven months the family lived in their condo, police never had been called out to the home. Coincidentally, he said, one year ago today, the condo's previous resident committed suicide there.
Steve Nilforoushan, who lives a couple of doors away from the victim's family, said the death may be attributed to the culture of the community. He said only a few residents speak to each other, and most largely ignore what goes on around them.
"I think this could have been prevented," he said.
Wenzel said that the defendant will remain in Juvenile Hall in Martinez throughout the court process, even though he was charged as an adult.
A relative of the victim arrived Monday night to make arrangements for a traditional Greek Orthodox funeral in Chicago at Dimitra Mantas' home parish, Paris said. A ceremony known as a trisagion, which means thrice holy in Greek, is scheduled at the Oakland church at 7 tonight.
A reception will be held afterward by the church's ladies auxiliary, the Philoptochos Society, which means love of the poor in Greek. Dimitra Mantas was a vice president of the auxiliary.
Mantas also worked as a special education aide at Tassajara Hills Elementary School.
Medianews reporter Scott Marshall contributed to this report.
Roman Gokhman can be reached at (925) 416-4849 or at rgokhman@trivalleyherald.com.
