New trial date set in alley shooting case
A new trial date has been set for one of the two men charged in connection to last year’s shooting in an alley in which two people were injured.
Daniel Gilbert Munoz, 34, appeared Thursday morning with his court-appointed attorney Richard C. Parks, and the prosecution as Superior Court Judge Haws issued the new trial dates and outlined the hearings to be held.
Haws, who will preside over the four-day trial, scheduled it to begin at 9 a.m. on March 19 and continue on March 26-28. He also scheduled a final pretrial conference hearing for Munoz at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 27th.
According to Yuma police, at about noon on May 23, officers responded to a report of a disturbance in the 2000 block of South Avenue A, with shots having been fired at the location.
When officers arrived on scene, they found that a shooting had happened in the alleyway between Avenue A and 11th Avenue. The initial investigation revealed that three vehicles were involved in the incident and that multiple shots had been fired.
All three cars left the scene after the shooting, with one running into the back wall of the All Seasons Florist building, which is located in the 2000 block of South Avenue A.
Both of the injured individuals — a male and a female — were in the same car and were able to drive themselves to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where they were treated for injuries that were not lifethreatening.
Later that afternoon, at about 1:30 p.m., one of the vehicles involved was located in Somerton. Due to the severity of the crime, the Yuma Police Department Special Enforcement Team was deployed to the area of Somerton Avenue and Fulton Street, where the suspect was presumed to be hiding.
Somerton Middle School was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure, due to its proximity to the incident.
The second suspect charged in connection to the shooting, Armando Montano, has a hearing in Yuma County Superior Court scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 8.