Next court date set for shooting suspect
During a brief hearing Wednesday morning in Yuma County Superior Court, a judge set the date for a final management conference (FMC) for one of the two suspects charged in connection to the shooting of a 22-year-old Somerton man.
Attorney Robert Billar of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, who represents 20-year-old Anthony Serrano, asked the court to set the FMC hearing out five weeks while he continued preparing the case for trial.
At an FMC hearing the attorneys on both sides report to the court any difficulties in advancing the case to trial. The court will seek to resolve those difficulties and then set a date for trial.
Billar also asked that a probation violation case against his client be given the same schedule as his other two, so they can all be dealt with at the same time.
Superior Court Judge Brandon Kinsey granted both of Billar’s requests. He also scheduled Serrano’s next hearing for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 1.
Serrano has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and burglary. He has also been charged with possession of a weapon by a prohibitive possessor in a second separate case. The probation violation stems from a burglary case.
According to Somerton police, during an investigation into the July shooting, 20-year-old Anthony Serrano and 20-year-old Martin Guzman were identified as suspects. They were both taken into custody without incident at 2:03 a.m. on July 27 at a residence in the 3100 block of West 17¾ Street in Somerton.
Members of the Somerton Police Department, along with Yuma police officers, deputies from the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, San Luis Police, the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIITEM) task force and Border Patrol, had executed a search warrant at the residence in reference to an attempted homicide that had occurred several hours earlier.
Serrano and Guzman were booked into the Yuma County Detention Center on preliminary charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, endangerment and burglary.
Somerton police found out about the shooting, which happened at about 5:31 p.m. on July 26, while investigating a traffic accident on Highway 95 at milepost 13.
Upon arriving at the accident, officers learned that a passenger in one of the vehicles involved in the crash had been shot moments earlier in Somerton.
The driver of that vehicle was attempting to take the victim to Yuma County Regional Medical Center when the crash occurred.
The victim, a 22-year-old male who had been shot once, was transported to YRMC by Cocopah/Somerton Fire Department paramedics. He was later airlifted to a medical facility in Phoenix in critical but stable condition.