Pedro Bravo appeared before another new judge for his sixth case management hearing Tuesday.
In the second row, eight Aguilars sat in an Alachua County courtroom for the eighth time in 16 months.
They drove five hours to hear Bravo’s third lawyer give yet another number: His list of witnesses in the murder case has topped 100, and it’s still climbing.
Tuesday was the deadline for depositions in the case against Bravo, the 20-year-old former Santa Fe College student accused of kidnapping and killing UF student Christian Aguilar in 2012.
But defense lawyer Michael Ruppert said he wasn’t ready.
“We’ve been diligent about taking depositions, and that’s ongoing,” he said.
Although his team has taken samples, swabs and pictures of evidence, he asked Judge Ysleta McDonald for 30 more days to determine the experts he needs.
State attorney Brian Kramer filed a motion that would require Ruppert to provide a list of witnesses, experts and physical evidence by a certain date.
“We are asking the court to set those dates and set this matter for trial,” Kramer said.
McDonald decided to organize a special hearing for the motion before the next case management hearing on Feb. 18.
These results didn’t surprise Christian’s father, Carlos Aguilar.
“I think what we heard today was the outcome that everyone was expecting,” he said.
Aguilar said he thinks the trial will be set for May or June. But the delay doesn’t worry him.
“I’m very confident that the state attorney and local authorities ... have enough support to convince any jury that this person committed that crime and that he’s convicted with the sentence he deserves,” Aguilar said.
Bravo’s charges include homicide, kidnapping, lying to police, mishandling human remains, providing false reports, tampering with physical evidence, and poisoning food and/or water with the intent to kill or injure a person, according to court records.
He was arrested four days after Christian went missing, and he remains in the Alachua County Jail.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/15/2014 under the headline "Murder trial delayed as lawyers prepare"
