Preliminary hearing for former athlete begins today

STAFF REPORTS
The Collegian

A preliminary hearing for former Fresno State men’s basketball player Terry Pettis begins today in a Fresno courtroom.

Pettis is accused of the murder of Fresno City College student Rene Abbott in a parking lot on 9th Street, near campus, on April 27. He is also accused of shooting Abbott’s boyfriend, Kent Wolf. Wolf was injured.

The shooting allegedly took place after Pettis went to the parking lot to buy marijuana.

Pettis, who had recently been dismissed from the basketball team by coach Ray Lopes for conduct detrimental to the team, was in Minnesota, where a judge had allowed him to relocate in order to enter a batterer’s treatment program.

The order to enter batterer’s treatment stemmed from a domestic violence incident in September 2003.

When Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer announced they had issued an arrest warrant for Pettis on suspicion of murder, he turned himself in to Minneapolis police.

Pettis remained in Minnesota until July 20—and even fought extradition to California for a brief time—when he returned to Fresno to face the charges against him.

In September, Pettis pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and vandalism, for which he was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to enter the batterer’s treatment program. Pettis was later arrested in a Fresno County courtroom for failing to complete a treatment program in California.