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Man pleads innocent to attempted murder
A Williams man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, the Colusa County District Attorney's Office said.
Gayro Velazquez, 21, is charged with running down an Arbuckle man with his vehicle Nov. 7 in the Colusa County Fairgrounds parking lot.
Velazquez pleaded not guilty in Colusa Superior Court and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 17, authorities said.
Felix Silva, 19, was on life support at Sutter Memorial Hospital for nearly a week following the incident, but was discharged Sunday, authorities confirmed.
Velazquez surrendered to police the day after the reported incident and was formally charged Nov. 10 with two felony counts each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, one felony count of street terrorism, as well as enhancements for causing great bodily injury and violent felony street terrorism, according to court records.
The incident was sparked when a verbal argument turned violent at a wedding reception and police were called to a reported fight involving up to 20 people, the California Highway Patrol said.
David Bates, chief deputy district attorney, said investigators now believe Velazquez is a member of the Sureño criminal street gang and the reported victims, Silva and Jesus Chavez, 31, of Colusa, are members of the rival Norteños.
Velazquez had reportedly been punched by Silva and Chavez while he was sitting in his car. When uniformed security officers appeared at the scene, Silva and Chavez fled on foot, the CHP reported.
Witnesses told police that Velazquez "accelerated his vehicle," narrowly missing Chavez, but striking Silva, the CHP report states.
Velazquez appeared in court Thursday, but did not enter a plea and said he planned to seek a private attorney, prosecutors said.
He remains in custody in Colusa County Jail in lieu of $275,000 bail.
Contact Rob Parsons at 934-6800 or rparsons@tcnpress.com.
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| And what business is that? Selling drugs and vandalizing property? You're delusional ctown resident. Quit standing up for a bunch of dopeheads that can't even stand up for themselves by themselves. |
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| lol - Nov 25, 2009 09:39:22 AM | Remove Comment |
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| Think about the future, you should have googled instead of translated. You got it all wrong. It didn't start in Mexico and in fact it has nothing to do with Mexico. It all started in prison. The Surenos were known as La Eme, The Mexican Mafia until A group from up north decided they could run things better and form their own gang now know as the Nortenos. so really if all the southerners would just go back to the LA area and let the nortes run their business here it would be a lot more contained and the average citizen would never even hear about what is going on and colusa would go back to being like Mayberry |
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| c-town resident - Nov 25, 2009 02:15:31 AM | Remove Comment |
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| I remember, Mr. Bates got busted for a DUI. How can he be someone that can actually be respected to do the job? Oh, wait, that is right. He is DA Poyners number one guy under himself. That certainly leaves a lot to the imagination. Oh wait, we are not supposed to talk about such things here in Colusa County. |
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| What? - Nov 18, 2009 06:34:00 PM | Remove Comment |
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| I looked and translated Sureno and Norteno. Sureno in english is Southern. Noterno in english is Northern. As I understand this, the real problem is about a group of people from one place, fighting with another group of people from another place. This sounds similiar to what happened in the USA, in the 1860's. The difference then for the USA was about slavory, and other things. As we know it, a revolutionary war. For us americans, we learned to live together. Nothing is ever easy, but we learned, and for some people, they still learning. Our society is better now. From what I am seeing too, the Mexican culture, as it migrates north, into the USA, is bringing a war from Mexico, to the USA. Why do they do that? Certainly, thru history, Mexico has many inner cultural problems. The older persons, the parents, have brought thier children here. To give them a better life. The same as people from all other countires have been doing. In my eyes, the really sad part of this is that the Sureno and Norteno gangs are not wanting to stop the killing, and the fighting. I pray that they can change. Like so many other people have changed too. Then they can finally find a good life, and have a better life. For them, and thier children can have this too. My people had to learn this too. I am a person that has many different people,from so many cultures as members of my family. I just do not understand why the northern and southern Mexican people must be fighting. As I understand, the people from Mexico are a very proud people. Everyone that has come to the USA, from another country feels the same thing. The Mexican people have a very long history. I can only ask, please stop the gang things. Please try and be friends. Think about the children. It is not very difficult to just go, and shake hands, and talk. Share stories, and not compete. |
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| Think about the future - Nov 18, 2009 06:27:45 PM | Remove Comment |
