A Douglas man arrested back in May on assault and weapons charges will be back in court next month in advance of a trial in 2023 in a case that will likely pit his credibility against the three alleged victims.
Ignacio Cuevas Villicana Jr. is charged with eight felonies stemming from a May 10 incident in which he allegedly discharged a firearm during the aggravated assault of two victims. He is also charged with restraining a third victim while possessing a firearm and of being a felon in unlawful possession of a firearm.
Villicana, 44, had a speedy trial deadline of Dec. 7 but that has been extended with his permission by several weeks. A trial date in Spring 2023 could be confirmed at his next hearing on Dec. 16.
Public record show Villicana was booked into the Cochise County jail on May 28 by the Douglas Police Department. His bail was initially set at $100,000, but in August a motion was filed by Villicana’s court-appointed attorney to reduce bail.
Among the arguments put forth by Deputy Public Defender Cynthia Brubaker was that $100,000 bail was improperly high given the facts of the case and Villicana’s low risk of failing to show for trial. The Cochise County Attorney’s Office which is prosecuting Villicana opposed a reduction, pointing to Villicana’s criminal history.
On Aug. 16, Judge Jason Lindstrom reduced Villicana’s bail to $50,000 over the objection of the prosecutors. A bond was finally posted Sept. 14, allowing Villicana to await trial out of custody. Court records show he subsequently entered a rehab facility.
One issue for jurors to decide at trial is whether the physical evidence and the testimony of witnesses supports all eight felony charges, or whether Villicana was -as his attorney asserts- the actual victim.
According to Brubaker, the charges in the case arise from Villicana’s decision to approach a man Villicana believed had stolen his wallet. The confrontation occurred at a Douglas area trailer park, and any allegations that a firearm was
displayed or used during the encounter were fabricated by the alleged wallet thief and others, Brubaker wrote in a legal filing.
“Mr. Villicana confronted Wyatt Robinson about the theft and asked Wyatt to return his wallet to him,” Brubaker wrote. “The police were called and told that a gun had been discharged.”
When officers began looking for evidence to support that claim, Brubaker says they found a spent bullet casing outside and a hole in the floor of the trailer which the investigator noted was “presumably” caused by a gunshot.
“There is, however, absolutely no proof that the hole in the floor was caused by a gunshot. There is no evidence as to when the hole occurred or that it was in any way connected to Mr. Villicana or that the casing had any connection to Mr. Villicana,” Brubaker added.
Establishing Villicana’s credibility will not be an easy task for Brubaker, who admits her client was sent to prison more than two decades ago in a drug case. He also had misdemeanor arrests in 2014 and 2015.
“Apparently everyone in this case has criminal history,” Brubaker noted in the filing. “The State argued in their Response that due to Mr. Villicana’s criminal history, he ‘has shown complete disregard of the law’. Well, the same could be said of all the complainants in this case. They have criminal history as well.”
