“Gone Too Soon: Opera Icon Murdered in Family Home”

Jubilant Sykes — the Grammy-nominated baritone whose voice filled halls like Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, the Hollywood Bowl and beyond — lying fatally wounded inside his own Santa Monica home.

It was late Monday night, December 8, when police and emergency crews arrived at the 1700 block of Delaware Avenue after a frantic 911 call from his wife.  What they discovered inside: 71-year-old Sykes with “critical injuries consistent with a stabbing,” and within moments, he was pronounced dead.

The shocker: the suspect wasn’t a stranger — it was his own son, Micah Sykes, 31. He was taken into custody on the spot, booked on suspicion of homicide.

Neighbors are still trying to make sense of it. Many described Sykes the father as gentle, soft-spoken, “cool people” who hardly ever argued — and utterly loved by his community. Meanwhile, those same neighbors admitted that the son reportedly had “erratic behavior” and signs of mental-health struggles.

Now the music world, his church family, and fans everywhere are reeling — a giant, velvety-rich voice snuffed out in a moment of violence, leaving nothing but silence and heartbreak.