Building defense difficult, attorney says

By Donna Taketa
The Collegian

Former Fresno State basketball player Terry Pettis will wait in jail another couple of months as his pending murder trial is again delayed.

The December trial date has been postponed until as late as January 2006, said Pettis’ defense attorney, Michael Castro. A trial date should be agreed upon in November.

The original trial date had been scheduled for September, but was delayed because the defense needed more time to prepare, the Fresno Bee reported last month. This time the District attorney made the request, Castro said, because “I suspect they didn’t want the trial running into Christmastime.”

Pettis is charged with the murder of Fresno City College student Rene Shannon Abbott, 18, and the shooting of her boyfriend, Kent Wolf, 22, in a drug deal that went sour, police said. The murder occurred near campus on April 27, 2004.

Pettis, 21, has pleaded not guilty.

In the meantime, Castro said his client is waiting patiently.

“He is making the best of a bad situation,” said Castro. “Of course he would like things to go faster, but he understands that everything takes time.

Pettis will not face the death penalty, a decision prosecutor Doug Haas announced in April. Instead Pettis faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Preparing a defense is a difficult process, Castro said.

“Remember, so many people were students and have left the area,” he said. “Not many want to come back to Fresno and be involved in anyway, but we need the entire story to come out.”

Castro said he does not think the media’s coverage of his client will adversely affect Pettis’ trial. However, he doesn’t like the associations drawn between the trial and the Fresno State basketball program.

“It shouldn’t be in the sports page, but should be covered like any other trial of its nature,” Castro said. “I hate for it to reflect on the sports program, but should be kept in its own context.”

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