How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Kelseyville man who the US Attorney's Office has charged for a January murder made his latest court appearance last week, unsuccessfully attempting to dismiss his attorney and objecting to prosecutors' request for additional time that a judge granted.
Last Friday, Jonathan Antonio Mota, 31 – who remains in federal custody – appeared in a San Francisco courtroom with his attorney, Richard Mazer, for a 78-minute hearing before District Court Judge Jon S. Tigar.
In June federal prosecutors secured an indictment against Mota for the murder of 33-year-old Kelseyville resident Forrest Seagrave, as Lake County News has reported.
Mota is accused of entering the Mt. Konocti Gas and Mart in Main Street in Kelseyville late on the night of Friday, Jan. 18, to rob the store.
It's there that it's alleged Mota shot Seagrave, a longtime store employee, before fleeing on foot. Seagrave died later that night.
Mota is charged with use or possession of a firearm in a murder, use or possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, robbery affecting interstate commerce and felon in possession of a firearm.
On Friday, Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn Haun successfully moved for an exclusion of time through Nov. 15 under the Speedy Trial Act, citing the prosecution's complexity and the need to give the defense adequate time to prepare, according to court records.
Since Mota's previous appearance in court on Friday, July 12, federal prosecutors have produced 4,744 pages of discovery – including police reports – with several thousand more pages of discovery, phone records “and days worth of video surveillance” said to be forthcoming, the hearing record stated.
While Mota didn't agree with the US Attorney's Office's request for more time, Judge Tigar nonetheless granted the motion, ruling the time through Nov. 15 was excluded from the time limits calculated under the Speedy Trial Act.
The act requires that criminal defendants in federal prosecutions be brought to trial within 70 days of either an indictment or first appearance in court, according to the statute.
Mota also made an ex parte motion for substitution of counsel, with a 41-minute portion of his appearance set aside for a confidential hearing on the motion, with only Mota, Mazer and the judge present. Tigar ultimately denied Mota's motion, according to court records.
With Mota's counsel informing the court of pending filings – including motions to suppress and dismiss – Tigar set a briefing schedule that will see motions for both sides filed over the next three months, with a nonevidentiary hearing set for Oct. 25, according to the hearing's minutes.
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