Ybanez's girlfriend sets record straight about death

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Family and friends of the late Glenn Ybanez are still searching for answers. It's been a week since the 37-year-old died while in the Las Vegas Police Department's custody.  And now his girlfriend, also a former Guam resident, is setting the record straight about what happened.

Erica Matanane is still trying to come to grips with the death of her boyfriend.  Last week Monday the two got into her car and were heading to school, as she does each weekday. Matanane is studying to become a certified pharmacy technician while Ybanez was studying business management online.  As they left their apartment complex in Las Vegas, Nevada, she says she noticed a police car entering her complex parking area.  The same officer followed her to a nearby traffic light before turning on his lights signaling her to pull over.

"It was not a traffic stop because why would the cop turn into the complex and then turn around and within seconds he was right behind me," she told KUAM News.

Matanane complied and says the officer took issue with her boyfriend, who didn't have an ID and gave his younger brother's information. "I was mad at that given moment. Why did he give his brother's information?" Matanane said.

The officer returned and had Ybanez get out of the vehicle to answer some questions. Matanane said she watched through her rearview mirror, saying, "I guess the cop had told him he was gonna put him under arrest. this is when I saw Glenn turn around with his back to the cop and put his hands behind his back, and then right when the cop was gonna put him in handcuffs that's when I see Glenn take off running and the cop was chasing right after him. I was in total shock."

She had no idea that was the last time she would see him conscious, but why did he run?

She speculated, "I'm gonna say it's because of that warrant.  Did I know he had that warrant? No. Did he know he had that warrant? I'm pretty sure he didn't. Do you think he was scared to go back to jail? Yes, I knew he wouldn't want to go back."

Ybanez was charged with distributing crystal methamphetamine a few years ago in Colorado. He was picked up in Nevada last December and was extradited where he spent a few weeks in jail and was sentenced to probation and community service. Matanane says she later learned from other officers who arrived on the scene that her boyfriend collapsed after he was apprehended and went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.

She says she spent nearly five hours at the scene while police continuously questioned her about her boyfriend's past run-in's with the law and whether he was involved in illegal activity. Matanane continued, "He said, 'The reason I'm asking you these things is a 37-year-old man doesn't just collapse like that', and I said, 'Exactly - my boyfriend is in damn near good shape. He can run four miles without having to stop.'  For him to collapse like that raised questions in my head."

She found her boyfriend on life support and only briefly got to see him twice before he passed away. "I just kept telling him, 'Babe, you have to get up. You're the only one that can tell us what really happened. He had three circle bruises on one side of his head. The other side of his head, he had scratches as if he was dragged across the road or ground," she recalled.

But Ybanez died and now his family and Matanane and are left with many unanswered questions, like why they were pulled over in the first place and why he appeared beaten. According to Matanane, she asked the officer why she was pulled over - and he could not say why. "I feel they were tipped off as far as his whereabouts," she stated. "I just think something somewhere happened along the line and I just want him to get justice just so he can rest in peace. That's all I want."

The family is still waiting on the autopsy and the toxicology results before the exact cause of death can be released.  The Las Vegas Police Department meanwhile is also said to be investigating the incident.