Body-part suspect appears in court

Resondo Tellez, 27, of Wasco, appeared in court last Thursday morning on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia. Tellez was arrested on March 22, when he was found by Kern County sheriff’s deputies with a severed limb that was taken from the scene of a fatal train accident.

Deputies had been dispatched to the scene of a fatal pedestrian train collision. The victim was killed at the scene and had her leg severed at the accident. Allegedly, Tellez took the leg from the scene.

In video footage from various people, Tellez can be seen attempting to eat the limb before deputies arrived. When the deputies arrived, Tellez waved the limb around and walked away from the deputies. He was later arrested without incident and booked into the Central Receiving Facility. Tellez was charged with a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, in which he appeared on Thursday in Shafter Court. The case was continued until the progress of the felony that Tellez faces in Bakersfield court, beginning on May 1.

Tellez is faced with several additional charges, including a felony charge of violating probation, as well as misdemeanor charges of resisting a peace officer, tampering with evidence, removal of human remains from other than a cemetery, and destroying and concealing evidence.

According to a probable cause statement issued by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were on their way to the scene of the accident when they observed Tellez waving the body part around. Tellez had told the deputies that he took the body part from the scene because “he though the leg was his.”

The incident has garnered international attention, with videos surfacing of Tellez trying to take a bite of the body part, as well as running around the street waving it. A hearing on the felony charge is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, at the Bakersfield Metro Court.