Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez’s trial for charges including premeditated attempted murder is scheduled to begin early next year following his arrest for allegedly pursuing and firing at a car carrying the man accused of sexually assaulting his son.
The trial of former UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez, who faces multiple charges including premeditated attempted murder, is slated to commence in January 2024. This was confirmed Wednesday, after Judge Daniel Nishigaya granted an extra extension for Velasquez’s legal team to prepare for the trial. This approval was made under the condition that an actual date would be determined at the subsequent hearing. The trial date has been postponed multiple times since the initial plan of setting the date in January.
“I am willing to give this another setting date with the understanding that I will be intending to set a trial date in the middle to later part of January on Dec. 6,” Nishigaya informed Velasquez’s lawyers and Santa Clara County prosecutor Aaron French. Velasquez is standing trial after being initially arrested and accused in February 2022. He allegedly participated in a high-speed chase and fired a handgun several times at a car transporting Harry Goularte, who is separately charged with purportedly sexually molesting Velasquez’s four-year-old son at a daycare run by Goularte’s mother.
Although Goularte was unscathed, his stepfather, Paul Bender, sustained non-life threatening injuries from a bullet wound incurred during the alleged assault. Velasquez was apprehended without a hitch and indicted with 10 separate offenses, which includes attempted premeditated murder. Velasquez was detained for eight months prior to his bail’s approval in November 2022. Judge Arthur Bocanegra sanctioned his release on a $1 million bond, with stipulations that the retired fighter put on a GPS ankle monitor and receive outpatient treatment for traumatic brain injury and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Velasquez has since been authorized to partake in several professional wrestling shows and make other appearances while awaiting trial. The accurate date for the trial will be decreed on December 6, at which point Velasquez is expected to appear back in court in January. If convicted of all charges, he could potentially face a life sentence.