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Prison guard charged in San Miguel killing has history of bar fights

November 13, 2015
Travis Woolf

Travis Woolf

A prison guard who is charged with manslaughter for his role in a deadly San Miguel bar fight has a history of fighting at alcohol establishments, according to a motion filed by San Luis Obispo County prosecutors. [Tribune]

On Sept. 7, 2014, San Miguel resident Alvaro Medrano, 54, died during a fight outside the Elkhorn bar. Sergio Aranda, 36, and Travis Woolf, 37, both of whom are prison guards, face charges of voluntary manslaughter stemming from the bar fight.

Aranda and Woolf, also residents of San Miguel, have pleaded not guilty, saying they acted in self defense. They are currently on paid administrative leave from Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey County.

Prosecutors in the case are seeking to introduce evidence showing Woolf has a history of bar fights. The prosecution filed a motion stating Woolf was involved in four documented bar fights previously, and he was banned for life from one establishment due to numerous altercations.

The motion includes police reports and a statement from a Paso Robles bar employee-turned-sheriff’s deputy. The deputy, Joshua Krieger, stated Woolf received a lifetime ban from the Kilt Bar because he was involved in numerous physical altercations.

Woolf was also cited for battery following an incident at Mother’s Tavern in San Luis Obispo in 2003. Additionally, he was arrested for being drunk in public at the Mid-State Fair in 2012, according to the motion.

The deadly fight in San Miguel followed a dispute over jukebox music between the prison guards and Medrano, according to court testimony.

Tensions appeared to be defused after Woolf and Aranda bought beers for Medrano. However, Medrano left the bar and returned with a posse of men.

Medrano then looked at the guards and said, “We’ll be waiting for you.” A fight ensued when the guards exited the bar.

Prosecutors allege Woolf punched out Medrano and Aranda kicked him in the head as he was lying unconscious. Medrano died of blunt-force trauma.

Medrano was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 185 pounds. Woolf is 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds.

Friends and relatives have written 17 letters to the court in support of Woolf. They described him as a loving family man.


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It used to be that as a correctional officer for the state if you were charged for something on the streets you also would receive disciplinary action from the institution even though you were off duty because your actions reflex poorly on your profession. With four documented bar fights why was he still employed at all ? Do they have a different policy at Salinas Valley when all institutions are under the same rules supposedly?


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Travis has an always will be known as someone who starts fights in bars an within the prison system. You cant be a bully to a old man in a bar then use then use the posse excuse. This has been along time coming for him an he truly needs to be put where he belongs with the criminals that he has been antagonizing for years.


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This man just looks genetically inferior. Perhaps it sometimes is wise not to reproduce.


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Time to grow up and get away from the life of bars and alcohol, you idiot.

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Did you not read that the victim was 54 years old and ran from the bar to get a posse and then came back to the bar and attacked? A 54 year old man doing this but you’re talking about the 36 year old man who walked out of a bar and was jumped by the 54 year old man? You might want to re-arrange your priorities of who needed to grow up.


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Im having a very hard time with the fact that these men are on PAID leave right now! The people of CA have to pay them( ya ya I know guilty until proven) we should not have to be doing this. Is it because he is cop? Total BS. NO PAY NO PAY NO PAY


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Former city manager of AG was on paid leave before he “resigned” and then sued.

Great system we have, isn’t it?


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Because he didn’t do anything wrong.


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He is NOT a cop. He is a correctional officer with no police powers when off duty. Please understand the difference. That being said, he is also not guilty (America remember). So if he is put on administrative leave he gets paid.


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Loving, family man???? What kind of family man frequents bars so often he has a history of bar fights?


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Medrano left the bar and returned with a posse of men.


Medrano then looked at the guards and said, “We’ll be waiting for you.” A fight ensued when the guards exited the bar.

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Really? If true, it’s called self defense. You walk out of a bar, which you’re entitled to do, and you’re jumped by a posse of men? At that point, it’s on until one side stops twitching.


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He should have called the sheriff’s department…


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Woolf needs psychiatric attention and to stay away from the booze as he indeed has problems. That said, sounds like the initial fight was over after he bought Medrano a drink. Medrano was the one who left to recruit a gang to start the fight again, threatened the 2 others and probably jumped them when they left. Unless there is other germane evidence not contained in this article, I’d likely vote self defense


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Wrong.


“…Aranda kicked him in the head as he was lying unconscious…”


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Wrong.


“…Aranda kicked him in the head as he was lying unconscious…”

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Then, if true, Aranda might have a problem. But the article is about Woolf. If Woolf and his friend Aranda are attacked by a posse of men, as the article says, and Wolf punches out one of the attackers, as the article says, it’s called self defense. No crime committed by Woolf. In the heat of battle of self defense against an attack by a posse, as the article says, it is not Woolf’s legal problem that his friend went one kick too far. It certainly may be his friend’s legal problem but not Woolf’s.


All that given, I find it difficult to believe that a 54 year old man would leave a bar and come back with a posse to attack 2 men. A 54 year old man’s fighting years are about 20 years behind him. And why the word posse? Are they cowboys or something? Rap artists maybe? How many men are in a posse? Who uses the word posse to describe a fight outside a bar? Very strange choice of words. And why no mention of what happened to this posse? One would think that a posse would prevail over just 2 men. And one would also think that 2 men being attacked by a posse wouldn’t have time to go back and attack one of the unconscious posse-ers as they would be too busy defending themselves against the rest of the posse. Did the 2 men cause the posse to run off scared? That would not be consistent with the term “posse”. A “posse” wins with numbers and presumably weapons. I’ve never heard of a “posse” running off scared.


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Time to grow up and get away from the life of bars and alcohol, you idiot. Family-man, shmamily-man. Sounds like daddy is just a hot-headed drunk with a badge.


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