E.O. Green School Shooting - Pretrial Legal Proceedings

Pretrial Legal Proceedings

In February 2008, McInerney's lawyer, William Quest, was considering a change of venue. On July 24, 2008, Judge Douglas Daily of the Ventura County Superior Court ruled that McInerney would stand trial as an adult, with the decision being appealed.

On August 7, 2008, in the same court, McInerney pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder and a hate crime. A preliminary hearing was set for September 23, 2008, which had been rescheduled for October 14, 2008.

On September 23, 2008, the court appointed Willard Wiksell, a lawyer from Ventura, guardian ad litem for McInerney. Previously, McInerney's family took steps to fire his lawyer, William Quest, of the Public Defenders Office and hire the United Defense Group, a criminal defense law firm from Los Angeles. However, the Public Defenders Office filed a petition stating that the United Defense Group might not have McInerney's best interests in mind.

On October 14, 2008, after the court received a report from the appointed guardian ad litem, and the court determined that the defendant had not been coerced into changing representation and knew what he was doing, the Ventura County Superior Court allowed McInerney to fire his Public Defender, William Quest, and the Public Defenders Office, and hire the United Defense Group together with attorney Robyn Bramson as his attorneys. The court also denied a motion to gag the defendant's former representatives from the Public Defenders Office from speaking about the case, especially to the media.

On December 8, 2008, Ventura County Superior Court ruled that McInerney, after being evaluated by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, was competent to stand trial. That same day, Scott S. Wippert, of the United Defense Group, filed a legal motion for discovery, asking the court to order the district attorney to provide documents to uncover whether prosecutors exercised discretion in sending McInerney's case to the adult court system. On December 29, 2008, Judge Rebecca Riley denied the motion, stating that there was no evidence of abuse of discretion in transferring McInerney from juvenile to adult court.

On January 26, 2009, the preliminary hearing was postponed until March 17, to give McInerney's lawyers time to appeal Judge Riley's rejection of the December motion for discovery. On March 18, 2009, the hearing was once again postponed, when William McInerney, the father of Brandon, was found dead in his living room in the Silver Strand area near Oxnard after he sustained an accidental head injury from a fall. Brandon McInerney was granted Judge Riley's permission to leave the juvenile detention facility and attend his father's funeral.

On August 27, 2009, at his arraignment in Ventura County Superior Court, McInerney pleaded not guilty to all charges. The judge, Bruce Young, set the pretrial hearing date for October 23, 2009, and a trial start date for December 1, 2009.

On September 1, 2009, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin DeNoce ruled that the addition of a lying-in-wait allegation to the list of charges was acceptable. The addition of this allegation would automatically mean that the case must be heard in an adult court. The addition was petitioned, and in November the Ventura 2nd District Appellate Court denied the request to overturn the earlier ruling, finding that the District Attorney’s Office did not act vindictively in adding the lying-in-wait allegation to the murder charge.

On January 21, 2010, the State Supreme Court rejected the petition to overturn the earlier ruling by the Ventura County Superior Court judge.

After a postponement from May 14, 2010, McInerney’s trial was set to commence on July 14, 2010, in Ventura County Superior Court, but was again postponed. A hearing was slated for April 4, 2011, to determine whether McInerney's attorneys would be ready for a trial beginning on May 2. Previous postponements followed motions from defense attorneys requesting recusal of the district attorney, a change of venue, and more time for fact-finding. In August 2010, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell ruled that the trial would proceed in Ventura County with jurors selected from Santa Barbara County On December 6, 2010, Campbell denied the motion for recusal.

A California appeals court affirmed on May 5, 2011, that the juvenile records of the victim, Lawrence King, will remain sealed after a lower court refused the request of the McInerney defense team for the records.

After multiple delays, the trial began on July 5, 2011, with a change of venue to Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California. Multiple previously scheduled dates were bypassed for various reasons, and plans or requests to move the venue or use jurors from other locations in California were not realized.