Tomas Martinez Romero will wait two more months to hear whether
or not he will have to stand trial for attempted murder.
Tomas Martinez Romero will wait two more months to hear whether or not he will have to stand trial for attempted murder.
After conversing briefly in Spanish with his attorney, Public Defender Javier Rios, Romero listened as a translator relayed a conversation between Rios, Deputy District Attorney Amir Alem and Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon.
The two attorneys voiced a joint request to continue the case due to technical difficulties with viewing a DVD.
“Mr. Rios wasn’t able to open it,” Alem said, explaining the need for a continuance. Additionally, one of Alem’s witnesses, Cesar Guijarro, was unable to attend the hearing.
On the night of March 27, 2007, Romero walked up to a car at Stoney Court Apartments in east Gilroy with five occupants and fired almost 10 rounds, injuring two people, police said.
Of the five witnesses that did appear in court Thursday morning, four were in the car Romero shot into. The two injured by the shots were present. Two of the witnesses are minors and were flanked by their parents, who, with help from the translator, agreed to return to court with their sons for the preliminary hearing. The fifth witness and the absent witness had been in the car with Romero close to the time of the shooting, according to court records.
Also present were officer Paco Rodriguez, Gilroy Police Department’s investigating officer, and officer Hugo Del Moral, one of the officers who first responded to the scene of the crime.
In lieu of issuing further subpoenas, the judge ordered the witnesses present to appear at the next hearing to testify. Also, Alem requested two interpreters for the preliminary hearing as several witnesses were not English-speakers.
Romero was originally arrested in connection with a grisly downtown stabbing *– the city’s only murder in 2007. However, the charges were dropped and he was released from custody. An illegal alien, Romero was almost deported but police removed him from a bus at the last moment to serve him with the new charges in late July 2007.
Romero’s preliminary hearing is now scheduled for 9 a.m. May 22 in Dept. 92 at the South County Courthouse in San Martin. At it, the judge will hear testimony to decide if there is enough evidence to order Romero to stand trial.
