Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC through Getty Pictures
Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velazquez has pled no contest to an tried homicide cost and 9 gun assault crimes in change for a to-be-determined lighter sentence, per Robert Salonga of The Mercury Information.
Velazquez is accused of capturing at a person accused of molesting his four-year-old son at a San Martin, California, daycare, which the person’s mom owned and the place the person also lived. ESPN’s Andreas Hale supplied extra info.
“Velasquez was accused of capturing at a pickup truck carrying Harry Goularte — the person accused of molesting Velasquez’s then 4-year-old son at a daycare owned by Goularte’s mom — throughout an 11-mile automotive chase on the afternoon of Feb. 28, 2022. Goularte was being pushed by his stepfather, Paul Bender, as they traveled from Morgan Hill to San Jose. Velasquez reportedly fired a number of rounds on the automobile with a .40 caliber handgun that missed his supposed goal and struck Bender within the arm and torso. Velasquez was arrested with out incident following the automotive chase.”
Velazquez entered the plea earlier than Decide Arthur Bocanegra on the Santa Clara County Corridor of Justice in San Jose, California, per Hale.
Due to the no-contest plea, premeditated homicide fees in opposition to Velazquez will now be dropped, per Hale. Velazquez will now keep away from a compulsory life sentence in jail.
So far as Velazquez’s sentencing is anxious, Salonga reported {that a} listening to is scheduled for Oct. 18. Nonetheless, the precise sentencing is not anticipated till someday later in 2024.
The Santa Clara County probation division will give a sentence suggestion report, per Salonga, and it will likely be “weighing the severity of his crime together with potential mitigating elements, together with his lack of prison historical past and the sexual abuse case during which his son is a reported sufferer.”
Per Hale, Velasquez was launched from jail in November 2022 after posting $1 million bail. He’s underneath residence detention and supervised monitoring situations, per Salonga.
Goularte is dealing with little one molestation fees.
