WOODLAND — A week-long preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing his five infant children will be held in late May in a Yolo County courtroom.
Paul Allen Perez faces five counts of murder with special circumstances in connection with the deaths, which authorities say occurred between 1992 and 2001. One infant boy’s body was found in Yolo County in 2007.
Yolo Superior Court Judge David Reed set aside May 26-29 for Perez’s preliminary hearing, where prosecutors plan to unveil their evidence in the case, followed by Reed’s ruling as to whether it’s sufficient enough to uphold the charges.
Perez is eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the special circumstances, though Deputy District Attorney Amanda Zambor said Monday her office has not yet determined whether it will seek capital punishment.
“There’s a significant amount of work that goes into making that decision,” Zambor told Reed during a brief court hearing where the ongoing discovery process also was discussed.
Assistant Chief Deputy Public Defender Ron Johnson, who represents Perez, said in court filings his office hasn’t received any discovery in the case since late January, several days after the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office announced Perez’s arrest as a result of a familial DNA match.
One document, a notice of motion to compel discovery, identifies the mother of the deceased children as Yolanda Perez, about whom defense attorneys are seeking information about “immunity agreements and/or documentation of associated conversations.”
Zambor noted Monday that additional discovery is forthcoming, including audio and video of interviews conducted in the case.
Perez, 57, is due back in court April 7 for a status conference.
He was just days away from release from state prison after serving time for a Yolo County vehicle theft and evading conviction when he was arrested in the current case, which in addition to five counts of premeditated, first-degree murder also charges him with assault on a child and the special circumstances of multiple murders, torture and lying in wait.
Paul Allen Perez’s alleged victims. Authorities say he’s the father of all five children. Owen Yancher/Enterprise photo
The investigation began in 2007 with a fisherman’s discovery of a weighted-down metal cooler in Conway Slough near Woodland. Inside were the remains of baby Nikko Lee Perez, who was born in November 1996 and likely was less than six months old when he suffered blunt-force trauma and died, coroner’s officials said.
At a Jan. 27 news conference announcing Perez’s arrest, Sheriff Tom Lopez said homicide investigators ultimately discovered “that Nikko was not an only child. We also learned that four of his siblings suffered his same fate,” though only one other infant’s body has been located.
All five children were born in Fresno and Merced counties, though a cousin who attended Perez’s arraignment hearing told reporters he grew up in Yolo County.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
Cold-case arrest made in baby’s 2007 death, four other infant homicides