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Six years of delays haunt pool hall murder case
| Monday, Feb 25 2008 3:23 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Feb 26 2008 8:58 AM
The family of murder victim Enrique Ortiz has been waiting six years to see the suspect come to trial.
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Now it looks like they’re going to have to wait awhile longer.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Jerold Turner on Monday granted a motion by defendant Francisco Bello Benitez to replace Benitez’s attorney, Charles Soria.
That means the trial, scheduled for March 3, will likely be delayed for weeks as the new defense attorney — Benitez’s third — is allowed time to get up to speed.
“They gave him another attorney. It means another delay of up to three months,” Rosie Ortega, the aunt of the victim, said after Monday’s hearing.
“This March, it will be another year,” she added.
Ortiz was just 18 when he went to Bakersfield Billiards on March 9, 2002.
He was gunned down in the pool hall’s restroom that night. Benitez was named as a suspect, but police could not find him for close to five years.
Benitez was finally captured during a routine traffic stop in Arizona in March 2007. Officers ran his name through a database and discovered there was a warrant for his arrest in Kern County.
His next court date is scheduled for Thursday, where a new attorney is expected to be named and the jury trial is expected to be rescheduled.
Benitez remains in custody.