WOODLAND — A September trial date has been set for a man accused of causing a Davis child’s 2014 death.
Darnell D’Angelo Dorsey’s previously scheduled March trial was put on hold after one of his public defenders, Martha Sequeira, sought to have Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson disqualified from the case, alleging that he held a bias against her and her office.
An outside judge, Scott T. Steffen of the Stanislaus Superior Court, rejected Sequeira’s motion last week, saying it failed to demonstrate that Richardson could not preside over the case fairly and impartially.
With multiple medical experts slated to testify for both the prosecution and the defense, attorneys in the case consulted one another to find suitable court dates, deciding upon a Sept. 6 start for trial testimony.
Pretrial motions will be heard a month earlier, starting Aug. 1, followed by three to four days of jury selection to begin on Aug. 8. The trial itself is expected to last about four weeks.
Dorsey, 23, is accused of fatally beating his girlfriend’s toddler son, Cameron Morrison, in January 2014 while caring for the boy and his brother at the woman’s Olive Drive residence.
He has admitted to slapping and shaking the boy, but claims he did so after discovering the toddler unconscious and possibly choking on food. He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault on a child resulting in death.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene