Ruben Mize and Jacob Medina — accused in the September 2007 stabbing assault of a juvenile on the Westside — appeared with their attorneys before Judge Frank Ochoa on Monday to address a number of pretrial motions. Key among these were motions from Medina’s defense attorney Bill Glisson to sever his client’s case from Mize’s.
The motion to sever the two cases comes as no surprise, as Mize has established himself as a bad man to be associated with these days. His unpopularity as a codefendant stems from an attempted murder conviction, as well as attempted murder and murder charges he currently faces.
As well, there are voluminous amounts of evidence — rap songs that he wrote and recorded as well as taped conversations he had with police informants — that appear to establish his willingness to commit the very types of violent crimes that he, and his codefendants, find themselves accused of.
In both this case and another that Mize is also currently facing charges for — the 2007 murder of Lorenzo Carachure — attorneys representing his codefendants have repeatedly claimed that their clients will be found guilty by association, and as such will be denied their right to a fair trial. Judge Ochoa disagreed here, however, and denied the request from Medina.
The motion to dismiss was argued by Glisson as a means through which to compel the District Attorney’s Office to refile the charges against his client in a more appropriate jurisdiction. Glisson asserted that since his client was 17 years old at the time of the attack, it was only appropriate that the case be prosecuted through the juvenile courts. Ochoa again disagreed, citing the District Attorney’s legal prerogative in such matters, and denied this motion as well.
Mize and Medina will be in court again on November 8, when pretrial matters and jury selection concerns will be addressed. Until then, Mize remains in County Jail, and Medina remains free on bond. He appears in court for the Carachure case tomorrow.