Johnathan Antonio Mota, 25, of Clearlake Park was scheduled to be in Superior Court Judge Steve Hedstrom's Department 4 courtroom in Clearlake Friday for a preliminary hearing.

Mota faces charges of felony second-degree robbery for the Dec. 8 armed robbery of Clearlake's Bank of the West.

In addition, he's charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest after a Dec. 31 standoff with police.

However, prosecutor John Langan of the District Attorney's Office reported that Mota's case was put over until next month after defense attorney Marta Cadloni requested more time.

Langan said Cadloni had 50 pages of additional discovery materials, as well as reports coming in from the Department of Justice.

“That's a good cause to continue it,” he said.

In addition, Langan said it appeared that Mota's family is attempting to hire a private attorney to take over his case.

“I can't say for certain if that's going to happen or not,” he said.

Hedstrom rescheduled Mota's preliminary hearing for March 1, said Langan, with a conference scheduled with the judge and attorneys on Feb. 23 to find out if Mota's defense attorney will change.

Langan said he didn't oppose the postponement because there were good reasons for it.

“We want to move it along quickly, but we don't want to do it twice,” he said.

Mota remains in custody at the Lake County Jail. Bail in his case originally was set at $100,000 for the robbery charge, but last month was raised to $1 million, with an additional $5,000 in bail for the charge of resisting arrest.

Mota's Dec. 31 arrest followed a standoff with law enforcement at the Elem Colony, where his sister reportedly lives. Elem Colony leaders say Mota is not an Elem member.

The amount of money Mota is alleged to have taken during the robbery has not been disclosed.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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