January trial date set in murder case
A jury trial has been set for January in the case of murder suspect Christopher Carreno, who is accused in last year’s shooting death of 15-year-old Victor Sanchez.
When asked to provide the court with an update on the case, attorney Michael Donovan, who represents Carreno, stated that he had vacated a settlement conference that he had requested at his client’s previous hearing and was now asking for a trial date to be set.
Donovan said that he had calculated the last date to be Feb. 19, so the case would need to be tried before then and that he expected the trial to last about three weeks, due to the numerous number of witnesses and exhibits.
Superior Court Judge David Haws scheduled Carreno’s trial to begin at 9 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2018, continuing on Jan. 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 23 and 25. He also scheduled a final pre-trial for 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 6.
Haws informed both counsel that he was ordering that jury instructions and the list of witnesses and exhibits from each were to be turned in by the Dec. 6 hearing as well.
Carreno has been charged with 34 felony offenses including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and five for attempted second-degree murder.
He has also been charged with six counts of aggravated assault, four counts of endangerment and 17 for assisting a criminal street gang, and remains in custody at the Yuma County jail on $2 million bond.
The shooting happened Jan. 9, 2016, in the 600 block of South 17th Avenue. Police say that multiple shots were fired into a vehicle and a teenager, later identified as Sanchez, was struck.
Sanchez was flown to a Phoenix hospital, where he died four days later.