|
Slaying suspect awaits court date
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 10:23 AM PDT
A man accused in the death of a Charleston man will appear in court Thursday for a plea-change hearing at the Coos County courthouse.
Benito Rincon-Flores, 33, is scheduled to appear before Judge Michael Gillespie at 1 p.m. He was charged Feb. 8 with the 2006 murder of Harvey Davis, a local fisherman and mushroom picker.
Davis is believed to have been killed on Aug. 10, 2006. Someone shot him repeatedly with a pistol. Coos County Sheriff’s deputies discovered Davis’ body in a shallow grave in the Coos County Forest near Ted Ellingson Road, on Aug. 12, 2006, when an informant led them to the corpse.
Thursday’s hearing could mean a number of things for the San Jose resident, said Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier. Either the defense — Eugene attorney Daniel Koenig — will request more time to review the discovery, enter a plea to the charge or set a trial date. Frasier said he could not discuss whether a plea deal has been discussed, but he has not talked with Koenig recently about the case.
Rincon-Flores also faces sentencing on a charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants from an earlier incident. He was arrested fall 2007 in Santa Clara County, Calif., in an unrelated incident, before being returned to Coos County for arraignment.
At Rincon-Flores’ arraignment in February, Gillespie told the man he could potentially receive a one-year sentence and $6,250 fine on the DUII charge if found guilty, and a life sentence with the possibility of release after 25 years, if he is convicted of the murder charge.
Koenig is defending Rincon-Flores on both charges. |