LAKEPORT— Willy Tujays Timmons, 40, of Upper Lake, accused of murdering his partner with a rock in 2017 was recently in court for a Marsden Motion Hearing at the Lake County Superior Court in Lakeport.
A Marsden motion is a legal document, brought by a defendant and filed with the Court, seeking to fire the defendant’s court-appointed attorney. The Court considers and rules on the motion at a Marsden Hearing.
The Court was cleared of everyone other than the Court staff, the defendant and the court-appointed defense attorney Anakalia Sullivan. The matter was submitted and the Court granted the Marsden Motion.
The Marsden Hearing has been sealed.
Court was re-opened and Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson was again present in the courtroom and she was informed the Marsden had been granted.
The Court relieved Ms. Sullivan as defense counsel for the defendant.
Mitchell Hauptman was appointed by the Court to be defense counsel for the defendant.
The Court took a brief recess to allow Mr. Hauptman to be present.
The Court reconvened with all parties and Mr. Hauptman present.
The matter has been set for a Re-setting of the Jury Trial Hearing on Feb. 17, 2021 at 9 a.m. in Department 3.
The defendant is ordered to be present and the Court vacated all previously set dates.
Timmons has been charged with murder, inflicting corporal injury with a prior conviction within seven years, causing permanent disability, and torture—along with two violations of probation, (battery on a non-cohabitating partner with a conviction on Sep. 12, 2016).
The charges stem from an incident in June of 2017 when Timmons was accused by the district attorney’s office of beating the mother of his children, Vanessa Niko, to death with a rock during an argument. The 35-year-old Habamatolel Pomo citizen succumbed to wounds at the scene.
During a hearing in 2018, to determine if the death penalty would be sought for Timmons, deputy district attorney John Langan announced that the Lake County District Attorney’s Office would not be pursuing the matter as a death penalty case.
The defendant remains in custody.
