After months of discussions both in and out of the public eye, a key ruling has been made in progressing the Cain Velasquez attempted murder case.
Thursday at Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif., Judge Jessica Delgado accepted and denied portions of the defense’s request for the district attorney to discover certain pieces of evidence from Harry Goularte’s felony case.
The decision made by Judge Delgado comes after numerous court dates, continuations, and internal discussions between the defense and prosecution since the disagreement first became apparent in June.
Velasquez, 40, faces an attempted murder charge among others after he allegedly tracked and shot at Goularte, a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s four-year-old son. Both men have pled not guilty.
The two coinciding felony cases of Velasquez and Goularte caused a debate between the two parties as the crossover relevancy of details between the two. Velasquez’s lead attorney Mark Geragos argued the district attorney’s office was “serving two masters.” The district attorney meanwhile said they would not object to revealing case details – but only the ones they deemed relevant to the case at hand.
The district attorney’s office already complied with Geragos’ requests for certain pieces of evidence from the Goularte case, while it rejected others.
Judge Delgado sided Thursday with the district attorney’s denials, with the exception of two items, to which she partially granted the defense access.
Given the contingency the prosecution does not plan to call Goularte as a witness in Velasquez’s felony case, the judge ruled additional discovery by the district attorney was not required.
If Goularte’s mother Patricia and stepfather Paul Bender, who was allegedly struck in the arm by a Velasquez bullet, are entered as witnesses, however, the defense will have access to additional information.
Some redacted information already discovered was ordered to be un-redacted – with an agreement the information may not be disseminated to the public or any additional parties.
Velasquez, who has been imprisoned for nearly eight months, is due back in court for a pre-trial hearing Oct. 17. With this new order, however, both parties openly admitted without adequate time to review the specifics of the ruling, it’ll likely be pushed until late October or early November.
Meanwhile, Goularte awaits a pre-trial hearing of his own scheduled for Nov. 14. Additionally, a civil lawsuit filed by Velasquez’s family against Goularte, as well as Goularte’s family members and their businesses, is set to resume in March.
