Appeals court denies motion for Ivan Gabaldon retrial
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Eight District Court of Appeals has ruled against the State's petition to reindict Ivan Gabaldon, a man whose capital murder case was dismissed over prosecutorial “vindictiveness” in 2021.
Gabaldon was arrested in February of 2021, the then 20-year-old was accused of killing a 63-year-old Juan Garcia Flores after the two men allegedly engaged in a paid sexual encounter.
The case was then dismissed in December of 2021, when the trial court dismissed the case for prosecutorial “vindictiveness.”
The court tossed the case after the District Attorney's office then led by former D.A. Yvonne Rosales said it planned to reindict the case as a capital murder, after their request to delay the trial was denied in the fall of 2021.
In a filing with the Court of Appeals, the State argued the trial court abused it's power by granting the motion to dismiss the case.
In its decision, the Court of Appeals refuted the claims about the dismissal filed by the state and allowed the dismissal to stand concluding...
"Allowing the State to now reindict Gabaldon for murder would be giving the State exactly what it sougth when it retaliated: a continuance of the murder prosecution. The State would be getting a re-do," the court said in the filing.
"Consequently, we find dismissing the indictment with prejudice was necessary to neutralize the taint of the State's egregious conduct in the case. We, therefore, find the trial court did not abuse its discretion."
