Defense attorney will ask court to move murder trial out of Stanislaus County

A defense attorney says his client can’t get a fair trial in Stanislaus County because the defendant is black and the man shot to death was Latino.

Mark Sullivan, who represents Isaiah Stafford, told a judge Friday that the number of Latinos living in the county is overwhelmingly larger than the number of black residents. He says he will file a motion for a change of venue to move the murder trial to a county with a more diverse jury pool.

The county has about 525,000 residents, with 43.5 percent Latino, 44.7 percent non-Latino white and 2.4 percent black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey. The attorney and the judge did not discuss where the trial could be moved.

Stafford and two other defendants, who also are black, are charged with murder and two counts of attempted robbery.

Authorities say the defendants are responsible for the shooting death of 19-year-old Damian Villavicencio during a botched marijuana robbery. The Riverbank man was hit by gunfire about 5:30 p.m. Dec. 11, 2013, during what was arranged to be a drug deal behind the Velvet Grill & Creamery restaurant on McHenry Avenue in north Modesto.

Superior Court Judge Ricardo Córdova has ordered Stafford and Lamar Oldham to stand trial. The defendants also are charged with assault with a firearm in connection with the shooting of another Riverbank man who was with Villavicencio.

The third defendant, Luisa Riley, is being prosecuted separately and is scheduled to return to court May 28 for a pretrial hearing. Only Stafford appeared in court Friday morning, with his attorney.

The judge told Sullivan that the defense would have to make arrangements for an expert to testify about the county’s demographics concerning race and ethnicity before scheduling a hearing. The defense attorney agreed, saying he just wanted to make the court aware of his intention to file the change-of-venue motion.

Before that discussion, Córdova rejected a defense motion that sought to remove a special-circumstance allegation against Stafford. If found true by a jury, the allegation could make the defendant eligible for a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

When the judge denied the defense motion, Sullivan said he will appeal the court’s decision. “I think this is an important constitutional issue,” the defense attorney told the judge.

Sullivan argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that life in prison without parole is unconstitutional for a defendant convicted of a crime committed when he or she was a minor. Stafford and Riley were both 17 when the shooting occurred but are being prosecuted as adults.

The defense attorney also said that Stafford can’t assist his attorney in his own defense if he is facing a potential sentence that is unconstitutional. Sullivan argued that his client will become apprehensive, which would affect his right to a fair trial.

Deputy District Attorney Brad Nix argued that Sullivan’s motion should be rejected because the trial hasn’t occurred yet. The prosecutor said the judge is well aware of the rigorous set of rules to consider when sentencing a defendant convicted of a crime committed as a minor, and the defense attorney can file his motion then.

Córdova said he is aware of the limitations the court has in sentencing a minor prosecuted as an adult. He rejected the defense motion and scheduled Stafford to return to court April 20.

If Sullivan appeals the judge’s decision, as he plans, the appellate court could halt the case and delay the scheduling of the trial.

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Defense attorney will ask court to move murder trial out of Stanislaus County."