A 25-year-old Vallejo man charged with three killings within the metropolis over a three-month interval in late 2014 and early 2015 will face a March jury trial, and, if convicted, presumably the demise penalty.
Lorenzo Mateo Cortez on Wednesday appeared in Division 7 of Solano County Superior Court docket for a readiness convention within the Justice Constructing in Vallejo.
Throughout the afternoon session, Cortez, shackled and clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, his black hair curly, his face bearded, listened to the discussions between his protection attorneys, Jon C. Weir of Martinez and Thomas Kensok of Napa, and Decide Tim R. Kam.
Deputy District Lawyer Mark Ornellas, substituting for Senior Deputy District Lawyer Julie Underwood, who leads the prosecution, represented the individuals utilizing a distant on-line connection.
Weir requested if the present COVID-19 surge, introduced on by the omicron variant, would have an effect on the beforehand scheduled March 22 jury trial. Kam stated it didn't.
Cortez is charged with the Nov. 3, 2014, homicide of Isaac Lopez-Reid, 18; the Dec. 20, 2014, homicide of Luis Perez, 18; and the Jan. 10, 2015, homicide of William Brown, 20. All had been shot in Vallejo.
Vallejo police investigators, who arrested Cortez for the killings on March 2, 2015, whereas he was in Solano County on a number of different unrelated felonies, consider Cortez shot the primary sufferer as a result of Lopez-Reid had accused him of being “a snitch.” Investigators additionally consider the deadly shootings of Perez and Brown had been execution-style killings, with each victims robbed of cash and their belongings. Cortez was 19 when he dedicated the alleged crimes.
The Solano County District Lawyer’s Workplace filed its grievance towards Cortez on March 2, 2015. He stays in custody with out bail on the homicide fees within the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.
At one level in the course of the Wednesday continuing, Cortez informed Kam that he's at present representing himself, however Kam additionally requested him if he needed authorized illustration in the course of the penalty section, if convicted of the three murders.
Cortez stated he wished to signify himself in the course of the penalty section, prompting Kam to name it “an unwise transfer,” regardless of a defendant’s proper of self-representation, on condition that court-appointed attorneys had been “prepared, keen and in a position” to signify him.
Kensok informed Kam he had filed a “discovery movement” on Jan. 7, asking the state for particulars of police experiences, particulars concerning the victims, and circumstances surrounding the alleged crimes, amongst different issues.
Cortez and his attorneys will return to Division 7 for one more readiness convention and to debate the movement at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 2.
Court docket information additionally present that there have been, at one time, two co-defendants within the case, Jeman D. Baker and John Kevin Johnson, nevertheless it seems their circumstances have been dismissed.
Usually, in death-penalty circumstances, two attorneys signify a defendant, and the penalty section is also normally heard by the identical jurors who convicted in the course of the trial section.