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Barring his acceptance of a plea agreement offered
by the State of Arizona, a defendant in a double murder case will go to trial this May.
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Barring his acceptance of a plea agreement offered by the State of Arizona, a defendant in a double murder case will go to trial this May.
The defendant, 20-year-old Abram Oropeza, was charged in May 2020 with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of his grandparents, Jose and Katherine Oropeza, and one count of arson of an occupied structure. On April 27, 2020 the victims were found deceased, apparently from gunshot wounds, in a burning Claypool residence. After he was detained in a traffic stop, Abram Oropeza was taken to the Gila County Sheriff’s Office for questioning, then booked into the Gila County Jail. At his May 18, 2020 arraignment, he pleaded not guilty before Judge Bryan B. Chambers of Gila County Superior Court, Division One. Defense attorney Anna Ortiz filed a motion for a Rule 11 evaluation that July.
Rule 11 is a state rule governing defendants’ legal competence to stand trial, in which a court orders mental health experts to meet with the defendant to determine whether they understand the court proceedings and can assist in their own defense. Defendants found incompetent to stand trial are usually admitted to a restoration to competency program; the program’s goal is restoring the defendant to legal competency so that criminal proceedings can resume.
After a mid-September 2020 prescreening of Oropeza, the examining doctor recommended full Rule 11 screenings. Oropeza was subsequently admitted to, and completed, the restoration to competency program in Yavapai County. On Jan. 10, 2022 a case management conference was held before Judge Chambers. The state had recently offered a plea agreement, which Ortiz planned to discuss with her client. Oropeza has until January 31, when a status hearing will be held, to make a decision. In the event Oropeza turns down the agreement, Chambers set a trial date of May 18, 2022. The trial, if it takes place, will run for eight days at Ortiz’s request; the state had proposed a six-day trial. Ortiz indicated that should there be a trial she would enter an insanity plea for her client, and that she would also seek to revisit the competency issue.
