By AARON BURGIN, THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER

A Porterville man was the latest arrest in the ongoing investigation into the stabbing death of a Porterville man on Union Avenue in July.

In addition to being wanted for questioning in the July 30 killing of Jose Manuel Lopez, police said that Skyler Jacob Charlie, 25, was a suspect in a Tulare County Sheriff’s Department homicide investigation. Charlie, a Porterville resident, was arrested Friday morning after a daylong manhunt that included the arrest of Charlie’s girlfriend, Jesse Torres.

Porterville and Tulare County Sheriff’s Special Weapons and Tactics teams served search warrants for Charlie Thursday night in the 100 block of East Date Avenue and the 300 block of West Kanai Avenue. Charlie was not found at either locations.

Friday morning, detectives arrested Torres on the 100 block of West Olive Avenue after they were tipped off that Torres had been helping Charlie avoid arrest. Detectives were able to determine through the investigation that Charlie was at a house in the 600 block of south Walnut Street, and began surveilling the residence.

Charlie was arrested minutes later, after detectives determined that a man leaving the residence on foot was Charlie.

Torres is currently being held at Bob Wiley Detention Facility in Visalia on $500,000 bail. Charlie is being held without bail at the Sheriff’s Porterville substation. Lopez, 39, died from multiple stab wounds he suffered in a knife fight the night of July 30.

Another man, Alfonso Eredia, 33, suffered multiple stab wounds in the altercation, but survived the incident. At the time of the stabbing, police said there could be as many as three suspects involved in the killing.

This is the second arrest for a suspected homicide in Porterville in as many days. Joseph A. Sierra, 24, a suspect in the July shooting death of Felix Platas, was arrested Thursday.

Contact Aaron Burgin at 784-5000, Ext. 1046, or aburgin@portervillerecorder.com.