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A 25-year-old Vallejo man charged with three killings in the city over a three-month period in late 2014 and early 2015 will face a March jury trial, and, if convicted, possibly the death penalty.
Lorenzo Mateo Cortez on Wednesday appeared in Department 7 of Solano County Superior Court for a readiness conference in the Justice Building in Vallejo.
During the afternoon session, Cortez, shackled and clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, his black hair curly, his face bearded, listened to the discussions between his defense attorneys, Jon C. Weir of Martinez and Thomas Kensok of Napa, and Judge Tim R. Kam.
Deputy District Attorney Mark Ornellas, substituting for Senior Deputy District Attorney Julie Underwood, who leads the prosecution, represented the people using a remote online connection.
Weir asked if the current COVID-19 surge, brought on by the omicron variant, would affect the previously scheduled March 22 jury trial. Kam said it did not.
Cortez is charged with the Nov. 3, 2014, murder of Isaac Lopez-Reid, 18; the Dec. 20, 2014, murder of Luis Perez, 18; and the Jan. 10, 2015, murder of William Brown, 20. All were shot in Vallejo.
Vallejo police investigators, who arrested Cortez for the killings on March 2, 2015, while he was in Solano County on several other unrelated felonies, believe Cortez shot the first victim because Lopez-Reid had accused him of being “a snitch.” Investigators also believe the fatal shootings of Perez and Brown were execution-style killings, with both victims robbed of money and their belongings. Cortez was 19 when he committed the alleged crimes.
The Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed its complaint against Cortez on March 2, 2015. He remains in custody without bail on the murder charges in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.
At one point during the Wednesday proceeding, Cortez told Kam that he is currently representing himself, but Kam also asked him if he wanted legal representation during the penalty phase, if convicted of the three murders.
Cortez said he wished to represent himself during the penalty phase, prompting Kam to call it “an unwise move,” despite a defendant’s right of self-representation, given that court-appointed attorneys were “ready, willing and able” to represent him.
Kensok told Kam he had filed a “discovery motion” on Jan. 7, asking the state for details of police reports, details about the victims, and circumstances surrounding the alleged crimes, among other things.
Cortez and his attorneys will return to Department 7 for another readiness conference and to discuss the motion at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 2.
Court records also show that there were, at one time, two co-defendants in the case, Jeman D. Baker and John Kevin Johnson, but it appears their cases have been dismissed.
Typically, in death-penalty cases, two attorneys represent a defendant, and the penalty phase also is usually heard by the same jurors who convicted during the trial phase.
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