Attorneys Present in Courtroom Rally to Support Confused Young Woman at Sentencing

By Taylor Smith

WOODLAND, CA – An accused here in Yolo County Superior Court last week relied on the support of three county public defenders in the courtroom to get a clearer understanding of the logistics of her hearing and her sentence.

The woman couldn’t converse easily with her attorney, who was appearing by Zoom.  The accused, physically present in the courtroom, sat with Deputy Public Defender Katie De Anda in front of Judge Stephen Mock.

The outside defense attorney informed the court his client wanted to be sentenced. Immediately after hearing this, the accused gave a look of shock and confusion.

Upon realizing the accused was in distress, DPD De Anda informed Judge Mock the accused did not understand what was going on and requested a copy of the probation report for the accused to read for clarification on her charges and sentence.

“She has no idea what the judge just said, and she has to have a copy of the probation report,” said DPD De Anda. The accused’s outside attorney said he requested a copy be sent to her in jail, which apparently never happened. De Anda offered to get the accused a copy.

DPD De Anda and DPD Martha Sequeira then set up a breakout room in the Zoom for the accused and her attorney to have a comprehensive discussion, as the two clearly had not done prior to the hearing.

After about an hour, the accused returned to the courtroom accompanied by DPD Sequeira. She then sat with DPD James Bradford, making that three public defenders to have gone out of their way to jump in on this case.

The accused was able to present her remaining questions directly to Judge Mock, who explained that given that she had already been in custody since 2019, he determined her sentence had been served and let her off on supervised probation.