There’s been a delay in the case involving a man accused of hitting and killing a woman who was pushing her idle car off a roadway.
A plea hearing deadline was scheduled in the Dacota Deaver case Monday afternoon. 22-year-old Deaver was arrested in January for the October 2017 accident that killed Cecilia Stanford. Stanford is the sister of Nueces County Clerk Kara Sands.
Monday’s hearing would have given Deaver the opportunity to enter a guilty plea. If a plea wasn’t entered, he would have a docket call on Thursday. He would’ve gone to trial as early as next week.
During Monday afternoon’s hearing, Prosecutor Mike White asked Judge Inna Klein for more time to review the case. White said he was assigned the case last week and he hasn’t had time to review the case. "I haven’t even had the opportunity to thoroughly review the case, (I’m) preparing for trial this week. We want to make sure everything is there and in order," White said.
Defense attorney Scott Lemanski also told the judge both attorneys are considering whether they need expert witnesses on this case. In the end, Judge Klein agreed to give the attorneys another 30 days to work on the case and she rescheduled the next plea deadline hearing for next month.
Deaver is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. On Oct. 24th, Stanford’s car broke down in front of Calallen High School. She was pushing it off the roadway, when police say Deaver ran into her from behind.
Police suspect Deaver was on his cell phone at the time of the crash.
Deaver remains out on $100,000 bond.
