Cain Velasquez advocates strikeout count for 2022 shootouts

SAN JOSE – Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez faces an attempted-murder trial for a violent 2022 car chase in which he repeatedly shot a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s son but wounded him the man’s stepfather, pleaded no contest Friday to his charges instead. for possible leniency in sentencing.

Velasquez, 42, entered the plea in a San Jose courtroom before Judge Arthur Bocanegra. He was formally set to go on trial on September 9 and faced a potential life sentence if he had been tried and convicted by a jury on charges of attempted murder and nine counts of assault with a weapon.

Instead, Velasquez will be convicted but not subject to a mandatory life sentence after premeditation charges were dropped under a plea deal with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

A sentencing hearing has been set for October 18, although actual sentencing is not expected until later in the year. Bocanegra has great discretion over Velasquez’s sentence, and in the coming months the county probation department will draft a sentencing recommendation report that weighs the seriousness of his crime along with potential mitigating factors, including his lack of a criminal record and the sexual abuse case in which his son. is a reported victim.

Velasquez and attorney Renee Hessling declined to comment after Friday’s hearing. Velasquez remains out of custody on bond, home detention and supervised monitoring conditions in place.

In a statement Friday, District Attorney Jeff Rosen characterized the killing as a shooting for justice.

“This defendant has decided to become judge, jury and executioner. His actions endangered innocent bystanders, including young children and their parents, who could have been injured or killed as he shot his intended victim,” Rosen said.

Paul Bender, the man who was wounded in the shooting, said after the hearing that he was “disappointed in our justice system.”

“In a case like today, when he changes his plea to guilty of 10 violent felonies involving a weapon, and our system allows him to walk free?” Bender said. “How in God’s name is that possible? I’m looking for someone to explain this to me.”

Paul and Patty Bender, who were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting but were not injured, were both in the courtroom for Velasquez’s plea Friday.

“We weren’t happy there was a request,” Patty Bender said Friday. “Giving up premeditation was disappointing. I look forward to the trial.”

Velasquez’s arrest and subsequent charges have polarized the Bay Area and beyond because of his international fame from a decorated mixed martial arts career, fighting out of San Jose and sympathy for the father of a then-4-year-old boy. who reported being molested. by his kindergartener’s adult son.

The murders also contradicted the public consensus about the behavior of Velasquez, who despite winning two UFC heavyweight titles, was generally known to be calm and gentle outside the Octagon as a family man and trainer at the Academy American Kickboxer from South San Jose, the school she represented. during his professional rise.

Following his claim, Velasquez continued to garner support from the mixed martial arts community. Josh Thomson, a former Strikeforce lightweight world champion who trained with Velasquez at AKA for 15 years, said he believes Velasquez has been punished enough through the first nine months in prison and house arrest.

“This should be done over and over,” Thomson said. “When we start talking about a father taking measures into his own hands to protect his children because the failed system in California did nothing for him, that’s exactly what happened. I think his time is up.”

Throughout the case, the technical facts of the case were largely undisputed, and Velasquez’s previous attorney, celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, sought to refocus the court and public attention on Velasquez acting out of anger over the idea that his son had been sexually abused. The defense’s previous court filings stated that Velasquez suffered from impulse control problems and brain damage from more than a decade of prizefighting; retired in 2019.

But Assistant District Attorney Aaron French, the lead prosecutor in the case, has repeatedly argued in earlier hearings that the attack was premeditated, given that the chase and shooting happened three days after Harry Goularte Jr., the man accused of molested Velasquez’s child, appeared in court and was granted supervised release.

On the afternoon of February 28, 2022, Goularte was driven by Bender, his stepfather, and accompanied by his mother, Patty Bender, as they all drove from Morgan Hill to San Jose so that Goularte could be fitted for an ankle monitor. in accordance with his preventive supervision by the county.

Shortly after getting into his parents’ pickup truck in Morgan Hill, authorities say Velasquez first shot Goularte, sparking an 11-mile high-speed car chase through Morgan Hill that ended near Monterey Road and Bailey Avenue, on the south side of San Jose. .