At the request of his defense attorney, a Gilroy man’s trial on
murder and robbery charges will wait another week.
At the request of his defense attorney, a Gilroy man’s trial on murder and robbery charges will wait another week.
Otto Emil Koloto, 23, of Gilroy has pleaded not guilty to murder and second-degree robbery charges stemming from the July 2008 shooting death of a 27-year-old South San Francisco resident Philip Lacy. Koloto’s alleged accomplice, Donald Robert Lee, 22, originally faced a murder charge, but pleaded guilty to an accessory charge and was sentenced to one year in county jail followed by five years of probation, according to Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Amy Cornell.
After months of searching, police found Koloto hiding out in a South San Jose condominium and arrested him Oct. 2, 2008, police said
About 2 a.m. July 13, 2008, Koloto shot and killed Lacy in Palo Alto during a street robbery that spiraled out of control, police said. Lee was at the scene of the crime and was Koloto’s accomplice, police said. Lacy had been waiting for friends near the Palo Alto City Hall parking garage after a night of bar hopping, police said. He died from his wounds several days later at Stanford Hospital.
Koloto’s trial is set for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 22 in Department 24 of the Hall of Justice in San Jose. He is being represented by the Office of the Public Defender. At that hearing, the case will be assigned to another courtroom and could start later that day, Cornell said. Although the trial has been continued for months, prosecutors expect it to proceed at the next hearing.
