LAKEPORT, Calif. – The trial of a man accused of stabbing to death a neighbor in 2007 has been tentatively scheduled to begin this May.
Ivan Garcia Oliver, 34, is set to go to trial beginning May 23, based on a discussion between the prosecution and Oliver’s defense attorney, Stephen Carter, at a Friday morning hearing in Lakeport.
Oliver is charged with murder, burglary and causing injury to an elderly person for his alleged attack on 67-year-old Michael Dodele on Nov. 20, 2007.
Oliver was accompanied to court by four correctional officers, was closely cuffed and dressed in a high-security pod red and white jail jumpsuit.
Judge Richard Martin set the May trial date at the request of Carter, the defense attorney for Orlando Lopez, who along with Paul Braden is now on trial for the June 2011 murder of 4-year-old Skyler Rapp and the wounding of five others.
With that trial currently expected to run through at least May 21, Carter suggested that he could be ready to proceed in Oliver’s case on May 23.
On Friday Judge Martin also set a trial readiness and settlement conference in the case for May 14, and a trial assignment hearing for May 18.
Oliver and Dodele had been neighbors for a short time in the Western Hills Mobile Home Park in Lakeport, where Dodele had moved after being released from prison.
Dodele had served 19 years after being convicted of committing a rape in Sonoma County, and had been required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.
The case against Oliver alleges that he saw Dodele on the California Attorney General's Megan's List Web site, and due to unclear wording in the listing concluded that Dodele had been in prison for a crime involving a child, as Lake County News has reported.
Oliver has remained in custody since his arrest shortly after Dodele’s fatal stabbing.
Hinchcliff said Oliver’s case has experienced numerous delays, in part due to several of his previous defense attorneys leaving the case. Carter also has requested a continuance for further investigation.
Oliver’s case also was delayed due to his being returned to San Diego County to undergo trial on a federal illegal dumping case in 2008, in which he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for violating the federal hazardous waste law.
In addition to the charges in the case involving Dodele’s death, Oliver is facing an additional felony charge relating to a shank a correctional officer at the Lake County Jail found in his possession in December 2007. Jail officials at the time said he made the weapon from a toothbrush.
Hinchcliff said that second case is trailing the main murder case.
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