New Apache County attorney joins prosecution

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

ST. JOHNS — The case of the 9-year-old boy charged with killing his father and his father’s friend who was living at the same residence will continue to be handled by Navajo County Attorney Bradley Carlyon as special prosecutor with the new Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting serving in a support role, the Apache County Superior Court said.

Christian Ryan Romero was present at a status hearing Tuesday morning when counsel gave Judge Michael P. Roca updates on the status of the case.

The court set a date for the defense to inspect items that are in the possession of the county attorney’s office to assist with pending disclosure issues, the court stated in a news release.

The court administration will identify a date for a competency hearing for Romero. Counsel was also asked by the court to facilitate exchange of raw data collected by the competency evaluator nominated by the defense with the state’s competency evaluator.

The defense also said at the status hearing that they would file replies to the state’s responses to their motions to suppress. Defense attorneys submitted a reply to response to motion to suppress statements and moved to strike the government’s pleading as inadequate on Wednesday.

The defense said that the state did not provide specifics about which facts and analysis it disagreed with in the defense’s motion to suppress.

“What are the numerous errors? What are the factual representation and interpretation of law with which the government disagrees?” the defense stated in its reply.

If the court does not strike the response, the defense asked that the court order a more specific response from prosecutors.

“Counsel will object if the matter proceeds to a hearing with this inadequate response by the government, as defense will be unable to properly prepare,” the defense stated in its reply to the state’s response to its motion to suppress.

The next hearing for the case will be held Jan. 29 at 10 a.m. The date was continued from Jan. 21 because defense attorney Ronald Wood will be on vacation.