Plea deal deadline extended in murder case

CLOVIS — A plea deal deadline was established in district court Tuesday for a Clovis man slated to stand trial later this month for first-degree murder.

Jonathan Cruz, 25, is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 30 through Feb. 3 on charges connected to the 2015 shooting death of Joseph “Jo Jo” Chavez.

Judge Matthew Chandler issued a deadline of next week by which the state and attorney representing Cruz reach a plea deal.

“Today was the plea deadline, but he (Cruz) has rejected the state’s plea offer,” Chandler said. “The court will extend the deadline on this matter to 4 p.m. on Jan. 26,” he said. “Any plea that would be extended or accepted beyond that would be at the court’s discretion. If the court has not heard from the parties regarding any type of notice of intent to plea, we will assume we are moving forward.”

Cruz is represented by Herman Chico Gallegos, who presented basis for the desired plea deadline.

“I have had an opportunity to meet with Mr. Cruz on two occasions, including as recently as this morning,” he said. “He has rejected the state’s latest plea offer. Because there are a couple of witnesses the defense still needs to interview prior to trial — that may or may not have an impact on how we view the case. The other reason, without going into specifics of the plea itself, is there is a significant difference in his exposure in the offer as it stands today and should he be convicted at trial. The more time he has to reach a well-reasoned decision, as long as it does not frustrate the court or the state, I think it’s timely.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover is overseeing the state’s case.

“The state is prepared to move forward with trial on the matter,” he said. “We have been in plea negotiations. I don’t think we’ve reached a resolution as of yet. There is one more interview defense has requested that we are accommodating this week, with the witness being served and contacted, so we’ll get that set up.”