Marmolejo Retrial Set For San Antonio
The retrial of David Marmolejo has been set for March 7, 2011 in San Antonio. The trial will have a two-week deadline, as that’s the available window of time for the courtroom.
Judge Gonzalo Garcia announced the trial date Thursday morning. Other cities that were under consideration were Austin, Houston and Midland-Odessa.
Marmolejo’s first trial ended in a mistrial after 2 1/2 days of deliberations when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. David was charged with the July 2009 murder of his mother, Gloria Marmolejo.
Garcia wants the prosecution and defense to streamline their presentations so they don’t go over the two-week trial deadline. This includes the sentencing phase if David were to be found guilty.
A prosecutor said she would try to shave off two days from her presentation which would bring it from eight days to six days.
Garcia said he had “issues to resolve” in the pre-trial hearings regarding evidence that may or not be relevant this time around. He also said he will address two violations of his gag order at a later date.
There will be a pool of 75 prospective jurors.
Garcia said he will probably fly to San Antonio. The state prosecutor said she will likely fly her witnesses out, too.
The prosecutor said she is preparing one new expert for the trial, a special agent with the FBI out of Miami. The new expert will come to El Paso in January, though his contribution to the case was not made explicit during Thursday’s hearing.
David will have another status hearing on Jan. 13.
During the first trial in October, the prosecution tried to use cell phone calls to place David in the vicinity of where his mother’s body was found in the Santa Teresa, New Mexico desert. Mariah Wilson, David’s stepsister and one-time girlfriend, also testified for the prosecution and said David admitted to her he killed his mother.
Wilson, testifying under an immunity agreement with the state, testified that that she helped clean up the murder scene in Gloria’s East Side home and helped dispose of the body.
David’s defense attorney said police never considered Wilson a suspect in the murder case despite her DNA being found at the murder scene.
