At a Glance
- Matt Garcia was elected to the Fairfield, Calif., city council at 21 and shot dead at 22 in a $50 drug-debt mix-up.
- His family launched the Matt Garcia Foundation, funding organ-donation drives, gun buybacks, and youth programs.
- The nonprofit just received the CBS News Bay Area Icon Award for its community work.
- Why it matters: A single family turned tragedy into a lasting force that still saves lives and steers kids away from crime.
A sixth-grade promise to “change the world” propelled Matt Garcia into politics at 21 and, after his murder one year later, into a legacy that now feeds families, funds art classes, and pulls guns off the street.
The Shooting
On Sept. 1, 2008, Garcia stood in a friend’s driveway talking when Henry Don Williams, Gene Combs, and Nicole Stewart-then nine-months pregnant-pulled up. Williams fired, hitting the 22-year-old councilman in the head.
Authorities called it a case of mistaken identity. Combs had falsely told Williams that Garcia owed him $50 from a botched drug deal. Stewart drove the car but was never charged; she later testified against the men.
Williams and Combs were convicted of homicide. Combs tried to surrender two weeks after the killing.
“I will always know how old her son is,” Teresa Courtemanche says of Stewart, recalling how the baby would have been born just after the murder.
A Mother’s Prison Visit
In 2016, Teresa visited Combs at Soledad Prison and asked why he framed her son.
“I was sobbing and he was sobbing and he said, ‘I just wanted to get my dope,'” she tells News Of Los Angeles.
Combs admitted he had been supposed to attend his own son’s birthday party at a water park that day.
“I said, ‘I wish you were at your son’s birthday party too, because mine would still be here,'” Teresa recalls.
From Grief to Action
Within months of the funeral, the Courtemanche family-Teresa, stepdad Raymond, and sisters Briana and Tearae-channeled grief into service.
- Organ donation: Garcia’s kidney went to a high-school classmate; his lungs were transplanted into a Buddhist woman who later wrote, “When I got to Temple, your son and I breathe together.”
- Foundation launch: By late 2008 they incorporated the Matt Garcia Foundation, a nonprofit run entirely by volunteers.
What the Foundation Does
The organization now tackles four fronts:
- Arts & crafts events for children
- Grocery giveaways that fill pantry gaps in Fairfield
- Downtown cleanups that haul away trash and graffiti
- Gun buyback days that take firearms off the street
An annual golf tournament raises the money; no salaries are paid.
The Award
In 2024 the family accepted the CBS News Bay Area Icon Award for their continuing philanthropy.
“This could have destroyed us,” Teresa says. “I think [starting the foundation] had so much to do with Matt just being who he was and us not allowing that to just die with him.”
Political Roots
Garcia’s rise had been rapid. In 2007 he became the youngest council member ever elected in Fairfield and one of the youngest in California history.
He told voters, “I just want everybody to know that young people do care. They care about what happens here, and if you don’t have places for kids to go, you’re going to have more crime.”
Still Meeting Matt
Nearly two decades after his death, strangers still approach Teresa with stories.
After a recent Christmas-tree lighting, a coach stopped her in a restaurant: “I’m a coach because Matt was my coach for baseball.”
She keeps a weekly gratitude list; every entry begins the same: being thankful for having Matt as a son.
“I could just lay down and be devastated for the rest of my life, or I can be grateful for the 22 years we had with him,” she says. “It’s humbled me that joy and pain can coexist, that I can choose to live out Matt’s legacy and watch it ripple.”
Key Takeaways
- A $50 misunderstanding ended a rising political career but could not end the victim’s mission.
- One family converted sorrow into concrete action that still feeds kids, hosts art classes, and removes weapons.
- The Matt Garcia Foundation survives entirely on volunteers and a yearly golf outing, proving a small group can keep a legacy alive forever.
