The plea hearing for the man accused of killing a popular Eagle
Ridge gatehouse supervisor in an early-morning traffic accident was
delayed after his private defense attorney failed to appear in
court.
The plea hearing for the man accused of killing a popular Eagle Ridge gatehouse supervisor in an early-morning traffic accident was delayed after his private defense attorney failed to appear in court.
Brow wrinkled and dressed in a red jumpsuit, Julian Navarro Murillo slouched low in his seat while a packed courtroom in the South County Courthouse slowly emptied out over the course of two hours. His defense attorney, Ruben Munoz, was tied up in a preliminary hearing and couldn’t make the court date, Deputy District Attorney Patricia Henley said. Although she acknowledged that delays happen, “there’s no excuses,” she said of Munoz’s absence.
Lourdes Sanchez’s five children quietly waited for Murillo to enter a plea to the events that led up to the death of their mother. Sanchez’s two teenage sons who attended Morgan Hill schools moved in with their oldest sister, Suzanna Gutierrez, in Watsonville after Sanchez was killed Sept. 16.
With a round of birthdays on the horizon, the family remembered how their mother always cooked their favorite foods on their special days.
“We’ve got a bunch of birthdays coming up,” Gutierrez said, dabbing her moist eyes. “It’s going to be hard this year without her.”
Two of Murillo’s relatives also attended the hearing but left once Murillo was ushered out of the courtroom.
According to police reports, Murillo drove home early the morning of Sept. 16 after a sleepless night with a blood-alcohol level well above the legal limit. Traveling north on Santa Teresa Boulevard, he attempted to make an unsafe left turn onto Day Road directly into the path of Lourdes Sanchez’s oncoming car. Sanchez was traveling southbound on Santa Teresa on her way to her job as a guard at Eagle Ridge. The two vehicles collided head on. Sanchez was pronounced dead at the scene and Murillo was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence, both felonies.
Murillo’s blood-alcohol measured 0.22 percent following the crash, a preliminary toxicology report revealed.
In cases like Murillo’s, the defendant could be charged with murder if previously convicted of a DUI. He, however, has no previous DUIs and after reviewing the case, Henley said she did not feel that would be an appropriate charge.
Henley did, however, amend the charges of driving under the influence with a special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury and vehicular manslaughter to include a third charge alleging that Murillo was driving while over the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent.
“Not only was he driving under the influence, he was driving over the legal limit,” Henley said.
His bail was set at $75,000. He is currently in custody.
Superior Court Judge Teresa Guerrero-Daley rescheduled Murillo’s plea hearing for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 4 in Department 92 at the South County Courthouse.
