The Collegian

1/28/05 • Vol. 129, No. 48     California State University, Fresno

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Pettis will stand trial

Pell Grant system reformed

Engineering students say classes, equipment inadequate

Pettis will stand trial

By TASHA GALLEGOS

The two-day preliminary hearing of Terry Pettis, a former Fresno State basketball player accused of murder, ended Thursday with a decision to go to trial.

“It was expected. It’s just one step in the process,” said Michael O. Castro, Pettis’ attorney.

Pettis
Former Fresno State basketball player Terry Pettis appeared in court this week to face murder charges.  His girlfriend Melisa Cenci changed her testimony.  Photo by Joseph Hollak

Judge Brad R. Hill ruled Thursday there was “probable” and “reasonable” cause for Pettis to stand trial on all charges.


Pettis, 20, is charged with the murder of 18-year-old Rene Abbott on April 27, 2004, the attempted murder of Abbott’s boyfriend, Kent Wolf, and robbery.


The courtroom was filled with about 30 people Wednesday as five witnesses took the stand throughout the course of the day. Key testimony came from Pettis’ girlfriend of two years, Melissa Cenci, who repeatedly said she could not remember what she had told chief investigator Mike Garcia in interviews conducted in May 2004.


In the interviews, Cenci said Pettis told her he may have shot something but didn’t know if anyone was hurt. Cenci also told Garcia that Pettis was crying hysterically the night of the shooting, but she didn’t know why.


Cenci said she made these statements to Garcia in the interviews but that they weren’t true.


“I was very scared at the time,” she said. “I remember being traumatized by [the officers]. I was concerned for [Pettis].”


Maureen Abbott, the mother of Rene Abbott, shook her head several times on Wednesday as Cenci recanted her story. Cenci said Pettis never told her those things directly. She said she heard them from other people. Cenci also said Pettis was crying because they had been fighting, but he was not crying hysterically.


On Thursday, Garcia was recalled to the witness stand to testify that Cenci had told him in the pre-recorded interviews last year that she got her information directly from Pettis and not anyone else.


Garcia’s testimony also included a description of the crime scene and the autopsy report. Garcia gave a detailed account of where the bullet entered and exited Abbott’s head, making her father, Ron Abbott, sob in the courtroom.


Matthew Sinor, an identification technician for the Fresno County Police Department, testified that a palm print found on the outside of the driver’s window matched that of Pettis.


Sinor said an additional palm print found at the top of the door frame could not be matched. He said several fingerprints were found on the vehicle that did not match Pettis, Abbott, Wolf, or Mike Tunnell, who was sitting in Abbott’s car when the shooting occurred.


Dreike Bouldin and his girlfriend at the time, Ashley Mohammadi, also testified. Both said Pettis was near the crime scene before the shooting occurred but both said they did not actually see whether Pettis committed the crime.


Pettis wore a dark blue suit Wednesday and a white collared dress shirt Thursday. He sat with his head down but looked around the courtroom several times. During a court recess, he motioned to Cenci that he wanted to see his daughter, whom Cenci gave birth to last August.


Ron and Maureen Abbott declined to comment during or after the hearing.


Pettis’ father, Michael Tate, declined to comment after the ruling Thursday as well, but Tate was willing to comment Wednesday after Cenci’s testimony.


“I have faith,” Tate said. “I carry my Bible with me. My prayers are with the Abbott family.”


Castro said the next step is the arraignment and then the trial. Hill set the next court date for Feb. 9 at 8:30 a.m.