Criminal proceedings for a Gilroy man who allegedly stole a
police car and tried to use it as a weapon against police were
suspended this week until the court can determine whether he is
mentally fit to make a plea.
Criminal proceedings for a Gilroy man who allegedly stole a police car and tried to use it as a weapon against police were suspended this week until the court can determine whether he is mentally fit to make a plea.
Michelle Vasquez, the public defender assigned to alleged police car thief Kenneth Michael Aguero, 31, expressed doubt of Aguero’s competency during his plea hearing Wednesday. Judge Jacqueline Arroyo then agreed to suspend criminal proceedings.
Aguero’s mental competency will be evaluated at the Hall of Justice in San Jose on Wednesday.
Aguero faces felony charges of attempted theft or unauthorized use of a vehicle, theft or unauthorized use of a police or fire vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting or deterring arrest, and interfering with an animal used by police. He is in Santa Clara County Jail on $500,000 bail.
Aguero’s competency hearing comes less than two months after Aguero told Vasquez that he no longer wanted her to represent him after she prevented him from entering a plea on March 30.
Aguero said at the time that he was denying the request of the district attorney and the public defender to postpone his plea hearing until another date, although Judge Ronald Toff made it clear he could not do so.
“I want to enter a plea,” Aguero said at the time. “It’s OK. Thank you.”
Aguero’s mother, Jeanette Dominguez, believes her son is bipolar, and she said after the March 30 hearing that she wanted the public defender to have him evaluated.
Vasquez and Dominguez could not be reached for comment by phone Friday morning.
Aguero allegedly stole a police car and almost ran over an officer with it on Jan. 24 after trying to take his Chevrolet Impala from Marx Towing on Obata Way. Police failed to subdue him with pepper spray, a stun gun, police baton strikes and gunfire, and ultimately subdued him with the help of a police dog, police said.
Aguero contends that he rushed inside the police car to protect himself because he was being beaten by police, Dominguez said.
Aguero was being aggressive at the time, complying with police’s orders one second and then flailing his arms, scuffling with officers and showing defiance the next, according to court documents. Once he was in the police car, he tried to get an AR-15 assault rifle that was locked inside the vehicle to “hold (officers) back,” according to court documents.
In addition, an officer said he heard someone – later determined to likely be Aguero – make comments on the police radio such as, “I am shot; they are shooting me, Mom … help, I am shot.”
Aguero sometimes talked to people around the house when no one was there, Dominguez said in March. In addition, he destroyed several items inside her home, she said. She said her son’s problems grew worse as a result of methamphetamine use, she said.
“I don’t think he’s capable of representing himself,” Dominguez said in March.
