Cain Velasquez attempted murder trial expected to begin next year
The attempted murder trial for former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is slated to begin in January 2024 according to a report from Damon Martin of MMAFighting.com.
According to the report, yesterday Judge Daniel Nishigaya granted an additional extension to Velasquez’s legal team for the trial setting on the condition that an actual date would be set at the next hearing.
“I am willing to give this another setting date with the understanding that I will be intending to set a trial date in the middle to later part of January on Dec. 6,” Nishigaya told Velasquez’s attorneys as well as Santa Clara County prosecutor Aaron French.
Velasquez was arrested and charged in February 2022 for allegedly going on a high-speed chase and firing a handgun multiple times at a car carrying Harry Goularte, the man facing separate charges for allegedly sexually molesting Velasquez’s four-year-old son at a daycare owned and operated by Goularte’s mother.
Goularte’s stepfather Paul Bender was struck in the leg by a bullet allegedly fired by Velasquez.
Velasquez spent eight months behind bars until he was finally granted bail in November 2022 when Judge Arthur Bocanegra granted his release on $1 million bond, along with conditions that the retired fighter wear a GPS ankle monitor and undergoes outpatient treatment for traumatic brain injury and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
The exact date for the trial will be set on Dec. 6. Velasquez will then be expected back in court in January, when he faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted on all charges.
