Mother, sister say Juan Sarmiento was trying to beat drug
addiction
Morgan Hill – The 41-year-old man who killed himself almost two weeks ago by a lonely tree near the Caltrain station in downtown Morgan Hill was a father of six who was trying hard to beat an addiction to meth, according to his mother and girlfriend.
Juan Sarmiento hung himself from a tree the morning of Nov. 15. He was found by a friend behind the construction site for the new county courthouse just south of the Caltrain station, a makeshift encampment he had built for himself as he tried to survive the last few days of his life.
Police originally reported him homeless, but relatives say he was living with his mother and father downtown, and the family was trying to help him beat his drug habit.
“We rehabbed him twice,” said his sister, Rosy Myra Barboa. “He was clean for 30 days. I guess when he fell short, it really depressed him.”
The change in her son when he began to use meth was eerie, his mother, Rose Sarmiento said.
“He was never a drinker, and now he was drinking; he never smoked, he used to hate it when his father smoked, and now he was smoking,” she said. “It was unbelievable. ‘Why are you doing this?’ I asked him.”
Rose said she and the family, including Myra and Juan’s younger brother, Tony, want the community to know that the man who died under the tree was not the same man they knew and loved.
When Juan was younger, Rose said, he could be depended on to watch his siblings if she had something to do.
“He was a good boy,” she said. “It was just that drug, that horrible drug. He wasn’t himself when he did this.”
The younger Juan grew up like “a normal teenager,” she said, with plenty of friends. He graduated from Live Oak High School and then turned his attention to work.
“He was a laborer, he worked hard, and, until that drug got him, he was proud of what he did,” Myra said. ” He was a loving son and brother, and a good dad.”
Myra said the family was hurt to read that Juan was thought to be homeless.
“It was extremely hurtful to us, to his children,” she said. “He was living with my mother and father, he wasn’t homeless. He may have gone there, to that party tree, to be with his friends, but he didn’t live there.”
Juan’s downward spiral into regular meth use led to his eviction by the mother of his children, ages 3, 8, 13, 15, 17 and 23.
“She told him it had to be the drugs or the children, he couldn’t have both,” Rose said. “I know that was hard, because she really loved him, but she had to do that. She had to think of the children.”
Myra said the location of the “party tree” is significant because it is halfway between his parents’ home and the home of his children and their mother.
“I think he wanted to be straight, he tried, and I think that was why he was so depressed, because he messed up again, he found those friends, that drug, and he got high, then he got depressed,” she said.
Rose said she would like to tell everyone what she has learned about meth addiction in the hopes that what happened to her son would serve as a cautionary lesson to others.
“I just hope another mother – or a daddy – has to ever go through something like this,” Rose said, tears forming in her eyes. “His so-called friends, that’s just where it started. I just wish could have helped him that day. We are going to miss him so.”
Rose’s hand trembled as she stretched it out to touch the head of Juan’s son, John, 8.
“I have these children that I have to live for now, for him,” she added.
Anyone interested in making a contribution to the family can do so in care of Rose Sarmiento, 60 West First St., Morgan Hill, 95037.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at
