Court briefs Court briefs (April 01, 2005)

Chavez trial begins

Jury selection is scheduled to begin as soon as Monday in the trial of Enrique Chavez, the San Jose man accused of beating Doris Condon to her death in late 2003.

A court-ordered doctor determined in early March that Chavez was fit to stand trial, and he will face the jury alone. David Olayo and Jose Sosa, his alleged accomplices in the murder of the 77-year old Mountain View resident, have been granted separate trials.

Prosecutor Dan Fehderau and defense attorney Ed Nino were scheduled to be in court Wednesday morning to argue the admissibility of various pieces of evidence. Two witnesses have given testimony, and police say a trail of orange peels with traces of Chavez's DNA traced his path from the getaway car to the living room of Condon's Jardin Avenue home.

Alleged hit-and-run driver arraigned

Another murder trial in the death of a Mountain View resident is expected to begin in May. David Espino was arraigned Monday on murder charges in the February 2004 hit-and-run collision that left Mountain View resident Jim Dein dead.

Dein was riding his bike on Highway 9 along with his friend Ted Aberg, a Palo Alto resident whom family members say will never fully recover from his injuries. Bicycle advocates have seized on the case and organized to push for increased safety measures on Highway 9.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.