Why do some criminal cases take forever to go to trial?
| Sunday, Nov 22 2009 11:00 AM
Last Updated Sunday, Nov 22 2009 11:00 AM
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Sometimes it seems to take forever for a case to come to trial.
Interest is high when a major crime happens, but then it may take three or four years before a defendant is brought to justice.
For example, it's been more than three years now since sheriff's deputy Joe Hudnall was killed in a crash in the Kern River Canyon.
The defendant, attorney Daniel Patrick Willsey, still hasn't faced a jury as his case has been dragged out by blunders in the crime lab and possible conflicts in the district attorney's office.
The courts recognize it's better to try a case before witnesses forget what they saw.
"Our perspective is justice delayed is justice denied," Assistant District Attorney Mike Saleen said.
The great majority of felony trials are held within a year of filing the charges, he said.
For a defendant who is in jail, the system is designed to bring him to trial within about three months of his arrest. Even if the defendant is out on bail, a judge has to find good cause to go past tight legal deadlines.
Three months may seem like a lot of time, but lawyers say they need to thoroughly investigate the case, analyze evidence and haggle over legal issues. At stake is someone's freedom.
The defendant has to know what's going on, and the attorneys have to make sure all the laws have been complied with before the trial.
Those issues include whether a defendant is mentally competent to stand trial, whether evidence should be suppressed because it was obtained illegally or is unduly prejudicial, and whether scientific evidence such as DNA or drug analysis is needed.
Defense attorneys sometimes want independent analysis of scientific evidence to dispute findings by prosecution witnesses.
These type of issues take time to investigate and resolve and judges generally authorize the delays. For example, until the last year, a backlog of requests for DNA analysis by the Kern County Crime Lab held up trials that hinged on whether the DNA would implicate or exonerate a defendant.
"Unlike CSI (television shows), DNA is not resolved in an hour," Saleen said.
Having more than one defendant or attorney on the case can also slow things down.
With each attorney having his or her own cases to try, it's a challenge to get several attorneys together at one time.
Beyond that, one defendant may have said something to implicate another defendant, which creates the need to have separate trials, attorneys said.
Serious illness by witnesses or attorneys can also delay a trial.
Defense attorney Ed Noriega said that while some people believe it is better for the defense to delay a case, it's not always better for the defendant.
Delays wear a defendant down when his future is on hold, Noriega said.
Here's some examples of cases with unusually long delays:
Deputy death
The head-on crash that killed Deputy Joe Hudnall happened on Nov. 14, 2006. Charges against Daniel Patrick Willsey, 49, however, were not filed for five months because of a lengthy investigation.
And it's been delay and delay, and controversy and controversy ever since. A frustrated prosecutor, Melissa Allen, recently said, "This case is three years old. It's time to try the case."
Since it began, the original attorneys on the case have been replaced, the defense has complained that a friend of Hudnall's was allowed to handle evidence in the case and Willsey was thrown back in jail and then later released after an allegation he intended to flee the country.
The latest fray has put the Kern County Crime Lab on the hot seat. The local lab's tests showed Willsey had a much lower level of methamphetamine at the time of the crash than tests from a private lab in Visalia.
The prosecution wants to use the Visalia results, but does that mean the Kern lab was wrong?
The tests can't be re-run because the Kern lab tossed out the blood sample prematurely.
To compound the issue, a lab employee accused a DA investigator and the former prosecutor on the case of lying.
Defense attorney Fred Gagliardini has said it's such a mess, the DA's should be removed from the case.
If he wins that motion next month, the trial -- now set to start in three weeks -- could be delayed for months to allow a state prosecutor to be brought up to speed.
Samurai sword killing
The case of the 2005 slaying of Marco Antonio Gutierrez with a samurai sword was once on track for a relatively quick trial.
Gutierrez, 26, was stabbed more than 20 times with a sword, including two wounds that went all the way through his body. Prosecutors had a good witness in Gutierrez's girlfriend, 24-year-old Melissa Splain, who saw the attack.
The defendant was Gary Dale Myers Jr. who had rented a room where Splain and the victim lived. "It seemed like an open and shut case," prosecutor John Lua said.
And then something happened that changed the whole fabric of the case -- Splain committed suicide seven months after her boyfriend's death. Without her eyewitness testimony, the crime scene had to be re-created with forensic experts on both sides. DNA analysis of the blood had to be done, Lua said.
That delayed the trial until 2008 when the then 30-year-old Myers was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Defense attorney Dominc Eyherabide had argued it was self defense because Myers also suffered a sword gash to his head.
Myers was finally sentenced to 12 years in prison on April 8, 2008, closing out the case three years after the attack.
McFarland kidnapping
Three years ago a 24-year-old McFarland woman was kidnapped by people who demanded a $60,000 ransom.
A week later the victim's family agreed to pay $20,000 and the drop was made -- with the help of Kern County sheriff's deputies. The money was followed to a home, which led to a series of search warrants and the arrest of six suspects.
Trying to get six defense lawyers in the same courtroom at once caused delays. Then two of the defendants, Jose Ramon Cabral and Gabriel Hernandez Astorga, pleaded no contest to crimes in 2008.
They could have been potential witnesses against the others, but the prosecutor had to wait until they could no longer try to withdraw their pleas. Two others, Jesus Manuel Lazcano and Andreas Medina Martinez, pleaded no contest to crimes earlier this year.
The first trial was held earlier this month when Jesus Garcia Chavez was convicted. The remaining defendant, Juan Carlos Baez, is set for a trial in January.
He could not be tried with Chavez because Chavez had made some statements implicating Baez, according to Baez's attorney Fred Gagliardini. If both men were tried at the same time, Baez would have been deprived of his right to question Chavez because Chavez would have a right to keep silent.
Early on in the case, tape-recordings of the Spanish-speaking suspects from their jail conversations had to be transcribed, also slowing the legal process, Gagliardini said. Attorneys on both sides were entitled to use their own interpreters to make sure the translations were correct, Gagliardini said.
Baez is set for trial in January, more than two years after the crime.
Doctor sex case
It began in 2006 with two women who accused then 38-year-old Dr. Esmail Nadjmabadi of inappropriately touching them. News of that led to four more women making the same accusations.
That led to an attack on the doctor's medical license which for a time was restricted to his treating only male patients. As that was going on, prosecutor John Lua developed a medical condition which took him off the case most of a year.
Defense attorney Ed Noriega said state medical authorities also wanted to use the criminal case to take away Nadjmabadi's license and force the doctor to register as a sex offender.
In April of this year, however, Nadjmabadi pleaded no contest to sexual exploitation, punishable by up to one year in jail. The plea was chosen so Nadjmabadi would not have to register as a sex offender.
While sentencing typically occurs about a month after a plea, the doctor's sentencing was delayed for a second time to January 28 for reasons that are not being disclosed, Noriega said. The parties and the judge have agreed to the delay.
