By Gabriel Eskandari
WOODLAND, CA – During a trial readiness conference in Yolo County Superior Court this week for Jose Alfonso Tellezflores, Jr., facing multiple felony charges, Judge Joseph Orr had to squeeze in a PC § 995 motion into the schedule after the defense noted the court had not yet set any date for it, despite the trial being scheduled for Monday.
Tellezflores is facing five felony charges all stemming from back on May 6, including a murder charge, elements of attempted murder, two counts of discharging a firearm at a dwelling or vehicle, and assault with a firearm.
A 995 motion essentially allows the defense to appeal the decisions made by judges during the preliminary hearing before trial. In this instance, the defense is focusing on revisiting whether there was sufficient evidence for the murder charge.
Deputy Public Defender Martha Sequeira, one of the attorneys representing Tellezflores, stated that both the defense brief and the prosecution reply have been filed and that nobody has given them a date.
PD Sequeira thus asked Judge Orr, a visiting judge from Sacramento County, if he would read the 995.
“The way it works in this county is we aren’t given an opportunity to pick a date and time and a department. We have a system where we all file our paperwork within the time period … and then administratively they give us a date, and that’s what didn’t happen here, we don’t have a date,” PD Sequeira explained.
Sequeira continued, “And that’s not our responsibility to get a date, it’s the court’s responsibility to give us a department, a judge, and a time. That didn’t happen. So I’m hoping that your Honor can find us one.”
Specifically, PD Sequeira said she did not want to put too much pressure on Judge Orr because he is a visiting judge and because she wants him to have ample time to review it.
Judge Orr asked about the length of the 995 and how many counts the defense was looking to have stricken.
Deputy Public Defender Stephen Betz, the other attorney representing Tellezflores, stated, “Really, the crux of the 995 is the murder charge. I believe the People may have a motion to some of the other counts that we … addressed in our 995, and if that’s the case then I think it makes it really concentrated on one count.”
The 995 notwithstanding, the trial is scheduled on Monday, Nov. 15.
