Cop-killing trial to start December 2009

WOODLAND – Prosecutors and defense lawyers will have more than a year to prepare for the capital murder trial of Marco Antonio Topete.

The Arbuckle man accused of fatally shooting a Yolo County sheriff's deputy faces a trial scheduled to start on Dec. 3, 2009. Judge Timothy Fall on Friday set the trial date for Topete, who faces a possible death penalty in connection to the slaying June 15 of Jose Antonio "Tony" Diaz.

Jury selection is slated to last two weeks with testimony to start on Jan. 11, 2010, Fall said during the half-hour hearing in Yolo County Superior Court.

Topete's lawyers entered a not-guilty plea on their client's behalf on all the charges, which include murder, felony evasion of peace officers and child endangerment.

Diaz died in a shootout on a Dunnigan road after a pursuit of Topete's car. He was the first Yolo County deputy in 65 years to be murdered on duty.

Topete, who was paroled last year after serving nine years in prison for a previous shooting, was arrested nearby after a 12-hour manhunt. He has been held without bail in the Sacramento County jail.

Topete's lawyers and District Attorney Jeff W. Reisig had filed dueling motions this week, with the defense seeking to push the trial into May 2010 and Reisig asking to start it within five months. Prosecutors said an excessive delay would violate Proposition 9, which California voters approved Nov. 4 and declares speedy trials to be the right of crime victims.

The compromise date of December clears time for Hayes Gable III, one of Topete's two lawyers, to defend another murder suspect next July. In that trial, Gable will represent Aaron Norman Dunn, a Marysville man accused of killing two people during a 2006 shooting spree in Elk Grove.

Reisig announced in October he would seek the death penalty against Topete. If Topete is convicted, jurors would then have to unanimously agree on his execution, or else he would receive life imprisonment with no parole.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.