NORTH COAST, Calif. – On Thursday afternoon in Mendocino County Superior Court, a Hopland man entered a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal stabbing case dating to 2008 on Hopland Rancheria.
The plea by Timothy Slade Elliott avoided a costly retrial of his disputed murder case surrounding the September 2008 death of Samuel Brandon Billy, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office.
On March 28, the First Appellate District Court directed the local court to reexamine the trial. At issue was whether Elliott, 40, of Hopland, got a fair trial in 2010 and whether he deserves a new one.
He claimed his public defender, Linda Thompson, was ineffective legal counsel and deprived him of his right to a fair trial, according to case records.
Superior Court Judge Richard Henderson denied the motion for a new trial at the time, and Elliott was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison.
An appellate attorney in September 2012 asked for a new trial based on “a prima facie case of ineffective assistance of trial counsel,” according to a March 28 order from the First Appellate District Court, which directed the local court to re-examine the trial.
County contract medical examiner Dr. Jason Trent testified in Elliott's 2010 murder trial that a knife – the alleged murder weapon – placed in evidence could certainly have made the 6.7-inch stab wound that killed Billy in September 2008.
In 2012, Trent changed his mind and in two sworn statements in Elliott's appeals process, said he thought the knife did not make the wound and that he had thought the knife blade in question was 3- to 4-inches, rather than the 1.65 inches it actually was.
Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman on Thursday granted Elliott a new trial, citing the lack of credibility surrounding Trent's changing testimony.
Elliott's attorney, Jan Cole-Wilson, and Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira told Judge Moorman that they had reached a stipulated agreement to reduce the murder charge against Elliott to voluntary manslaughter.
Elliott, who has already served five years in prison, faces a maximum sentence of seven years under the announced agreement.
Moorman set Sept. 10 as the date of sentencing for Elliott.