WOODLAND — The sentencing hearing in a Davis hate-crime case has been postponed until January while attorneys determine whether a plea agreement reached earlier this fall needs to be revised.
Clayton Daniel Garzon pleaded no contest in September to a felony, battery causing serious bodily injury, with a hate-crime enhancement for the March 10 beating of Lawrence “Mikey” Partida, 32. Authorities say Garzon targeted Partida in the I Street assault because of his sexual orientation.
The plea deal called for a five-year prison term to be served in the Yolo County Jail, but Garzon’s original Oct. 30 sentencing was put off amid questions over whether he could serve his sentence locally under California’s prison realignment measure, which reserves county jail space for offenders convicted of nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual felonies.
“Although all parties were satisfied with the original plea agreement, we cannot go forward with this agreement due to changes in the law as a result of realignment,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said Wednesday. “As for the possibility of a new plea agreement, the DA’s Office will not enter into any plea agreement that does not satisfy Mikey and his family; I just spoke to Mikey and his mother about some options.
“If an agreement cannot be reached between both parties, we will proceed to trial.”
Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg rescheduled the sentencing hearing for Jan. 15. Garzon’s attorney, Linda Parisi, was in trial in Sacramento on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
Garzon, 20, remains in custody at the Yolo County Jail, where he has been held since Oct. 23 as a result of technical violations involving the GPS monitoring system he wore after posting bail last spring.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow on her Twitter at @laurenkeene