Trial date set for suspect in alley shooting
A trial date has been set for one of the two men charged in connection to a shooting earlier this year in an alley in which two people were injured.
Daniel Gilbert Munoz, 33, appeared Wednesday morning in Yuma County Superior Court with his court-appointed attorney Richard C Parks, and the prosecution as Superior Court Judge Haws outlined the schedule for hearings leading up to the Nov. 27 trial.
Haws, who will preside over the three-day trial, also scheduled a final pre-trial conference hearing for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 7 and a probation violation hearing for Munoz for 11 a.m. on Oct. 11.
In addition, Haws ordered that all lists of witnesses, exhibits be turned in to the court by the date of the pre-trial conference and that all motions prior to the start of the trial be filed in a timely matter.
According to Yuma police, at around noon on May 23, officers responded to a report of a disturbance in the area of the 2000 block of South Avenue A, with shots having been fired at the location.
When officers arrived on scene, they found that a shooting had happened in the alleyway between Avenue A and 11th Avenue. The initial investigation revealed that three vehicles were involved in the incident and that multiple shots had been fired.
All three cars left the scene after the shooting, with one running into the back wall of the All Seasons Florist building, which is located in the 2000 block of South Avenue A.
Both of the injured individuals – a male and a female – were in the same car and were able to drive themselves to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where they were treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Later that afternoon, at approximately 1:30 p.m. one of the vehicles involved was located in Somerton. Due to the severity of the crime, the Yuma Police Department Special Enforcement Team was deployed to the area of Somerton Avenue and Fulton Street, where the suspect was presumed to be hiding.
Somerton Middle School was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure, due to its proximity to the incident.
The second suspect charged in connection to the shooting, Armando Montano, has a hearing in Yuma County Superior Court scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 3.