HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The preliminary hearing for one of two Kansas Department of Corrections inmates charged with attempted capital murder, or in the alternative — aggravated battery — is in recess until next month.
Thirty-one-year-old Juan Garza was before Judge Tim Chambers Friday for the start of the hearing where two employees of the prison told of the beating of the victim in the recreation yard of the central unit.
Troy Robinson, an investigator for Hutchinson Correctional Facility, noted that when he arrived to where Miguel Garcia was, he could see his face had swollen where Garza had repeatedly struck him. He was first taken to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center then transported to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita for treatment.
The incident occurred back in June of last year.
The state asked for a recess for two reasons, one being trouble with a DVD which wouldn’t play in the court’s computer and also because one of the officers who responded to the fight was not available. Judge Chambers ordered the case in recess till Jan. 14.
Twenty-two-year-old Jerrod Green entered a plea to two counts of aggravated battery, one for this case and the other for an incident inside the old Reno County Jail. In the second case, Green battered another inmate, Ross Chaney.