Judge reluctantly postpones murder trial for Modesto mother accused in infant’s death

A judge on Friday reluctantly postponed a trial that was supposed to start next month for a 28-year-old Modesto mother accused of second-degree murder in the death of her infant daughter nearly seven years ago.

Christine Marie Rocco’s daughter, Ashayla Jackson, was 3 months old when she was found dead Jan. 11, 2009.

Rocco told authorities her daughter had been suffering from diarrhea for three to four weeks and that she was waiting for a Medi-Cal card to take the baby to a doctor. The prosecutor has argued that Rocco refused to seek medical help for the child, who obviously was sick and died of “severe malnutrition and dehydration.”

The murder case, which was filed in April 2010, has languished in Stanislaus Superior Court since the August 2012 preliminary hearing, when a judge ordered Rocco to stand trial. The defendant has been in custody at the county jail since July 2010. This trial has been rescheduled before, once when the defense needed to confirm the availability of an expert witness and again when the court-appointed defense attorney retired.

The Stanislaus County criminal justice system has come under recent scrutiny after an analysis by The Modesto Bee found a huge backlog of murder cases that appears to be the worst in California. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and court officials have directed blame at each other for the backlog.

Rocco’s attorney in the preliminary hearing, Graylin Bryant, has since retired, so the court appointed Deputy Public Defender Sweena Pannu to represent the defendant. Pannu on Friday asked the judge to postpone the trial for three months because she needed more time to prepare a new defense that relies on expert testimony.

In February, Judge Rick Distaso scheduled the trial to begin Jan. 12 and told the attorneys that they needed to be ready to proceed as scheduled. On Friday, the judge appeared frustrated that the defense was asking for another postponement.

“It seems like this is a process without end,” Distaso said. The judge asked Pannu why the expert witness wasn’t retained before September.

Pannu argued that this murder case is “brand-new” to her, and she is considering defenses for her client as they arise while reviewing the case materials. She said the expert she has hired to testify was not the same expert on which her former colleague was relying.

She also told the judge that the prosecutor has a four-year advantage in this case, so it’s her duty to do all she can to properly prepare for trial. Pannu said she is “pursuing diligently” what is required of her in this defense.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees, who is prosecuting the case, told the judge that this case has been assigned to the county’s Public Defender’s Office for the past few years, so it’s not a new case to Pannu’s office. She said the materials in this case fit in just one three-ring binder, so a year is enough time to prepare for trial.

The prosecution opposed the request to delay. Rees told the judge that county Public Defender Tim Bazar had promised the court to reassign some of Pannu’s cases to provide her enough time to prepare and assigned another attorney to assist her with the Rocco case.

Judge Distaso agreed to grant the delay, but he said he would not delay the trial for another year. Pannu said she could be ready for the trial to start some time in the summer, but the judge scheduled the three-week trial to start May 3. He said both attorneys will have to reschedule any other cases they have around that time, because Rocco’s trial will begin in May.

“It’s a very significant case, and it’s an old case,” Distaso said in court. “This case takes precedence.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Judge reluctantly postpones murder trial for Modesto mother accused in infant’s death."