Lawyer for suspect in Rialto officer's killing challenges judge's order
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By Mike Cruz
Staff Writer
The lawyer for a man charged with the deadly shooting of a Rialto SWAT officer is challenging a judge's holding order.
George Wright, who represents Kris Antonio Wiggins, filed a motion to challenge a May 29 ruling from Judge Ingrid Uhler to hold over Wiggins for trial.
Wiggins, 33, appeared briefly Friday in Fontana Superior Court.
Wright, a deputy public defender, is challenging Uhler's ruling, which prohibited the defense from calling a police officer to testify as a defense witness at a May 29 preliminary hearing.
"It was the judge's opnion that the witness was going to testify to something that wasn't relevant and was hearsay," Wright said Monday in a telephone conversation. Wright was not Wiggins' lawyer at the preliminary hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Cary Epstein confirmed the challenge to Uhler's holding order. The motion will be addressed Nov. 14, when Wiggins returns to court.
Prosecutors have charged Wiggins with murder, claiming that he fired a SWAT officer's rifle while struggling with that officer during a narcotics raid Oct. 18, 2007 at Wiggins' West Cascade Drive apartment.
SWAT Officer Sergio Carrera Jr., a 29-year-old father of two from Beaumont, was struck and killed.
Wiggins has denied the charges. The defense has questioned in court the SWAT team's tactics, suggesting another officer's hands were on the rifle and alleged the shooting might have been "friendly fire."
Dates were also set Friday for a trial readiness hearing Dec. 5 and for the trial to begin Dec. 8.
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