Court's gun rights decision may help local defendant

A gun control ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week has triggered a sentencing controversy in a high-profile Colusa County murder case.

Sentencing for the frequently delayed case of Cathy I. Mendoza, who was acquitted of murder in April but found guilty of using an illegal sawed-off shotgun, was postponed again Wednesday.

The delay in the case against the former College City woman could have ramifications tied to Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding gun ownership rights.

“The only issue is Ms. Mendoza’s status based on the Supreme Court ruling on the ability of states and local entities enacting laws concerning gun rights,” Colusa County Superior Court Judge John H. Tiernan said Wednesday.

Mendoza’s attorney, Albert Smith, raised the issue of whether or not the ban on sawed-off shotguns is constitutional based on the Supreme Court decision, authorities said.

On Aug. 30, Mendoza, 31, shot and killed Jose V. Saavedra, who, along with two other men, were reportedly climbing over the fence where Mendoza was living at the time. Saavedra and others had been involved in a bar fight with Mendoza’s then-boyfriend less than an hour before the shooting.

Mendoza testified during the April trial that she believed she was about to be attacked when she fired the weapon, hitting Saavedra once in the upper body.

“If I hadn’t done it, he was going to hurt me,” the tearful defendant testified.

Saavedra’s body was found outside the fenced property. He is survived by a wife and two children.

Smith asked for sentencing to be delayed again Wednesday to allow him time to prepare a sentencing brief.

“(Smith) did not agree with the (Colusa County Probation Department’s sentencing) recommendation,” Chief Deputy District Attorney David Bates explained.

It was not clear Wednesday what sentence the probation department has recommended. The probation report is not available until sentencing is complete, prosecutors and court staff confirmed.

A phone call to Smith’s office was not immediately returned.

Commonly referred to as a “wobbler” charge, meaning the penal code can be viewed as either a felony or misdemeanor depending on specific circumstances, Bates said prosecutors filed for the felony.
Mendoza faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison, Bates said.

It has been a long, strange case from the very beginning, frequently held up, and even thrown out of court entirely on two separate occasions.

Prosecutors dismissed the case in January after two key witnesses abruptly left the country to attend a funeral in Mexico. Mendoza was released from the Colusa County Jail and stayed free of arrest even after prosecutors re-filed murder charges later the same month.

Tiernan declared a mistrial in early April after it was revealed that mistakes were made by a court translator regarding the testimony of Spanish-speaking witnesses.

A second trial was conducted later the same month and an eight-man, four-woman jury ruled that Mendoza acted in self-defense. The jury deliberated less than three hours before handing down the verdict.
Mendoza is due back in court July 21.