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Judge John Stevens -
Robert Edward Hamilton -
Jason Lynn McKnight -
Garrett Piazza
Make no mistake, the absence of jury trials at the Jefferson County Courthouse poses a real problem to defendants seeking speedy access to their day in court, attorneys argued via Zoom the week of Jan. 24. However, the absence of juries in the courthouse didn’t mean the absence of court proceedings, as evidenced by the full court dockets heard – again, via Zoom teleconferencing – in Judge John Stevens’ Criminal District Court.
“We’re going to do all we can, when we get going again, to move them one after another as I always have,” Stevens said of jury trials scheduled in his court. In the meantime, he said, the judge will work through as many proceedings as possible that don’t require jury participation.
Next door, Judge Raquel West’s 252nd District Court was shuttered the same week, the judge and key staff out sick. Among the cases on West’s docket to be rescheduled is that of Amazing Roofing and Siding proprietor Jason Lynn McKnight, who is accused of striking a West End bicyclist with his truck and driving away while the man lied mortally injured in the roadway. McKnight was set to finalize matters with Judge West on Jan. 24 in anticipation of a Jan. 31 trial date but, according to the court’s coordinator, those dates will need to be reset. The latest case against McKnight has been lingering for 631 days already.
Also originally set for trial on Jan. 31 in West’s court, the case of the state versus Robert Edward Hamilton. The aggravated sexual assault of a child case has been pending 7,707 days – or, more than 21 years.
Hamilton wasn’t arrested on the charge indicted in the year 2000 until 2018, when he allegedly called police in the New Mexican town where he was residing to report a break-in. Hamilton, then 35, was arrested after police discovered he was wanted for the aggravated sexual assault of a child in Jefferson County dating back to when Hamilton was 17 years old. The charges allege the first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old child.
McKnight and Hamilton are both free on bond, but attorneys for defendants in the custody of the county jail pleaded with Judge Stevens to reduce bail and allow for their release when the judge opened his court up for hearings Jan. 24 and 25.
Rife Kimler, representing 20-year-old Isabella Guy, asked to offset the possibility of a lengthy wait for trial with a bond reduction. Guy, who was in jail custody as of Jan. 5 for charges of causing an accident that resulted in injury or death, is being held on a bond of $300,000.
“She’ll be here for years, perhaps, until we get to trial,” Kimler argued before the judge.
The judge was unmoved.
“My suggestion is to stay off drugs,” Stevens retorted, reviewing a file report noting Guy had tested positive for weed and meth while previously out on bond.
Defendant Leslie Huerta, held since three days after Christmas 2021, was likewise unsuccessful in garnering a bond reduction. Huerta was arrested by officers that stopped her for a driving infraction, when a check through the system revealed she had been on the lam from county probation for two years.
Dec. 12, 2019, was the last time Huerta reported as required, the probation department advised the judge. Prior to that, Huerta failed to submit to regular drug screenings, tested positive on another drug screen and failed to complete anger management courses as required. Huerta also tested positive for five different illegal drugs, Stevens read from the report provided to him for the purposes of the bond hearing.
Huerta’s bond reduction was denied, but the following bond reduction hearing for Travis Deshotel ended with the defendant even deeper in trouble than when he first started. When it seemed apparent Judge Stevens wasn’t going to lower the original $100,000 bond required for Deshotel’s release, the defendant became irate, violently thrashing about the holding cell he was attending the Zoom hearing from, cursing the judge, and leaving his attorney speechless to intervene. In the aftermath, Deshotel instead saw his bond increase – now set at $150,000 for the 2019 robbery charge.
This week, Stevens disposed of dozens of assorted pleadings, announcements and motions to revoke probation, as well as sentenced a man whose crime spree in 2020, the defendant said, was at least partially due to stress associated with the COVID pandemic.
Garrett Piazza, 34, was arrested in September 2020, accused of stealing handguns and a tractor, and the armed carjacking an elderly man during an early morning crime spree. Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies reported the mayhem all took place before 7 a.m. on a Monday.
“It was a bad time and I was in a bad place,” Piazza had told investigators, saying the isolation brought on by COVID drove him mad.
While COVID might be a reason to do many things, Stevens noted, “COVID is not a defense for a crime.”
Piazza said he is in a much better place internally, although he’d like to shake the jail cell he’s lived in for the last 500 days. Piazza, who has been jailed before – several times – according to his conversation with the judge, said this incarceration was different because this time he found Jesus.
“I’d like to get this behind me so I can get on with my life,” Piazza said.
Piazza agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in exchange for a maximum nine-year prison sentence. Upon sentencing, Piazza was given the max. However, with credit for 500 days already served and eligibility for parole after serving just a quarter of the sentence, the defendant could be free within a year.
Jefferson County District Clerk Jamie Smith said on Jan. 26 that jury trials will resume at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Jan. 31, with three courts already scheduled for jury selection.
“We are being as safe as we can be,” Smith said, adding that those with COVID symptoms will be excused from jury duty. “If people aren’t feeling well, and they’ve already been assigned to the court, call and let (the court) know. We don’t want anyone to come to the courthouse sick.”
Judge Stevens, pondering a return to normalcy in the courthouse, mused while plodding through a court docket in a vastly empty courthouse.
“There’s two people,” Stevens said, when it comes to COVID, “those who have it, and those who are going to get it.”