By Gabriel Eskandari
WOODLAND, CA – In Yolo County Superior Court this week, the court resolved a mistaken identity situation in which the wrong man named Danny Sanchez, Sr., was facing misdemeanor charges meant to be charged against a different person, but with the same name.
The charges include a misdemeanor battery charge dating from Aug. 30, 2017, and two misdemeanor failure to appear charges dating from Dec. 30, 2017, and Dec. 13, 2018.
Defense Counsel Wendy Casas stated, “We have a stipulation that the court would probably sign off to say that my client, who’s a resident of Washington, is not the Danny Sanchez who the People are seeking in these three cases.”
Casas then inquired about the possibility of not issuing another warrant in this case to prevent another situation like this one.
“I’m just asking, because the People cannot dismiss these three cases until the right Danny Sanchez comes before the court…if the court would keep them open but not issue a warrant because my concern would then be another warrant issuing and it attaching to my client’s profile out of state,” Casas noted.
In response, Deputy District Attorney Laura Columbel stated, “This is hard, because I feel like we have to do our due diligence at the same time.”
The court collectively appeared momentarily puzzled on how to fix the issue, but after some deliberation, DDA Columbel suggested, “Is it possible to write the warrant more descriptive and say ‘we are looking for this Danny Sanchez in this state with this description’?”
Judge Tom Dyer agreed with this suggestion and asked DDA Columbel to prepare the arrest warrant. Judge Dyer recommended that the warrant mention the current Danny Sanchez’s address and to note that it was not meant for him.
Then, Judge Dyer, DDA Columbel, and Casas each signed the stipulation.
Judge Dyer then said, “As far as the arrest warrant for the other Danny Sanchez, I won’t issue a warrant today. These matters will go off-calendar and I’ll await an arrest warrant with some type of descriptor that doesn’t loop in Ms. Casa’s client.”
The three misdemeanor cases will remain open for the correct Danny Sanchez.
