Monday, January 24, 2011

Calistoga, CA: Murder trial starts Tuesday in Calistoga shooting death

KERANA TODOROV | Posted: Monday, January 24, 2011

The man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend to death in Calistoga in 2009 is scheduled to go on trial for murder Tuesday in Napa County Superior Court.
Rodolfo Uribe, 25, is charged with murder and kidnapping with special allegations and five other felonies in the death of Luis Octavio Carrillo in the early morning hours of June 29, 2009. If convicted, he faces life without parole.
Napa County Deputy District Attorney Michelle Rollins told Napa Superior Court Judge Rodney Stone at a hearing this week that her office would not seek the death penalty.
Uribe is suspected of lying in wait to shoot Carrillo on the 1400 block of North Oak Street in Calistoga as his ex-girlfriend screamed “No Rudy,” according to court records. Authorities say Uribe fired shots through the passenger window of the woman’s silver BMW, killing Carrillo.
Uribe then pulled Carrillo out the car and ordered the woman to follow him toward Santa Rosa, the prosecutor alleges. The BMW was later found abandoned on a vacant property on Calistoga Road near Santa Rosa.
On the drive back to Napa, his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his two children, testified in the preliminary hearing that Uribe punched her and pulled her hair several times.
They spent the night in Napa before Uribe ordered her to shower and go to work, according to court filings. Uribe was apprehended in southern California in early July.
He has been held without bail in the Napa County jail since his arrest.
This week, attorneys involved in the case came before Stone to discuss a host of pre-trial issues, including which photographs and text messages from Carrillo’s cell phone could be introduced into evidence. The trial is expected to last three weeks.
Defense Attorney Jim McEntee objected Friday to the inclusion of the text messages and some of the photographs, saying they were gruesome and prejudicial to his client. More discussions are scheduled Monday in front of Stone.
Jury selection is scheduled to start Tuesday. Twelve jurors and three alternates are expected to be selected.

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