RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — The pretrial hearing that was scheduled for today in the California case against Mercedes Carrera and her husband Jason Whitney for several charges of sex crimes concerning a minor — Carrera’s daughter — was postponed to December 6.
This new date ensures the actual trial will not begin before the 2019 holiday recess.
Sources close to the defense said Public Defender Joshua Castro, Carrera’s attorney, and Nicola Fitzgerald, Whitney’s attorney, are preparing for an early-to-mid February 2020 beginning of the trial.
Castro requested this latest date change, explaining he had just tried a lengthy case and needed more time to get ready for this complex assignment.
Castro came on board a few months after Carrera and Whitney’s initial arraignment for sex crimes and a guns and drugs charge, following Carrera's complaint that the previous defender assigned to her had failed to meet with her outside court for months.
The guns and drugs charge was dropped by the state after the preliminary hearing, after Castro and Fitzgerald successfully argued that the state lacked evidence.
February 1, 2020 will mark the first anniversary of the Rancho Cucamonga police raid on Carrera and Whitney’s home, after Carrera’s estranged former partner and father of her daughter contacted nearby Twin Peaks authorities and had them interview the child in his house about the supposed sexual assaults committed by Carrera and Whitney, together, against her.
Since February 1, 2019, Carrera and Whitney have been held at the West Valley Detention Center without a trial. Initially denied bail, the judge later set it at $2 million for each. Neither of them has enough assets to cover the 10 percent typically required by bail bondsmen to post the remainder.
Sources familiar with the San Bernardino county court told XBIZ that in a case with high stakes such as this one (i.e., life in prison), it is not unusual for the trial to begin “one or two years after the arrests.”
Last Monday, XBIZ spoke with Carrera by phone, and she said she was very much looking forward to today’s pretrial hearing, which could have meant a start of the trial before the end of the year.
“We want to have the trial as soon as possible,” Carrera, sounding hopeful, told XBIZ, “because me and Jason know we are innocent.”
“First,” Carrera explained, “we are going to file a motion to dismiss and a motion to change venue, because we don’t think we can get a fair trial in this county.”
“But, at this point, this is the final stretch. We are innocent so we have to trust in the judicial process and in 12 of our peers.”
Carrera and Whitney have liquidated their few assets — a few vehicles — and have not be able to afford the retainer for private attorneys (Fitzgerald, who does work in private practice, has been retained as a "conflict board attorney"). “We are financially ruined, and of course we haven’t worked in months,” said Carrera, "so once we get out, that will be what we need to focus on.”
Speaking of her almost nine months behind bars, Carrera sounded resigned. “The days are very long. I read all of ‘War and Peace,’ which a friend sent me. What really helps is putting money on our books for phone calls,” she said. “We will keep talking to the people who believe in us and telling anyone who is willing to listen that we are innocent.”
Repeated attempts by XBIZ to contact the District Attorney prosecuting the case have not been answered.
During one of several conversations between XBIZ and the Rancho Cucamonga detective who led the raid, the policeman admitted that Carrera's adult industry career will "definitely" play a part in the state's case against her.
For XBIZ’s continuous coverage of the Mercedes Carrera case, click here.
