MURRIETA – The potential death penalty case against a 31-year-old Sobobo Indian accused of the execution-style killing of a cab driver is circumstantial and lacking hard evidence, the defendant's attorney said Monday.
Gabriel Gerard Resvaloso appeared Monday before Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Warren for a scheduled preliminary hearing, which will determine if there is enough evidence to order him to stand trial.

But defense attorney Christopher DeSalva argued that he had just received a coroner's report and asked for more time to review the document. Warren told the attorney he would allow one postponement, to Jan. 22, and also set a Jan. 16 felony settlement conference.
Resvaloso is accused of fatally shooting James Burrows, who was found last Dec. 4 on the Sobobo Indian Reservation with a .45-caliber gunshot wound to the back of his head. The cabbie died of his injuries on Dec. 21.

The shooting occurred during a carjacking, which makes it a special circumstance case in which the death penalty could be pursued, Deputy District Attorney Tim Freers said outside court.

Resvaloso also faces a weapons allegation and has prior convictions for drug use, marijuana cultivation, carrying weapons and violating parole, according to court documents.

The District Attorney's Office will decide whether to pursue the death penalty after the preliminary hearing, Freers said.

The victim's yellow Scion, which he used as a cab, was found abandoned in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Hemet, down the street from where Resvaloso was staying at the time.

Someone at the hotel had called for Burrow's cab the night before he was found.

DeSalva said there are no witnesses who can place his client on the reservation the night before or the day of the shooting.

“My client … doesn't drive. He uses cabs often,” DeSalva said.

The attorney also said a ballistics report on the shooting was “inadequate,” and that there were issues raised by the autopsy report, which “causes me to wonder under what circumstances the victim was shot.”

“There's just inconsistencies of things that don't add up,” DeSalva said,adding that he wants time to have his experts look at all the medical and forensic reports.

Freers said the victim was shot execution-style by someone who stole his cab.

“It was senseless,” the prosecutor said.
 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/riverside/20061120-1340-cabbie.html