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.
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.
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