Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez pleaded not guilty Friday to attempted murder in Santa Clara County, California, his attorney, Mark Geragos, told ESPN.
Velasquez, 40, is charged with attempted murder and 10 other gun-related charges stemming from an incident in which he allegedly chased a man, Harry Goularte — who is accused of abusing a young relative of Velasquez — and shot gun into Goularte’s vehicle, striking Goularte’s stepfather, Paul Bender. Velasquez has been in jail since February 28 and has been denied bail on three separate occasions.
A pretrial hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 26, where Geragos expects to be able to get witnesses to testify, the attorney said. If the case isn’t dismissed at that point, he said, then it will go to trial, which could begin before the end of the year.
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Geragos said prosecutors would not call Goularte to testify at the preliminary hearing or at trial, which he called “nonsense.” A motion hearing will be held Aug. 29 to discuss whether Gularte not testifying is fair to Velazquez. Geragos said the only charge Velasquez faces that could land him in prison for life is attempted murder, and Goularte is the alleged victim of that charge.
Goularte was released from custody on Feb. 25 without bond after being arrested on a charge of lewd or lascivious acts toward a child under 14 years of age.
“They are desperately trying to escape the fact that the system failed Cain,” Geragos said. “They don’t want to get involved. They want to watch a case that is detached from reality.”
Geragos added that he found it contradictory that the same office was trying Velasquez and Goularte in their respective cases, saying it was serving “two masters.”
Velazquez followed Gularte’s truck in his own vehicle in an “11-mile high-speed chase” through the city of San Jose, rammed the truck and fired several times with a .40-caliber handgun into the truck, which was carrying Gularte, Bender and Gularte’s mother, Patricia, according to the office of the prosecutor’s office. Bender was struck by a bullet but suffered non-life threatening injuries.
A relative of Velasquez, who is under the age of 10, told police on Feb. 24 that Goularte took them into a daycare bathroom and touched their genitals, according to a court document. The child said Goularte told him not to tell anyone what happened and that this situation could have happened “100 times.” The child told police they witnessed Goularte also enter the bathroom with other children.
The kindergarten is owned by Goularte’s mother. She and Goularte denied any wrongdoing. Velasquez’s family also filed a negligence and sexual assault lawsuit against Goularte, Patricia and Bender.
Goularte pleaded guilty to the criminal charge in June and is scheduled for another court hearing on September 20.
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