Friends and family of a young man accused of a 2021 murder are expressing concern with the frequent delays in getting the case to trial, which is currently set for October.
Raul Peralta Navalles is charged with multiple felonies related to the death of Ruperto Morales, who was shot twice in the head on Aug. 15, 2021. Navalles, then 19, claims he shot Morales, 42, in self-defense after a night of drinking and drugs.
By the end of 2021, Navalles had been indicted by a county grand jury, taken into custody in Mexico, turned over to U.S. law enforcement, arraigned, subjected to a bail hearing, re-indicted, and arraigned again. At the beginning of 2022 he had a speedy trial deadline of Sept. 10.
But Navalles rarely set foot in a courtroom last year. In fact, his case was before a judge less than 20 minutes total the whole year.
According to court records, the slow crawl toward getting Navalles case resolved is due to Deputy Public Defender Rodrigo Andrade requesting the cancellation of five court dates last year. And even when four other hearings were held, Andrade made an oral motion during each to continue the proceeding to a future date.
None of those four hearings took more than four minutes.
The records show Navalles’ first hearing in 2022 was to be a Feb. 7 pretrial conference. Andrade filed a motion the week before seeking to continue the hearing to March, arguing it was “indispensable to the interests of justice.”
That motion and all subsequent continuation requests also noted Navalles was waiving his speedy trial deadline to accommodate the delays.
A March 14 pretrial conference ended after just two minutes when Andrade explained he needed more time to review evidence in the case.
The next hearing on April 25 lasted four minutes before the judge reset the hearing to June 13 at Andrade’s request. At the time, the judge understood Andrade would also be requesting a settlement conference when the case was heard in June.
A settlement conference is a non-public meeting of the defendant and defense attorney, the prosecutor, any victim representatives, and a different judge in hopes of negotiating a non-trial resolution, otherwise known as a plea deal.
But the June hearing never took place, with Andrade filing a motion to continue the hearing until July. He cited the need for time to review medical records recently received from Navalles’ family.
Andrade then requested another 30-day continuance just days before a scheduled July 11 hearing.
“Defense is working on this matter and was recently provided many new clients, so defense needs additional time to work on this case,” he wrote.
By then, Navalles still had no trial date on the calendar.
No hearing took place in August neither after Andrade asked to continue an Aug. 15 pretrial conference. The continuance was needed, the motion notes, because he had to review materials disclosed by the prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Kristina Guerrero.
Navalles then watched from the jail on Sept. 26 as Andrade cited an upcoming interview with DPS personnel as the reason for an oral motion for another continuance. The motion was granted three minutes after the hearing began.
A Nov. 7 hearing was also postponed after Andrade advised the court he was working with Guerrero to schedule interviews of various witnesses. Next up for Navalles was a Dec. 12 pretrial hearing, which records show was done in just three minutes.
By then, Navalles had been in custody 14 months with no trial date on the calendar. And one year had been added to his speedy trial deadline.
Navalles’ case was transferred to a new judge in January upon the retirement of the original judge. A Jan. 13 hearing ended with the new judge setting a 12-day trial to start Oct. 3, although that could be pushed back if the defense seeks further delays or continuances.
There still has not been a defense request for a settlement conference, according to the case file.
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