Prelim for Samoa homicide suspects set for February
The preliminary hearing for two suspects in a November homicide in Samoa has been set for midFebruary.
Travontae Javoni Hutson, 26, and Ian James Pease, 30, will face charges related to the Nov. 15 homicide of 34-year-old Perry Zebulon Bailey, and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office is intending to join the cases. Judge Christopher Wilson said he would set their preliminary hearings on the same date, but they would proceed separately if they had not been combined by then.
“The people do intend to join them as they would ordinarily be co- defendants had they been arrested at the same time,” said Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer.
Hutson was arrested Dec. 10 by an officer with the Eureka Police Department after determining he matched the description of one of the suspects, and Pease was arrested a little over a week later on Dec. 21 in Del Norte County.
The preliminary hearing for Hutson was set to take place Wednesday, but defense attorney Andrea Sullivan only recently accepted the case so the hearing was continued.
Preliminary hearings are intended to determine if there is enough evidence that a crime took place and that the suspects likely committed that crime, allowing the case to proceed to trial. Preliminary hearings are supposed to take place within 10 days of a defendant being arraigned, but that was extended to 30 days because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The outside limitation for the hearing is 60 days,” Wilson said, which neither defendant waived.
Bailey was found with gunshot wounds just before midnight Nov. 15 near the Milwaukee Memorial along New Navy Base Road in Samoa, soon succumbing to his injuries on scene, according to a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.
“Upon further investigation, deputies learned that Bailey had reportedly approached an occupied parked vehicle when someone inside of the vehicle fired multiple gunshots at him,” the release stated. “The vehicle then fled the scene.”
The preliminary hearing is set for 9:15 a.m. Feb. 10.