LAKEPORT, Calif. – A conflict for a defense attorney resulted in a Finley man accused of killing his cousin not entering a plea during a Friday hearing.
Salvador Flores Guzman, 69, made a brief court appearance on Friday afternoon before retired Judge Arnold Rosenfield from Sonoma County.
Salvador Guzman is accused of killing his cousin, 78-year-old Manuel Guzman, last month.
Responding to a report of a man down in the area of Stone Drive in Finley on the night of Feb. 8, sheriff's deputies found Manuel Guzman's body near his pickup, which was damaged. He had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen.
Investigators believe that Manuel Guzman – on the way home from Konocti Vista Casino – was forced off the road by Salvador Guzman, who then fatally stabbed his cousin.
The District Attorney's Office has charged Salvador Guzman with murder and special allegations of inflicting great bodily injury on Manuel Guzman, lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon, a knife; assault with a deadly weapon, a knife, and a special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury on a person age 70 or older; and assault with a deadly weapon, a vehicle.
Salvador Guzman is being held without bail in the Lake County Jail.
Judge Rosenfield has been assigned to hear the case because Manuel Guzman was the relative of a Lake County Superior Court employee, which caused all of the local judges to recuse themselves due to the conflict.
District Attorney Don Anderson is handling the case, and defense attorney Komnith Moth was assigned to represent Salvador Guzman, whose arraignment had been held over from last month in order to give time for Moth to prepare for entering a plea.
However, on Friday, Moth said that – after reading the police report – he believed he had a conflict and said he wouldn't be entering a plea for Guzman. Rather, he asked that the court put the matter over to another date for appointment of new counsel.
Moth said Angela Carter, who heads up the county's defense contract, asked him to have the matter placed on the calendar for Monday in order to give her time to check on available defense attorneys.
Anderson suggested that they could walk across the hallway and ask if any of the defense attorneys were available to take the assignment.
However, Moth said the entire public defender's office may have to declare a conflict in the case, although he did not specify the reason.
Rosenfield scheduled the matter to return to court Tuesday morning, at which time Carter is to appear to speak to which attorney she has ready to take the case or give a reason why they can't appear.
As the six-minute hearing drew to a close, Salvador Guzman said through a court interpreter that he wanted to get his own attorney.
“I have a lot of things to say,” Guzman said.
Carter told Lake County News later on Friday that a contracted attorney is set to take Guzman's case.
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Attorney's conflict postpones plea entry in murder case
- Elizabeth Larson
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