Post by CCADP on Aug 28, 2005 8:26:57 GMT -5
Blaylock case gets another prosecutor
Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer
A new prosecutor has been appointed in the murder trial of inmate Jon Christopher Blaylock after the judge ruled the previous attorneys should be recused.
Deputy District Attorney Joanne Uhlman, who works in the Fontana office of the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, appeared in court Friday for a hearing in the case. Blaylock is accused of killing an officer at the California Institution for Men at Chino.
Uhlman was assigned to the case after Judge Ingrid A. Uhler ruled in June that prosecutors from the DA's Rancho Cucamonga office could not participate in the case because they had reviewed Blaylock's confidential medical files, which were obtained illegally.
Blaylock's lawyers had asked the judge to recuse the entire district attorney staff from the case, alleging that they were biased against the defendant. They pointed to District Attorney Michael Ramos' announcement in February that he would seek the death penalty against Blaylock as evidence.
The judge didn't buy that argument but did say she felt the case should be reassigned because of the files.
On Friday, the judge told Joe Canty, Blaylock's attorney, that she had not yet determined whether any of the files' contents could be used as evidence
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during the trial.
"I've been slowly going through the documentation,' Judge Uhler said.
Blaylock, in shackles and an orange jumpsuit labeled "CDC Prisoner,' sat silently throughout the brief hearing, responding with a simple "Yes' when the judge asked if he was OK with continuing his next hearing until November.
He stands accused of stabbing to death Manuel A. Gonzalez, a 16-year correctional officer, at CIM in January.
Since the killing, a pair of investigative reports have blamed operational failures at the prison for Gonzalez's death. For example, prison policies required Blaylock to be held in a segregation cell because of his violent history, but he was kept in general population for several months.
As a result of the incident, the warden and two deputy wardens at CIM were suspended in March and removed from their positions in June.
Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer
A new prosecutor has been appointed in the murder trial of inmate Jon Christopher Blaylock after the judge ruled the previous attorneys should be recused.
Deputy District Attorney Joanne Uhlman, who works in the Fontana office of the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, appeared in court Friday for a hearing in the case. Blaylock is accused of killing an officer at the California Institution for Men at Chino.
Uhlman was assigned to the case after Judge Ingrid A. Uhler ruled in June that prosecutors from the DA's Rancho Cucamonga office could not participate in the case because they had reviewed Blaylock's confidential medical files, which were obtained illegally.
Blaylock's lawyers had asked the judge to recuse the entire district attorney staff from the case, alleging that they were biased against the defendant. They pointed to District Attorney Michael Ramos' announcement in February that he would seek the death penalty against Blaylock as evidence.
The judge didn't buy that argument but did say she felt the case should be reassigned because of the files.
On Friday, the judge told Joe Canty, Blaylock's attorney, that she had not yet determined whether any of the files' contents could be used as evidence
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during the trial.
"I've been slowly going through the documentation,' Judge Uhler said.
Blaylock, in shackles and an orange jumpsuit labeled "CDC Prisoner,' sat silently throughout the brief hearing, responding with a simple "Yes' when the judge asked if he was OK with continuing his next hearing until November.
He stands accused of stabbing to death Manuel A. Gonzalez, a 16-year correctional officer, at CIM in January.
Since the killing, a pair of investigative reports have blamed operational failures at the prison for Gonzalez's death. For example, prison policies required Blaylock to be held in a segregation cell because of his violent history, but he was kept in general population for several months.
As a result of the incident, the warden and two deputy wardens at CIM were suspended in March and removed from their positions in June.