Judge schedules new trial in deadly Turlock stabbing

An appellate court ruled that a Turlock man deserved a new trial because he was deprived of his right to have a defense attorney of his choice. But it’s still unclear who will represent the defendant when his new trial starts in February.

Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Rick Distaso on Friday scheduled Darren Jack Merenda’s new trial to start Feb. 16. The trial is estimated to last about two weeks.

Merenda, 36, had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the deadly stabbing of Donald Dean Futch, when the appellate court overturned that murder conviction and ordered the new trial.

The defendant appeared in court Friday morning with the same appointed attorney who represented him in the first trial, Deputy Public Defender Saul Garcia. He told the judge that his client’s family was still working on retaining a privately hired attorney.

After the judge scheduled the trial, Garcia asked the judge to schedule a hearing to determine whether Merenda should be appointed a new attorney. In the closed-door hearing without the prosecution, the judge will hear Merenda’s reason as to why he wants a new court-appointed attorney.

It appears that the Aug. 3 closed-door hearing won’t be necessary if Merenda’s family can hire a private attorney by then. Merenda remains in custody at the Stanislaus County jail.

A jury in October 2011 found Merenda guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Hughson resident Futch.

Testimony in the trial indicated Merenda and Futch were involved in a dispute over a woman. The two men agreed to meet in the alley behind a Colorado Avenue apartment complex in Turlock to discuss their dispute. The prosecutor argued that Futch was unarmed but the defendant had hidden a 10-inch dagger under his shirt.

Futch, 34, was stabbed 11 times and pronounced dead at the scene Sept. 12, 2009.

Merenda had been in prison serving his sentence since September 2012. The state’s 5th District Court of Appeal on Feb. 23 reversed the jury’s verdict, citing “prosecutorial error,” according to the appellate court’s written opinion.

The appellate court determined that Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees failed to provide Superior Court Judge Dawna Reeves all information about a key witness, Peter De La Cruz, who was served with a subpoena to testify.

Merenda had asked Reeves to delay the trial to have his newly retained defense attorney, Kirk McAllister, get up to speed on the case. The judge denied Merenda’s request because of the key witness’s availability, but the witness never showed up to testify.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Judge schedules new trial in deadly Turlock stabbing."