While the Eureka Reporter reports (DA says plea deal a possibility in murder retrial) that Gallegos is likely to cut a plea deal with the convicted murderer, Kesser, the Times Standard reports that the trial has been postponed:
Homicide retrial now looking to start Thursday
Chris Durant/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 08/15/2007 04:15:47 AM PDT
The retrial of a man suspected of hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife in 1991 has been postponed a few more days.
Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said Tuesday that the homicide retrial of Richard Craig Kesser now looks like it will start Thursday.
Last week, Gallegos said he believed the trial would start Monday.
Kesser and his girlfriend, Jennifer Gayle Leahy, allegedly hired Duane Chiara to kill Mary Kesser, reportedly for her life insurance money.
The young mother was killed in her N Street home in Fortuna.
She was stabbed multiple times with what was believed to be a machete-type of blade.
Chiara was arrested a day later when he was found hiding in a closet. A sawed-off shotgun was found nearby. The other two defendants were arrested after a month.
Retrials were granted to Kesser and Leahy by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based on the actions of a former deputy district attorney. The court found he rejected potential jurors “on the basis of their race, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”
It is unclear if Leahy and Kesser will be tried together.
Turns out, the next day, Gallegos does indeed cut a deal with Kesser, (Kesser cuts deal in murder case) not with Leahy, who played the lesser role in the murder for hire scheme they were convicted of, but with Kesser - who as part of the plea deal will "tell the truth" and presumably testify against Leahy.
It is part of the incomprehensible record of paul Gallegos, who will prosecute Sean Marsh for allowing his toddler to walk too far in front of him on the sleepy streets of Ferndale, but who will let jurderers and rapists strike deals.
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