Stanislaus defendants accused as accessories in Newman cop killing return to court
Four defendants accused of helping a man evade capture after the shooting death of Newman Police Cpl. Ronil Singh returned to Stanislaus Superior Court on Friday for a brief hearing.
Paulo Virgen Mendoza has been charged with murder in Singh’s death. Mendoza is accused of killing Singh during a Dec. 26 traffic stop in Newman. Mendoza is still identified in court and jail records as Gustavo Perez Arriaga, an alias.
Mendoza’s girlfriend Ana Leyde Cervantes, 30; his brothers Conrado Virgen Mendoza, 34, and Adrian Virgen, 25; and his co-worker Erik Razo Quiroz, 35, pleaded not guilty to felony accessory charges in Stanislaus County on Monday.
They are among seven defendants facing federal charges; accused of helping Mendoza slip through a police dragnet and escape into Mexico. After a 55-hour manhunt, Paulo Virgen Mendoza was captured near Bakersfield.
If convicted of the federal charge of conspiracy and aiding and abetting, harboring and shielding from detection an illegal alien, each defendant could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.
Cervantes and Adrian Virgen appeared to cry after they spoke briefly with their attorneys and were ushered into the courtroom Friday. Julissa Echevarria, Cervantes’ attorney, handed tissues to her client to wipe her tears shortly before the hearing began.
Conrado Mendoza and Quiroz sat quietly next to their attorneys. All four defendants were wearing jail inmate jumpsuits and shackled handcuffs on their wrists and ankles.
The court-appointed defense attorneys told the judge they did not have conflicts of interest in representing their clients. Echevarria told the judge her office has already received more than 600 pages of discovery evidence from prosecutors. She asked for more time to review the evidence.
The other defense attorneys — Bruce Perry, Mary Ellen Hertle and Deputy Public Defender Shaun Wahid — also asked for more time to review the case before proceeding.
Superior Court Judge Ricardo Córdova scheduled the four defendants to return to court Feb. 7 for another pretrial hearing.
As of Friday afternoon, the defendants remained in the custody of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department, and their case in this county continues.
Typically, county prosecutors will drop charges in lieu of federal charges, and the U.S. Marshal’s Office will take custody of defendants to be transferred to a federal court. But there was no indication in court Friday that the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office is preparing to drop the local charges.
After Friday’s hearing, the four defendants were ushered out of the courtroom to be taken back to the county jail, where their bail amount is set at $100,000 for each of them.
Federal court officials — as of Friday — had not scheduled an arraignment hearing for the four Stanislaus County defendants, along with three defendants facing accessory charges in Kern County.
Bernabe Madrigal Castaneda, 59, Erasmo Villegas, 36, and Maria Luisa Moreno, 57, also are listed as defendants in the federal criminal complaint accusing them of helping Paulo Virgen Mendoza evade police after Singh’s death.
Like the Stanislaus County defendants, the three defendants in Kern County each face a local charge of being an accessory after the fact. Castaneda, Villegas and Moreno on Wednesday pleaded not guilty in Kern Superior Court.
On Thursday, The Bakersfield Californian reported that Castaneda told investigators he hid Paulo Virgen Mendoza for nearly a day at his home in the 8200 block of Brooks Road in Bakersfield, according to a sheriff’s probable cause declaration filed in Kern County.
The man accused of shooting Singh remains in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail. He is scheduled to return to court Feb. 7. His attorney, Stephen Foley, said he has some doubt about his client’s mental competency.
Judge Córdova has suspended the case against Mendoza and ordered a mental healthy evaluation to determine whether the defendant can help in his own legal defense and understand the criminal court proceedings.
This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 1:53 PM.